How does God view the weak? He loves them and gave his Son to die for them.

    How does he view weakness—moral and spiritual weakness, I mean? He tolerates it. He labors to free us from weakness and bring us to maturity, but he doesn’t view weakness as intolerable.

    How does God view the weak? The answer to this question is important, because it determines how God feels toward us all. It is true to say that some are “weak” and others “strong,” but it is also true to say that we are all weak. If God is against the weak, he is against us all.

    God doesn’t extol weakness, but does allow it—he makes allowances for it. He takes into account the background, heritage, environment, and limitations of people. His Servant knows their weak frame and is merciful. He seeks to bring the weak into strength, but he adores them while they’re weak. He challenges them to better and higher things, but he understands when they show vulnerability. William Lyon Phelps was once asked about the nature of friendship. He replied:

    What is friendship? Alas, I am able to give you an example. A number of years ago a very intimate friend of my college days, whom everyone had regarded as a perfect example of integrity, was accused in the newspapers of a crime. I could not believe it. I was so certain of his virtue that I wrote him a letter in which I said that I and all his friends were certain that he had not done anything wrong, that he had been slandered, and that he must not feel too bad about the attack, because as long as he had the inner certainty that he had done nothing wrong, he could remain calm and serene. I received a very affectionate letter in return, and then a few days later he committed suicide. Of course I can’t be certain whether I was in any way responsible for this tragedy; but what I am certain of is that I wrote him a very bad letter and that I was untrue in friendship.

    Some years after this I was the subject of an attack because a press dispatch quoted me as having said something I really had not said. I received a letter from one of my former pupils. This is what he wrote to me: “I do not believe the report of your remarks is true. I do not see how you could have said that; but I want you to know that even if you did say it, my friendship and affection for you will always remain the same.” That is a good letter. That is friendship.

    Good for the former pupil! He made it clear to Phelps that he expected lovely things of him, but he refused to put Phelps in a moral straightjacket. He expected lovely things and called Phelps to lovely things, but he allowed for failure! He learned this spirit from Jesus Christ.

    Words like “weak” and “weakness” occur about eighty-seven times in the New Testament. Eighteen of them are of interest to us. Listen, there is not a word of condemnation in a single mention of weakness. There is no extolling of weakness, and there is no promoting of it; but there isn’t a word of condemnation connected with it. People who say they will not grow aren’t weak, they’re rebels! “Weak” (in our discussion) doesn’t mean impenitent or callously wicked. It means without strength, infirm. And God is for the weak. He even makes some people strong that they might bear the infirmities of the weak.

    Our God doesn’t patronize the weak. And he doesn’t just keep them around only as long as they show potential for becoming strong. Our God has made a total commitment to the weak in their weakness. His mind is made up! Even if they never become strong—he’s going to the Cross for them! He believes in them and commits himself to them—forever!

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	HEARTLIGHT(sm) Magazine is a ministry of loving Christians and the Westover Hills church of Christ. Edited by Phil Ware and Paul Lee. Excerpted from The God of the Towel, by Jim McGuiggan (Howard Publishing, 1997) Copyright © 1997 Howard Publishing Co., Inc. Used by permission. HEARTLIGHT and the flared heart design are service marks of Heartlight, Inc.