And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
- 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
When a passage begins with “And so…” as this one does, we need to look at the context to figure out what the author is basing his argument on. In this case, you can review the passage right before it here. Paul’s point there is that we have nothing to boast about in ourselves, but we should boast about who God is and what He has done. Paul is also referring to his own mission that he referenced in 1 Corinthians 1:17: “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”
And so, in verse 1, Paul reminds them of his visit with them prior to this letter, which is likely the one recorded in Acts 18:1-18. When he preached the gospel to the people of Corinth, Paul did not rely on his great wisdom or his ability to be a great speaker. He knew that the message that he preached was significantly more important than the person preaching it or the way in which he preached it. The message of the gospel is so powerful that it almost speaks for itself! Paul explained the gospel to them, but it was the Holy Spirit working in them that allowed them to understand and believe, based on Paul’s testimony.
Paul placed emphasis only on Jesus Christ while he was with them and preaching (verse 2). The key message of the gospel is Jesus Christ and him crucified, as Paul says. While teaching about Jesus’ life was (and still is) important, it is Jesus’ death that really paved the way for our salvation. That is the heart of the message that Paul preached – and that we should continue to preach today.
Paul recognized that he came to the people of Corinth in weakness (verse 3). The fact that they have faith in Jesus was not because of the great work that Paul did, but rather the great work of Jesus Christ that could only be on display when Paul humbled himself. Given the culture of persecution for Christians in that time period, which Paul participated in until Jesus appeared to him, Paul was naturally afraid to preach the gospel. I think we would all be afraid to devote our lives to publicly preaching a message that could get us killed as Paul did! But that did not stop him, as the power of the gospel outweighed his fears.
In verses 4-5, Paul emphasizes again that they did not believe in God through his great message and preaching, but rather through the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul does not want them to believe in himself and his teachings but rather in the gospel message that he brought them – Jesus Christ and him crucified. Their faith needs to be truly rested on the power of God, not on the wisdom and eloquence of any human teacher.
We have so many Christian teachers to choose from in today’s modern and very connected society! Just look on social media and you’ll see plenty of gospel presentations. We need to keep our focus on the core of the message itself – Jesus Christ and him crucified – and not focus on the wisdom or eloquence of any one particular teacher. Just as Paul was, our teachers and preachers today should be humble in their approach, not pointing to themselves and their own wisdom but only to God and the message of the gospel.
But this does not apply only to those who are preaching and teaching in the formal sense. The principles in this passage apply to every single believer. We are all called to share the gospel message of Jesus Christ, whether to just one person or to hundreds or thousands. Does your life show humility regarding yourself, recognizing that your faith is only due to God’s power and the Holy Spirit working in your life? Is your focus completely and totally on Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection? Or are you worried about being eloquent and presenting the gospel message?
Remember that Paul was afraid; he came to Corinth “with great fear and trembling.” It’s ok to be afraid when sharing the gospel, but we can’t live in that fear. We need to push past it through the power of the Holy Spirit so that everyone around us can know Jesus Christ and him crucified.
We also need to check what we believe and who we are listening to for teaching. Does your faith rest on the power of God or on human wisdom? Are you following human teachers but not checking what they teach against the Word of God for yourself? We are all humans who can make mistakes (even here at Worldview Warriors!), so we encourage all believers to investigate everything that you hear and check it against what the Bible says.
Be like Paul. Live your life in humility to God’s power, proclaiming your testimony about God to demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit, allowing the Spirit to bring others to faith in Jesus Christ.
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