Covenant Marriage - Session 4: Accusation versus Love, The Purpose of Weakness - David & Lisa Mitts

“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,” (1 Corinthians 1:27, NASB)

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Giving Opportunity Message

 

God has one overarching purpose in this world, to show forth His love.

“And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:5, NASB)

This is the central promise of God, His greatest hope, that we would come to know life through the leading of His Spirit which is true love. The challenge for most of us is trying to live the life of love.

One of the keys that is crucial to covenant love is the place of weakness. I remember once, as I was haring about the gospel with a Muslim friend of mine, his difficulty with the concept of God sacrificing His Son for us. This man said, that he could never accept the idea that God would become weak by sacrificing His Son to redeem our lives from sin and death.

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2Co 5:21 NASB)

This central tenet of the gospel, the good news of God, seemed illogical to my Muslim friend. He believed that Allah is great. In His mind, the sacrifice of His son would be a sign of weakness. He was right about that. In the system of strength and weakness, sacrifice, meekness is a sign of weakness. What my friend could not grasp was the reality of love, which is shown through weakness.

“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,” (1 Corinthians 1:27, NASB)

This is intentional, the use of weakness to “shame the strong”. What does that mean? Strength in man is always relative. No one is the strongest always. In the world of strength, pride, ego there is always someone else who either is or will be stronger.

When we engage from the perspective of strength, we simultaneously become insecure about weaknesses. Being insecure causes us to act from shame and cover things up that we feel might expose our weakness. We think erroneously that we are loved because of what others see as our strengths, our beauty. This is the voice of our pride speaking. Pride is always rooted in fear.

Pride is nothing more than a value system based on comparisonsthat we esteem as valid and important. Yet to God, pride is antigod because it is rooted in strengths.

Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Assuredly, he will not be unpunished. (Pro 16:5 NASB)

It is through the system of pride that Satan gains an opening into our lives. By changing the system of values from love to fearand in the desperation of fear to pride, Satan gains an opening into our hearts. Solomon recognized this deception after having it all, he declared:

"Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity." (Ecc 1:2 NASB)

You see, Solomon recognized that time comes into the equation of strength and what was strong today is not necessarily strong tomorrow.

All things are wearisome; Man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing. That which has been that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done. So, there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one might say, "See this, it is new"? Already it has existed for ages Which were before us.(Ecc 1:8-10 NASB)

All our “shining moments” will turn to duller moments. Yet there is one reality that remains, love.

keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. (Jud 1:21 NASB)

You see God’s love is eternal and it is based our weaknesses.Once again:

“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,” (1 Corinthians 1:27, NASB

God has chosen the foolish, the weak to shame the strong.

It is our weakness that attracts His love. Covenant is all about weakness. In Hebrew the word for covenant is “brit”. Let’s lookinto the Hebrew letters. Beyt, resh, yod, tav. Beyt is the character for house or home. Resh is the letter for head or preeminence. Together beyt and rosh are the word “bar” which means son. The son is the expression of the Father. The yod is the character for hand. The tav is the character for the cross. The Hebrew word for covenant is the picture of the son on the cross. This is the ultimate weakness, surrender of God’s Son to brutal death.

This would be crazy except for love. Sacrifice is the heart of love. Many do not realize that it is by losing that we win in love.

““The one who has found his life will lose it, and the one who has lost his life on My account will find it.” (Matthew 10:39)

This verse really isn’t about death at all. It is about life, the life of love. Yeshua repeats this again because it is so central to the covenant.

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. “For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what will a person give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26)

Gaining the whole world is the goal of the life that is based on strengths. Yeshua hasn’t come to present a new success-gospel. It’s not that He doesn’t want people to be successful and be blessed. No. It’s more about the condition of the soul in the process. He came to show us the way of the heart, derech halev.

The emphasis is on saving our own life. Who is the savior? Either He is or we are. Remember the warning to Israel when they were about to enter into their covenant promise, a national covenant marriage:

““Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ “But you are to remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, in order to confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.” (Deuteronomy 8:17-18)

This is the eternal declaration by the Lord of His betrothal and a reminder that is not based on our strength.

So, it is in any covenant. Covenants are all about interdependence. In the covenant 2 become 1. Each brings their weakness to the other and love covers, atones in the weakness.

“Hatred stirs up contentions, but love covers all transgressions.” (Proverbs 10:12)

The Gospel is foolishness to the world because it profanes the spirit of the world which is all about exploiting the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of others which is called leverage. This is the domain of the adversary, the accuser of the brethren who teaches a strategy of control and deception.

Love is about the opposite, transparency and trust.

Activation: Make an inventory of what life you are willing to lose for the sake of love. Losing is winning. Humility precedes honor. The least of these are the greatest in the kingdom. Serving qualifies us for reigning. Meekness brings us into inheritance. What are you afraid of losing that really would qualify you to win!