“men of whom the world was not worthy”  Hebrews 11:38

The Weight of the World

Worthy – Do you know the principle of leverage?  If you want to lift something very heavy, you can use leverage.  You place a support point near the object you want to lift.  You put a long pole under the object and over the supporting point.  Then you push down on the end of the pole.  The longer the pole, the more the lifting power.  In fact, one Greek scientist said, “Give me a fulcrum and a long enough pole and I will lift the world”.

What does this science lesson have to do with the idea of “worthy”?  The Greek word here is axios.  You can think of axis, axle and axiom.  It’s all about bearing weight.  In fact, the primary meaning of axios is “to weigh”.  Weight was a measure of value.

The author of Hebrews tells us that the world was not worthy of the men who died for the sake of righteousness.  That is a truly damning claim.  Men who gave their lives on God’s behalf only demonstrated the fact that the world’s view of value had no weight at all in what matters most.  The world refuses to see true value.  It does not recognize the axios of God and as a result, God finds the values of this world empty and worthless.

Did you notice that the lives of these men call into question the values of this world?  Did you recognize that this is entirely backwards?  We usually think the other way:  that the values of the world determine the weight we place on people.  Our world believes that its values are the standard.  But this is not God’s view.  God says that those who serve Him set the standard for the world – and the world is found lacking.  Worth is never measured by what the world counts as weighty.  Worth is only determined by God’s leverage point.

Is your life “worthy”?  Do you measure its weight according to God’s standard?  If you do, you will be at odds with the world’s perspective.  You will feel the tension and the conflict.  If you don’t feel that difference, maybe you need to re-evaluate the weight you give to the world.  Maybe your worth is being measured on the wrong scale.