The Hebrew writer makes a great point when he speaks of the long list of persecuted and rejected servants of God who “escaped the edge of the sword…became valiant in battle… others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned…afflicted, tormented<\/em>” and then adds “of whom the world was not worthy<\/em>” (Hebrews 11:34-38). Think about this! Sometimes there are situations where that town, city, or work-group was not worthy of having such a class person of faith. They did not know how to properly appreciate what they had in that person of faith. They could have helped save that group and shared an enriching faith with them, but they did not want it.<\/p>\n The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah did not treat righteous Lot like they should have. He could have helped them get right with God, but they rejected him and chose to frame his words as “always judging us.” God’s word does the judging. Lot was only an informant. He was trying to help them, but they were not worthy of him. They chose to accuse him of always judging them when choosing to appreciate him speaking truth in love would have produced more favorable outcomes for them. They burned in fire and brimstone, and it never should have happened, had they acted more worthy of having a righteous man in their presence.<\/p>\n You could say that Paul stating that he was in “perils among false brethren<\/em>” was another case of those brethren not being worthy of such a brother as Paul. Paul faced several specific complaints and accusations from some of the Corinthian brethren, and he addresses them directly in I and II Corinthians.<\/p>\n They accused Paul of being unimpressive in person and weak in speech.\u00a0“His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account<\/em>” (II\u00a0Corinthians 10:10). They complained that Paul looked unimpressive and didn’t speak with the polished rhetoric they desired to hear from orators. They did not realize that they were not worthy of such a faithful man in their presence who preached the truth.<\/p>\n They accused him of lacking apostolic credentials or authority. Paul defends his apostleship:<\/p>\n “Am I not an apostle? … Are you not my workmanship in the Lord?<\/em>“(I\u00a0Corinthians 9:1-3).<\/p>\n “I ought to have been commended by you, for I was not at all inferior to these chief-apostles<\/em>” (II Corinthians 12:11).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Some questioned whether he was truly an apostle compared to others they viewed as more impressive. They did not realize that they were not worthy of such a man in their midst.<\/p>\n They accused him of being fickle or unreliable in his travel plans. They complained that Paul changed his plans and therefore could not be trusted (II Corinthians\u00a01:15-17). Paul explains that his change of plans was for their benefit, not because he is unstable. They were looking for things to complain about.<\/p>\n They accused him of not accepting financial support because he knew he wasn’t worthy of support. Paul explains why he refused their money, though they interpreted it as a slight (II Corinthians 11:7-9). Again, they were looking to pick him to pieces for anything they could imagine as true. They complained that Paul treated them differently by refusing support (II Corinthians\u00a012:13-15). Paul clarifies that he refused support to avoid burdening them, not because of lack of affection.<\/p>\n They accused him of being bold only in letters but timid face\u2011to\u2011face. They said he was “bold” in writing but “lowly” in person (II Corinthians 10:1-2).\u00a0Paul responds that he will be bold in person if necessary.<\/p>\n Why was all of this necessary? He said earlier that these brethren were spiritually immature and carnal (I Corinthians 3:1f). Paul was a man of faith who longed to be a blessing to these brethren, but some would not break out of their pattern of spiritual immaturity and see him in the proper light. They were not acting worthy of such a man.<\/p>\n Are there people around us that we are not worthy of? Are we of such a faithful character that the carnal world around us is not worthy of? How does God see it? He sees the truth. In Hebrews 11, there is a long list of men and women of faith “of whom the world was not worthy.<\/em>” Would we fit in that list?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton Daily Points of Light from Heaven The Hebrew writer makes a great point when he speaks of the long list of persecuted and rejected servants of God who “escaped the edge of the sword…became valiant in battle… others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[49],"class_list":["post-97031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-faith"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31874,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-you-support-conscientious-objection\/","url_meta":{"origin":97031,"position":0},"title":"Do you support conscientious objection?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you or your church support selective conscientious objection and conscientious objection? Answer: Registering for the draft is a government law that does not violate any teaching of God. \"Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1296,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-boy-girl-relationships-not-advisable-at-a-young-age\/","url_meta":{"origin":97031,"position":1},"title":"Why are boy-girl relationships not advisable at a young age?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 3, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why are boy-girl relationships not advisable at a young age Answer: Youth is a time of impatient desires. They want the things available to adults, but adulthood seems so far away. The typical teenage boy enters puberty around the age of 11. The typical teenage girl enters puberty around\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37138,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/we-lost-the-surprise-somewhere\/","url_meta":{"origin":97031,"position":2},"title":"We Lost the Surprise Somewhere","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I remember watching Mayberry RFD and related shows most of my childhood. Poor ignorant Gomer Pyle who worked as an auto mechanic was a notable character. But I can still recall my shock when I found out that Jim Nabors, who played Gomer, could sing --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Gomer.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":32196,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-a-sin-to-take-out-insurance\/","url_meta":{"origin":97031,"position":3},"title":"Is it a sin to take out insurance?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it a sin to take out medical insurance or legal insurance? Are we rather expected to put our faith in the Lord to take care of those things? Answer: We were taught to pray, \"Give us this day our daily bread\" (Matthew 6:11), but God still commands us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61889,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-book-of-my-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":97031,"position":4},"title":"The Book of My Life","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Job 19:23-27 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Each week the paper publishes its list of top selling books \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes the books are biographies, fictional stories, or fiction placed in historical settings. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They hope that others will also purchase the books, if for no other reason than curiosity. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many author\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6988,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-there-passages-that-refer-to-the-lords-supper\/","url_meta":{"origin":97031,"position":5},"title":"Are there passages that refer to THE Lord’s Supper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have been studying the Lord's supper issues and one of our main concerns is about a second offering in which only a few partake, for the reasons you listed in your article (not doing it together). We have been questioning the idea of everyone taking it a second\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97031"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97034,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97031\/revisions\/97034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}