Be Proud of Your Weakness
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Setting EGO Aside
We have been talking about EGO: Edging God Out. About how we can take God's creation of abundance for granted. How we can have expectations about what we “deserve” in life. Expectations where we think something we put out into the world is then owed back to us.
Edging God Out misses the fundamental point of our faith: that God has already given us everything we need: a sun that shines, the atmosphere we breathe, the abundance of His creation, our very lives and lives of everyone else that has ever and will ever live.
Most importantly as Christians, we know we have God’s grace available to us. Through Jesus, we see what pure forgiveness looks like. What loving all of our neighbors – even our enemies – looks like. We are loved and forgiven by God, so as Christians we simply pass that along.
As Christians, we simply try to get ourselves out of the way, so that we can pass along the bountiful grace of God. We try to be EGO-less whenever possible. Because when we get our EGOs out of the way, we can be a channel of God’s grace, and become useful to God.
We know that God will use us for His purpose. And we take comfort in that. We always stay focused on the future, on what purpose God has for us. We want to make ourselves useful to do God’s Work, and the first step in that is recognizing that we can’t do God’s Job.
God offers the fulness of abundance to provide our needs. We were created to enjoy that abundance. But we have to stop Edging God Out. We have to get our EGOs out of the way. We have to start seeing our lives for the radical blessings that they are.
To do God’s Work and not God’s Job, we have to see that both the “good” and the “bad” things that happen in our lives are a part of God’s plan. We can’t hope to understand it. But we go with the program and make ourselves useful to God’s purpose.
We can find comfort, and peace in our lives by making ourselves useful to God. We can experience the joys of love, and kindness, and forgiveness. God has already given us all those. By getting our EGOs out of the way, we can pass them along to others. We can find purpose.
What is the enemy of trying to live in God’s Will? Pride. For two reasons. First, Pride is the enemy of seeking God. Psalms 10:4 “In their pride the wicked do not seek God.” Pride is also the enemy of doing God’s Will with a pure heart.
If we are not trying to do God’s Will, we are living in Self-Will. And that means we call all the shots, we make all the big decisions, we think we know what’s best for ourselves. Who does that make us? God. It means we are trying to do God’s Job, Not God’s Work.
We are called to trust God. We allow God to help us get ourselves out of our own way. To do that, we allow Him to burn away our Self-Will and try to continue to act in God’s Will. We need Him to help us burn away the Pride we have when we think “I got this. I can do it alone.”
Malachi 3:3 “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify [us] and refine [us] like gold and silver….” God wants to burn away our Pride, that most powerful of hindrances to seeking God, and to acting in God’s Will.
When we put ourselves into the care of God, when we live in a way that trusts Thy Will and not My Will, God’s refining fire can be used to burn away our pride and our desire to live in Self-Will. We are able to start doing God’s Work, and stop trying to Do God’s Job.
There is a second way the Bible tells us that Pride can be a problem. Ephesians 2:8-9 reads “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.”
This is the second way Pride can be a problem. When we do good works, we must remember that all we’re doing is channeling the grace of God through us to others. When we love out to others, we aren’t inventing love. We are passing the love God gave us along.
“Grace is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Grace doesn’t originate with us. It lives with God, who passes it along to us. If we start to take personal credit for showing love, or kindness, or forgiveness, or sharing in charity, we forget that God gave us all those things first.
When we show grace, we are simply getting our EGOs out of the way and allowing the grace God gave us to pass through us and on to others. This is how we do God’s Work. If we fall into the trap of Pride, we start to think we invented love in the first place; we are doing God’s Job.
So Pride can be a trap in two ways. First, Pride can keep us happy in the land of EGO, thinking we have all the answers and don’t need to seek God at all. And secondly, when we do good in the world, Pride can fool us into thinking our EGOs deserve credit for it.
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Boasting of Weakness
Now, the Greek word “to boast” is something I have no idea how to say. It’s a bunch of Greek letters, written καυχήσηται, and pronounced in English as kauchaomai, kow-khah'-om-ahee. Strong’s Concordance of the Bible defines it as “to boast, to glorify and exult proudly.”
