² The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength.

¹⁷ He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’

⁷ We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure.^[a] This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.

²⁷ Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. ²⁸ God chose things despised by the world,^[a] things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. ²⁹ As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.

¹³ He boasts,

⁹ Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

^4 [a]We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. ⁵ We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.

⁴ And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. ⁵ I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.

¹⁸ But you must not brag about being grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off. You are just a branch, not the root.

⁶ Then he said to me, “This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.