The Salty Peanut Gallery

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not for nothing. In fact, I worked harder than all of them, though it was not really I, but the grace of God which was with me.” – 1 Corinthians 15:10

I’m continually amazed at how much emphases we place on credentials. We find them on the inside covers of New York Times Best Sellers or on the “Staff” pages of our church websites. We use them ad nauseum to introduce guest speakers at ministry conferences and church associational meetings. It’s how we lend credibility to whatever message is being presented. Here are a few examples of what I mean:

Joe Blow is the founding pastor of Bible Church. Bible Church is number 77 of the 100 Largest Churches in the U.S. with over 7,000 in weekly attendance and is ranked number 28 of the 100 Fastest Growing Churches in the U.S.

John Doe is a straightforward communicator who uniquely connects God’s unchanging truth with a diverse culture through compelling and creative teaching methods. John Doe Ministries airs a weekly television program throughout the U.S. and Europe, including USA, TBN, Daystar and CNBC Europe. John is a frequent conference speaker, and he provides resources for church leaders through DynamicPastors.com and the Dynamic Church Conferences.

In 2 Corinthians the Apostle Paul has the unenviable task of defending himself against false accusations that undermined his credibility. The church had engaged in a rebellion against Paul lead by false teachers who were undercutting his ministry. Paul had spoken openly to the church about their sin and the church as a whole had repented. They were demonstrating evidences that they were ready to be reconciled to Paul. However, there were still a few individuals who were resisting Paul and the truth. The last four chapters of 2 Corinthians are directed toward this hostile minority.

Here Paul is forced to show his superiority to the false teachers by comparing their credentials to his, yet repeatedly he speaks of how foolish it is to boast in this way. “It’s foolish to talk like this,” he says. “It’s insane!” Then in chapter 12 verse 11 he explains, “For I was not at all inferior to these most eminent super-apostles, even though I AM NOTHING.” Did you catch that? What was it that made Paul superior to these charlatans even though in his words he was nothing? Paul was superior to the false apostles by the grace of God. He knew it was foolishness to boast about his credentials because ultimately they were not his credentials. THEY WERE GOD’S.

So here’s the thing. If the Apostle Paul, who for my money was the greatest Christian that ever lived, thought of himself as NOTHING, because it was complete foolishness to take any credit whatsoever for what GOD has done, then who among us really has any credentials at all? Hmmm? And if everybody else is really NOTHING than whatever will we have to talk about… ‘cept maybe the great things HE has done.