You’ll notice that the verse we just read from Ephesians says “not by works, so no one can boast.” Kow-khah-om-ahee is indeed the word used for “boast” in that verse from Ephesians. It is also the same word used in today’s scripture reading “I will boast about my weaknesses.”
Today’s reading is from Corinthians. And we find the same word again in that verse from Ephesians “not by works, so no one can boast.” What do the books Corinthians and Ephesians have in common? Both are letters to early churches, both were written by the Apostle Paul.
In fact, Strong’s Concordance tells me that Paul uses the Greek word Kow-khah-om-ahee as “to boast, to glorify and exult proudly” a total of 38 times in his letters in the New Testament. It’s in Romans, Galatians, both Corinthians, Philippians, and Thessalonians.
What is it with Paul and this word “to boast, to exult proudly?” Let’s think a little bit about what’s going on here. Before Paul had his awakening, he was a Pharisee – a scholar of the law – and one who by his own words “persecuted Christians beyond measure.”
On the road to Damascus, Paul had a conversion, which led him to cease his persecution of early Christians and become a follower himself. So, to summarize in Preacher Pete language: Paul wasn’t awesome, but God offered him a better life and a purpose he didn’t deserve.
Now, think about that for a minute. If you were Paul, and you were on the road to Damascus, minding your business, and God chose you out of nowhere to give you the awareness and strength you need to stop doing the bad things in your life and start doing good…
I mean, wouldn’t you feel some sort of way about it? Special? Chosen? Called? Anointed, even? And then, you find your way to Jesus, and actually see firsthand the errors of your past ways – not only that, but are immediately and without question made useful to Him, to God.
Again: wouldn’t you feel Proud, maybe? I’ll tell you that at least some part of me would want to feel that way. During my Dark Period of Self-Will, I met a couple of famous people, and I’ll admit at least some part of me thought I was cool enough for that to happen to me.
If I had experienced the sort of things Paul had during his life during my DPSW, I might have walked around with my head held a little higher. My chest puffed out a bit. I might have thought “I am just so cool. How did this happen to me? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s because I’m awesome.”
So when Paul tells us not to boast about our “works,” as he warns in Ephesians, and instead “boast of our weakness,” as he writes in Corinthians, we should pay attention. Because he’s talking about something he might well have been tempted to feel.
If Paul had continued living in his EGO after his conversion, he might have just gone around telling anyone who’d listen how great he was to be selected, set aside in that way. But Paul didn’t do that, did he? Instead, he tells us to “boast of our weakness.”
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Resistance Builds Strength
The scientific term for “building muscle” is “muscle hypertrophy,” from “hyper-” as in “beyond or exceeding” and “-trophia” meaning “nourishment.” This makes intuitive sense: people building large masses of muscle are going “beyond the basics.”
Muscle building involves two related processes. The first has a bonkers name, “sarcoplasmic hypertrophy,” and focuses on the chemical process via nutrition of increased muscle glycogen storage. This is the one of the two processes I don’t feel the need to mention again today.
The second process of building muscle is about what you do with the body in order to take advantage of proper nutrition and use it to build muscle mass. In other words, “strength training.” This can be doing calisthenics like push-ups, isometrics like lifting weights, etc.
Basically, you can do a bunch of different types of exercises to help your body to build muscle. But if you want to build muscle and not just lose weight or get yourself in better shape, whatever exercise you do must involve resistance.
Running won’t help your body to build muscle as effectively as lifting weights. Why? It has to do with Microtrauma. Microtrauma is tiny damage to the muscle fibers. Microtrauma plays a significant role in muscle growth. And it is based on resistance.
When microtrauma occurs – from weight lifting, or push-ups or other strenuous resistance-based activities – what happens is the tiny fibers in the muscles of your body tear a little bit. This is why you get sore when you work out. Your muscles are actually tearing.
When this happens, when you lift weights and tear your muscles a little bit, your body responds by overcompensating. Your body is like “what the heck! You’re messing things up in here. I’m going to make sure next time you lift something this heavy we’re in a better spot.”
So, your body fixes those small tears in the muscle. Your body targets the torn and damaged muscle tissue, and replaces the damage by adding more muscle fiber to the damaged area. This way, the risk of repeat damage is reduced.
