The wisdom of this world certainly does not say that the humble brother, the poor brother, who has very little in terms of this world's goods and riches, has anything to take pride in. And I suppose of all the nations on earth there is no place in which this would be less true than in America. [Some of you may have] seen this television program
The lifestyles of the rich and famous.What does it put before us? It puts before us the ideal that if you really are somebody in this world, you have ought to be rich and famous. And then if you are rich and famous, then you have got something to glory in. Try to sell a television program to the TV stations that says the reverse—that if you are poor, you have reason to glory. You could not do it because that is contrary to the world's wisdom. And what does it mean on the other hand to say the rich man should glory in his lowly position?Well, the answer, of course, is the fact that God's people—whether they are rich or poor—learn that one's status in this world is not what really matters. Not at all. One can be very rich in this world and that has nothing to do per se with their status in the kingdom of heaven. And there are poor brothers who learn this and so they glory in the fact that, even though they are poor in terms of this world, they are exalted because they are the inheritors of the kingdom of God. They are joined heirs with Christ of the infinite riches of the kingdom of heaven. And at the same time, the rich brother who comes to have the wisdom of God in this world, realizes that his earthly riches is absolutely nothing. He does not fasten his heart upon it; he does not love it with a clutching, grasping spirit, but he has fixed his heart upon the kingdom of God. He seeks God and his kingdom and his righteousness, knowing that his real treasure is in the world which is to come. In other words, the poor man sees that he really has the eternal riches and he rejoices in that. And the rich man sees that this world's riches is not his real riches, and so he glories in his humiliation; in the fact that God has brought him down to the same level with that poor brother.1
G. I. Williamson
9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation,