13.03 | Credentials
1 Corinthians 1:26-2:16
‘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.’
1 Corinthians 1:26-29
I’m a big fan of Aaron Sorkin’s TV series The West Wing. A side character I enjoy is the British Ambassador to the United States, Lord Marbury. On one occasion, he makes an appearance at the First Lady’s birthday party, where one of the West Wing staff asks if they can call him John.
He responds, “I am John, Lord Marbury, Earl of Croy; Marquess of Needham and Dolby, Baronet of Brycey, England’s Ambassador to the United States. …Yes, you can call me John.”
Apparently this lineup of titles are technically incompatible, but nevertheless it makes a killer introduction. Pretty much any point that he could make after this intro is going to hit with gravitas. His credentials are social capital.
It’s a common concern in our cultural moment. We live in an age where external presentation feels like a constant requirement—from the crafting of a LinkedIn profile, to the more subtle forms of image management that we get to work on on other social media platforms, not to mention in every other interaction. We are masters of image management. We want to appear strong.
Contrast with Paul’s words to the Corinthians.
Not wise. Not powerful. Not of noble birth. Foolish. Weak. Low and despised.
This feels like a roasting.
Your credentials, Paul is saying, were not impressive.
He then moves onto himself.
I…did not come…with lofty speech or wisdom.
His performance was not well crafted.
He then moves onto the nature of heavenly wisdom itself:
…it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age.
The knowledge we are growing in comes from a different age. It builds from a completely different set of values.
Bringing it all together, the metrics by which Paul measures social capital are completely different from those in Corinth. And they’re completely different from our time and places today too.
What’s Paul doing?
It’s not a put down. Or not, at least, in the way that we might think.
Paul, rather, is confronting head on the value systems of the world, battering them down with an honest appraisal of their worldly status.
Why?
Because he wants to so vastly relegate the importance of this to them. He doesn’t want the Corinthians building their confidence or insecurity on something so flimsy as worldly credentials. Their education, social standing, platform, wealth or inherent privilege, he is saying, are completely irrelevant to the values of the Kingdom. Paul is not ashamed to lambast their credentials, because he knows that confidence in such credentials increases our insecurities and obstruct our advance in the wisdom of the Kingdom. He knows such confidence makes us slaves.
This interrupts me. It clashes with every part of me where my wounded ego wants to appear more impressive. More successful, healthy, better connected and competent. It comes into all of those subtle and not-so-subtle thoughts and paints a picture of a different way of being—that looks like opting out of this whole toxic anxiety and comparison game and finding our worth and wellbeing in a different place.
And this transition, my friends, is freedom.
It is the freedom to arrive at every situation honest. It is the freedom for our concerns and conversations not to point towards us, to fill the felt voids in our own sufficiency. It is the freedom to lean only on His credentials and His power and His endless and unbreakable acceptance of me. It treads lightly through the narcissism of an anxious world, and is planted steadfastly in the affirmation of the Father. It is the freedom to abdicate all boasting except for boasting in the love and beauty of our Lord.
Credentials are not bad. They can be markers of genuine achievement or gifting, and they can open doors to your God-given purpose.
But they are more incidental than you have ever realised to the true value of your life.
Let go. Breathe. Release. Take yourself less seriously and take Him more so. He establishes His work through a people who are honest, humble, and available. Weakness is a mighty credential in the Kingdom of the Cross.
And it may be the very place where His power will be most at work today.
Reflect:
Spend some time letting go. Letting go of the pressures you feel to appear impressive before others.
Take some time to receive. To receive permission to be honest and unimpressive. And to invite His power and His strength as the source of all you do today.
Pray:
Father,
If I’m honest,
The endless pressure to be impressive, competent, and well-presented,
Is exhausting.
Trying to fill the void of my own feelings of inadequacy
With my resumé
Doesnt seem to be working out all that well.
And so, Father,
Today,
I give you my resumé
That you may use every worldly credential that I have for your purposes and glory;
And today, Father,
I give you my honest brokenness and weakness,
Knowing that in these places of inadequacy and humility,
The world-shaking power of the Cross is most fully known.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Numbers 30-31 | Psalm 34:11-22