This is why it is so essential for people trying to build muscle quickly to keep lifting more and more weight in a steady increase. Without increasing the resistance you’re lifting, the body adapts. You need more and more resistance to continue to build muscle.
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Practicing Resistance in Faith
Let’s look at a passage in Luke 6:32-34. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.
And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that.”
A similar passage appears in Matthew 5:46-50, “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
What is going on here? What is Jesus telling us here, in these two passages from Luke and Matthew? “Even sinners love those who love them.” “Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.” “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?”
Jesus is telling us “it’s pretty easy to love those who already love you. It’s pretty easy to lend money when you’re 100% sure you’ll get it back. It’s pretty easy to greet someone you already know. Sinners do those things. Tax collectors do those things. Pagans do those things.”
What is Jesus talking about here? Are we then not supposed to love those who love us? Of course we’re supposed to do that. So why does Jesus bring it up? This passage appears to be important, because it is seen almost verbatim in both Matthew and Luke. So what’s going on?
Jesus is talking about Resistance. It’s just like building muscle. It’s easy to love those who already love us. Do it, but realize it won’t make you stronger. Because it’s easy. Loving those who already love you? That is basic.
And remember, the scientific term for “building muscle” is “muscle hypertrophy,” from “hyper-” as in “beyond or exceeding” and “-trophia” meaning “nourishment.” People building large masses of muscle are going “beyond the basics.”
To build our faith, we need to go beyond the basics as well. Loving someone who already loves us? That’s necessary, and it’s good, but it’s basic. It’s table-stakes. It’s the bare minimum. To go beyond the basics, we need Resistance. And we need to practice it in our faith lives.
To hear specifically how Jesus describes this, we need to back up two verses earlier in Matthew 5. The verse we read before was Matthew 5:46-48. Here are the two verses that come immediately before that passage, Matthew 5:43-45.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
I’m sure most of us have heard this passage a few times before. But try and set that aside, and look at it specifically through the lens of what we’re talking about today. Think about building strength via Resistance. Think about the example of Paul. Think about EGO and pride.
The first thing I want to point out here is that Jesus is talking about building faith through resistance. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Do you see what Jesus is saying? Love those who hate you. Find resistance, and practice your faith in that resistance. Love in the face of hate. Forgive what seems to be unforgivable. This is the sort of resistance you need to build your faith.
If you want to stand still in your faith life, then love only those who love you. Forgive only when you’re sure it’s safe. Be kind only to those who are kind to you first. Only give something away when you’re sure you’ll get it back.
Jesus tells us clearly this is fine if you want to stay where you are. But if you want to grow in your faith life, to be more useful to God, look out for the resistance in your faith life, set your EGO aside, and channel God’s grace into the situation.
Let’s keep digging into this passage. What is one of the specific forms of resistance Jesus mentions? He tells us not only to love our enemies, but to “pray for those who persecute you.” Do you see what Jesus is saying?
Remember that Paul tells us in his own words that he “persecuted Christians beyond measure.” And yes, I checked, and yes, it’s the same word Jesus uses here in Matthew that Paul uses to describe himself before his conversion on the road to Damascus.
It might be a coincidence, for sure. That Jesus uses the exact same word Paul does to describe his own DPSW, when he was a Pharisee. That Jesus says here “pray for those who persecute you,” an activity that Paul used to do with devotion and vigor.
Jesus might as well be saying “one day, a man who persecutes us will come to have much strength in his faith, precisely because he overcame resistance to it.” And in the future, Paul might reply “I only boast of my weakness, that which made me open to becoming stronger.”
And we’re still not done with this passage! There’s even more. Why are we told to love our enemies, and pray for those who – like Paul – persecute us? Because then we are working towards becoming “perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” to quote Matthew.
Or, to quote Luke, “we will be more like our Father in heaven.” So when we practice our faith in resistance, we will become more like God. Well, what is God like? “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
OK, so all people on Earth enjoy the sunshine and the rain. What does this have to do with building our faith in resistance? Remember the verse from Job last week, Job 1:21? “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
The beauty of Job’s wisdom comes from Job’s understanding that he doesn’t deserve anything more or less than anyone else, because he is a child of God just like the next person. He is blessed by tGod when his life is comfortable, but he is likewise blessed when times are harder.
