A.W. Tozer once said, “Another kind of religious leader must rise among us. He must be of the old prophet type, a man who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the Throne. When he comes (and I pray there will be not one but many), he will stand in flat contradiction to everything our smirking, smooth civilization holds dear.”

I wonder if Tozer had just read Paul’s words to the Corinthians as he beckoned his generation to stand up for truth in an immoral culture.

I wonder if any of us hear that same call today as we look at our world, our churches, our friends and honestly…our own families.

Paul wastes no time as he begins his letter reminding those who were fighting with each other and living just like the lost in their culture that they have all they need in Jesus to live better: in unity with each other and for the cause of Christ. (1 Cor 1:4-9)

Paul is quick to tell them, it isn’t by human words of eloquent wisdom that he writes but by the power of the Cross alone (v 7). That same power he says is available to them. (see Romans 6, and Ephesians 1)

Paul knew the power of the Cross and he desperately wanted them (and us) to remember that power. He knew his life had been wonderfully and radically changed by Christ alone.

Paul was seeing all around him what we are still very much seeing today: “the word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God”. (1 Cor 1:18).

Our smirking, yelling, wrong-is-right, society mocks Christianity like never before. Like Tozer, like Paul, we see it. We feel it.

Like Tozer, Paul is beckoning a world-compromising, divided church to bravely remember the power of the Cross, their calling, and to choose differently.

Paul is talking to us all when he says,“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Cor 26-31)

Friend, you may feel low, like a nobody; you may be called foolish, weak, and powerless; and you may very well be despised by this world…and if so, good! You can know that’s exactly who God uses to boast in the power of the Cross!

Oh friend, may those who have tasted the goodness of the Lord, may those who were broken and made whole, may those were dead and made alive by the power of the Cross boast in the Savior who has set us free!

Yes, may we remember in Christ alone we have all we need!

And as we remember, may we boldly choose to follow Him even when others are not; and may we sacrificially love others so a lost world might want what we have and give glory to our Savior glory alone.

For what a Savior He is! All glory, honor and power to Him alone!

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