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Body Building Daily Devotional - 76

by David Joynt on November 26, 2021


1 CORINTHIANS 1:24-25 |24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Paul here uses language paradoxically: God’s foolishness is superior to our wisdom, His weakness to our strength. This is both a  comment on the limits of human wisdom and a way of highlighting the unexpectedness and shock of Jesus choosing and undergoing crucifixion. Only by suffering with and for others could God break the power of sin and guilt. Only by taking on human brokenness and shame could He demonstrate the depth of divine love. Only by faith and invitation could He win hearts and minds. Only by submitting to evil could He overcome it, and still preserve the freedom crucial to human relationships. Only as we die to ourselves can we live for His glory and know the power of His resurrection.

 

What does it mean for you to die to yourself in order to live for God?

 

Tags: god, die, live, self

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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