This is what Jesus is getting at when He tells us the sun shines and the rain falls on everyone, regardless of whether they are good or bad, righteous or unrighteous. Jesus is saying “who are you to judge who you will be kind to, or not? Who you will love, or not? Forgive, or not?”
Jesus says “pray for those who persecute you,” and the response from the crowd might be “you mean like Saul over there?” “Yes, like Saul is persecuting me.” “Why would we do that, Rabbi?” “You will see what the future holds for this man Saul, who will become Paul.”
Jesus might as well be saying “look at how much more useful Paul will be to God. His life will have more purpose than anything any of you could understand. Paul will stand as a giant of history, even though right now he and I are less than cool with each other.”
Jesus might as well be saying “do you want to know the secret of how I destroy my enemies, like Saul here? Do you really want to know how I smite those who wrong me? How I punish those who are unrighteous? Alright, I’ll tell you. I make them my friends. I help set them right.”
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Grace is Beyond Expectation
You see, strength and weakness are deeply related. In exactly the same way we build physical strength in our bodies by working out to the point of tearing our muscles – to the point of weakness – so must we work on our faith by practicing it in resistance.
There is a process to living out the instructions of Jesus, and it has to do with Humility and Responsibility. First, we are Responsible for our Humility. But we also have to show Humility in our Responsibility.
2 Corinthians 11:30, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” Here again is Paul, using that Greek word kow-khah'-om-ahee that he likes so much. Remember, Strong’s Concordance of the Bible defines it as “to boast, to glorify and exult proudly.”
How do we “glorify and exalt proudly” in our weakness? And why? Because when we are weak and prevail in faith, this is precisely the moment God enters into our lives, strengthening us with His grace.
Think about Paul, on the road to Damascus, just before his eyes were opened and he was set on the path to Christ. He was at his spiritually weakest. A man of the world, a Pharisee. A persecutor of Christians. He was perfectly positioned to be on the wrong side of history.
But he was set right. And he knew he didn’t deserve that any more than the next person. Did Paul think he was special for being chosen by God for this work? Did Paul go around thinking he was super-cool for hanging around with the right people? Nope. Not really.
Did Paul fall victim to the Pride we often feel when things are going well for us? “I am a genius. I worked hard. I deserve this.” Nope. Not really. Paul maintains his Humility. He knows that everything he has is a gift from God, and he isn’t afraid to admit that.
Paul shows us that what we need to follow the example of Jesus is to be Responsible for our Humility, first and foremost. And then, when like Paul God gives us an important job to do, we must remain having Humility in our Responsibility.
It is crucial that Humility and Responsibility stay connected in these ways. Otherwise, we get some sort of Savior Complex: “God chose ME!” Or, “I was humble and that’s why God chose me, but now I’m doing His work and LOOK AT ME NOW, everyone!”
Or worse still. “Hey God, pick me, pick me, pick me!” “Excuse me, sir: I’m on hard times and can’t feed my family. Can you help me out, please?” “Out of my way, beggar! Can’t you see I’m waiting for God to pick me to do something righteous!” That would be ridiculous.
All forms of grace approach their most pure states when done in the face of resistance. In fact, I would argue that Pure Grace is even given in the face of total resistance. Grace must be ventured against a total lack of expectation.
This applies to lots of different forms of grace. Forgiveness approaches its most pure form when it’s given to something unforgivable. Love approaches its most pure form when it’s given against hate, as in “loving our enemies.” Or “praying for those who persecute us,” like Paul.
In this church, we’ve decided that we’re called to a special sort of faith. “Such faith” as Jesus calls it. A faith that goes beyond simply believing in God. A faith that stirs up action. So get out there. Mix it up.
Just remember the process of living out the instructions of Jesus. First, we are Responsible for our Humility. But we also have to show Humility in our Responsibility. We set our EGOs aside, so that we can be the most perfect vessel of God’s Grace we can be.
When we focus on our Weaknesses – when we focus on what we cannot do ourselves – that’s precisely when we find God’s Grace gives us the strength to do what we cannot do on our own. We become Strong through God when we show we are Weak when left alone.
