Status is a ready target.
For status is something we as a society have rigorously and explicitly defined.
Rank, title, access, compensation, and perks are among the many ready identifiers we have emplaced. And unsurprisingly, due to the ubiquitous nature of said status markers, we often measure our success against them and shape our goals towards them. Our relative success or failure ultimately determining self-worth.
Is that so harmful though? Is status something inherently good or evil?
“Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status.”
Paul points out that status is not an end in itself as we have errantly classified it. For rank and title are trivial, but it is our actions in serving others that truly matter. It is for their sake we have been blessed with the means and opportunity to assist across a wide spectrum of capabilities. Furthermore, we will all undoubtedly experience hardship and sorrow (such is the human condition). Therefore let us build and foster a resilient community that will be capable of support when those times arrive.
When people fail it can be easy for us to dismiss them. To look down, judge, and speculate (often to the inflation of our own standing). But that is not what God has equipped us for. Instead, he has charged us to wade into their muck and render aid with the strength we have been gifted.
We are left with a question eloquently posited by Paul: Are you using your strength for service or status?