«God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are». 1 Corinthians 1:27, 28
PUBLICATIONS mingling real events with pious legends circulated among secondand third-century Christians. In those documents, we find statements that make us reflect but also laugh. I found one of them in an apocryphal book titled The Acts of Paul and Thecla. This short book was quoted by leaders who were very influential in their day, such as Hyppolitus, Origen, and Eusebius, among others, which is why the document was probably written in the second century.
A believer called Onesiphorus (perhaps the same one mentioned in 2 Timothy 1:16 and 4:19) found out the apostle Paul was going to Iconium. Since Onesiphorus had never seen Paul, he asked Titus to provide a physical description of the apostle. Titus gave it to him, and with that in hand, Onesiphorus stood by the road to Lystra, to see which passerby fit Titus’s description. According to the document he had, Paul was «small in size, bald-headed, bandy-legged, of noble mien, with eyebrows meeting, rather hook-nosed, full of grace.»*
Paul himself mentions what someone said of him: «Some say, ‘His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive’ » (2 Corinthians 10:10, NIV). Nevertheless, that weak, thin, unattractive man was God’s chosen instrument to make the gospel known «before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel» (Acts 9:15). Your physical appearance and other people’s assessment of you do not define what God can and wants to do through you.
Paul’s experience proves that «God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are» (1 Corinthians 1:27, 28).
Do you feel weak, underestimated, maybe even barely useful? Then you meet all the conditions for the Lord to make you the chosen instrument to bring about changes in many people’s lives. You can be a modern-day version of Paul.
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Taken from: Devotional Readings for Adults 2023
“I AM WITH YOU”
From: J. VLADIMIR POLANCO
Collaborators: Lorina Maya & Avineyda Hernández
