1 Corinthians 1:26 // 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.
The true nature of the saving gospel message of Christ is to be rediscovered by the Christian over and over again. The Apostle Paul here exhorts us to take up a great tool by which this rediscovery can happen. We must consider our calling. We must contemplate upon the personal state we were in when the glorious grace of God came upon our lives with a great flood of divine mercy. When we first heard the glad tidings of the gospel trumpet, when the good Shepherd's voice called us by name, we lacked those certain standards by which worldly men measure one another. Not many of us were holding positions of academic prestige when the cross of Christ first captivated us. Not many of us were being treated with the privileges of a VIP status when we felt our desperate need for the Lord. Not many of us were destined to inherit a birthright of worldly nobility when the rich inheritance of Christ first appealed to our hearts.
Yet it has been the electing wisdom of God throughout the history of the ages that he should look upon the fools and the weaklings of this world, the lowly and despised, to be his set apart people. The Lord chooses his own not according to the measurements of men, but of his own free and gracious will. The pride of men is put to shame when that which he finds most impressive is revealed to be eternally bankrupt. In the gospel of the cross of Christ, our great humiliation must be that all of our trophies of entitlement, that the world confers and celebrates, is brought to nothing in the priceless presence of God's electing grace.
Where then is your assurance and security, brothers and sisters? What are your papers of qualification? What have you brought to offer in the presence of God? It is only this: you are in Christ Jesus! Do not be troubled if you are despised and overlooked by carnal men and do not become blindly drunk if they massage your ego. Consider your calling and you will find an all-satisfying desire to boast only in the Lord.