|
"For I determined not to know anything
among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
(1 Corinthians 2:2)
Four days into the New Year, how are you doing? God loves you and wants you to be blessed and strong in Him. He has big plans for you! This week, we are looking at the topic of determination. To be determined, passionate, resolute, or to have that tenacious grit that does not quit is really a blessing. I love the Apostle Paul; he was a man totally sold out to Jesus Christ and lived a life on fire for our Lord, a life replete with determination and resolve.
In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul lists some things he is letting go of or not pursuing in his walk with God and the ministry God had given him. He says in verse 1 that he will not come to the church at Corinth "with excellence of speech or of wisdom." He laid them aside in the sense that he was not concerned with worldly or secular means in presenting Christ. Paul was no doubt very educated, and most likely he had studied oratory and rhetorical speaking. But he did not rely on these. He relied on the Holy Spirit and the dunamis of God!
Excellence of speech is not bad, but it can sometimes actually be a stumbling block when it comes to effective proclamation of the Gospel. A heart sold out to Jesus and fully reliant upon Him is much better. One commentary reads, "Paul is precisely not a visiting orator come to entertain the crowds as an audience-pleasing performer." (Thiselton, A. C. (2000). The First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text (p. 213). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.) Leon Morris comments, "Preaching the Gospel is not delivering edifying discourses, beautifully put together. It is bearing witness to what God has done in Christ for our salvation." (Morris, L. (1985). 1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 7, p. 56). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.)
In 1 Corinthians 2:2, Paul said he was determined to "not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." His singular passion and focus of his life and ministry were simply Jesus. There are many things, some good and others not so much, that will gladly occupy us if we let them. In verse 4, he writes, "my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom." Paul admitted his weakness. He was not without his critics. Some even in the church at Corinth ridiculed him, "'For his letters,' they say, 'are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.'" (2 Corinthians 10:10) In the second century book, Acts of Paul and Thecla, Paul was described as "a man small of stature, with a bald head and crooked legs, in a good state of body, with eyebrows meeting and nose somewhat hooked." (Ibid., Morris)
I have wrestled with this text. I am a pastor and preacher. I have a PhD from seminary with a minor in homiletics (preaching). I am grateful for education, rhetoric, and practice in effective communication, but it all pales in comparison to having the power of God. God is still attracted to weakness,and still opposes the proud. Can I challenge you today to lay aside your dependence on yourself, and join Paul, and be fully dependent on Jesus and His power in your life?
|
Apple
Spotify
Stitcher
YouTube
