The All-Important Brother… Who?

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul highlights an interesting point about the human condition, especially those converted to faith in Christ to be his witnesses: the majority of the saved, those who are part of the true Church of Christ (the one who is not seen through physical eyes, but through faith) are not people of great prominence or fame, nor of wealthy origin: the majority are people who, in the eyes of the world, are anonymous, humble, and even irrelevant to society.

Brothers and sisters, consider your calling!
For not many wise men, according to human standards, were summoned; not many powerful men, not many noblemen.
On the contrary, God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
He chose what is insignificant, despised, and nothing in the eyes of the world, in order to reduce to nothing what is, so that no one may boast before Him.

(1ˢᵗ Corinthians 1:26-29 – KJA)

Paul himself, who wrote this text, was an exception to this rule, being a very unusual figure, almost unique in the world at his time: he was a Roman citizen, a Jew of the Pharisee class, and versed in Greek culture, therefore someone with a high social status and free access to three different cultures.

However, not many like him were called—as he himself admits—and, as is clear from the highlighted text, there is a reason for this: to show that God's only criterion for calling someone to be part of His Kingdom is His own grace. There is no human merit involved!

Just as God did not care about the appearance of David's older brothers when choosing the young shepherd to be king of Israel, but rather about the heart of the future monarch (see 1º Samuel 16:6-7What the world considers valuable means nothing to the Lord of heaven and earth.
The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews also emphasizes this point:

Some women received back their dead through resurrection.
Some were martyred and did not negotiate their release, in order to attain a still more excellent resurrection;
Many faced mockery and torture, others were chained and thrown into prisons; stoned, sawn in half, tempted, killed by the sword.
They wandered aimlessly, dressed in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, distressed, and mistreated.
They walked like refugees, wandering through deserts and mountains, through caves and holes in the ground.
People of whom the world was not worthy!

(Hebrews 11:35-38 – KJA)

These people were so blessed by God that they received the strength even to endure persecution, suffering, and death, all because of their faith in receiving the ultimate reward: resurrection to possess the eternal kingdom shared with Jesus.
And, as you can see, the names of such people—not a single one of them!—are not even mentioned: the author simply says that "the world was not worthy of them.".

And none of this is due to merit, especially since, as Paul says, most of these people were not pillars of society, nor were their names recorded in history, as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews states.
All of this depends on one thing: God using his mercy, as the Lord himself said to Moses in Exodus 33:19 and is repeated by Paul in Romans 9:15-16.
Therefore, there is nothing of human merit in belonging to Jesus and being saved. Everything is by divine grace.

Let each of us be constantly reminded that "merit" is something that only Jesus possesses; no one else has anything to present before the holiness of the Father.
And may this humility permeate our entire being, leading us to follow the will of the one who died and rose again for us, not to attain salvation, but as a result of knowing that we are saved.
Never through their own merit, not even boasting... but always and solely by divine grace and mercy.

In the Bonds of Calvary

Eduardo Pydd Teixeira

ORIGINAL TITLEDo not boast in the presence of God.

It seems that the end times are unfolding ever more rapidly, and before the Lord returns like a thief in the night, we can already observe signs of the prophesied reign of the Antichrist consolidating not only in Brazil, but throughout the world!
In the 2023 phase of "The Worst Gospel," I decided to use new formats in the hope of helping to increase the reach of content related to the Scriptures—stories, videos, shorter texts, guest authors…—and this publication, which I took the liberty of revising and illustrating, is part of that project.
Thank you for reading this far.
I still need all the help I can get: comments, shares, and reactions help spread this content, which was entirely produced with the intention of contributing to the edification of the Body of Christ in the world.