Consider these questions as you dwell in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5:

1. How does Paul's approach to preaching in Corinth, focusing solely on the message of "Jesus Christ and Him crucified," highlight the power of the Gospel in contrast to worldly wisdom? How does this approach emphasize the role of the Holy Spirit in bringing people to faith?

2. Paul acknowledges his own weaknesses, including "fear and much trembling," when he preached in Corinth. How does this vulnerability demonstrate that the effectiveness of the Gospel message does not rely on human eloquence or persuasive techniques? What does this teach us about the source of true spiritual power?

3. According to the passage, why is it crucial for our faith to not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God? How can understanding this distinction impact our confidence in our faith journey and our proclamation of the Gospel to others? How might this perspective shape our daily walk with Christ?

Transcript:

 So, we arrive here in the second chapter of 1 Corinthians, and we see Paul once again getting to the point of what his message is. Notice what he says. I didn't come to you with the lofty language. The wisdom that you expect from a great orator when I came to you. No, that wasn't my message. This thing he's been talking about, chapter 1, the, the, the gospel being the power of salvation.

The, the idea of the gospel not being wise as according to the world, but making, instead making foolish the world.  He's saying here, look, I modeled this for you when I came to you, because I didn't come through the door, and I didn't make all these lofty speeches, and I didn't show you wisdom on how to understand the world better, and how following Jesus would make your life better, and all these kind of things.

He said, I didn't do that. He said he decided to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  Why would that be?  Well, it's because Paul understands what the power of salvation is. It's not in his words, but it's in the Word of God. It's in the proclamation of Christ and him crucified. It is in that message that the Spirit uses to bring us to faith.

Paul helps us to understand this so deeply. He doesn't want us to think that somehow this is Paul's thing. Instead, he wants us to understand that, look, I took the message that seems foolish to the world, and I proclaimed it, and God used it to bring you to faith. That's what he wants us to understand, and he wanted the church in Corinth to understand that, obviously.

And he used his preaching there as an example. So, what does it say here in verse 3? And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom. He's saying, look, I was just an ordinary guy. I didn't deceive you, I didn't manipulate you.

Instead, I came with a message that can transform you, that the Spirit can use to bring you to faith and to sanctify you. And so, that was what Paul was showing here. He was showing that the Spirit has the power to save. The Spirit had the power through this message of the Gospel to take this, this quote unquote foolish message.

And use it to bring people into the family of God. And so, what was that? What was the purpose of that?  Verse 5, So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Their faith was not to rest in Paul.  Their faith was not to rest in how certain things are to be done. Instead, their faith rests on the power of God to save.

And so, as we think about this, where does our confidence lie? Does it lie in the words that we can put together? Does our confidence lie in, in worldly things, or does our confidence lie in the fact  that we heard the gospel of Christ and Him crucified proclaimed to us and we were brought to faith and God will keep us in that faith because we didn't come because of anything that we have done or anything that was special that we have heard, any wisdom of men, we didn't come to faith because of that, we have come to faith because the Spirit is at work in us.

So does our confidence lie in that and the message of Christ and Him crucified or does it lie in something else? Well, it's clear that that message is the power of God into salvation. And so that is where our confidence must lie. And that's difficult to do. We want to have lofty words. We want to have wisdom.

 But ultimately our proclamation rests, our proclamation of the gospel rests on Christ and Him crucified. And so may we not only proclaim that trusting that the Spirit would work but may that be our confidence that we have this faith in this message from God and it has transformed us, it has brought us to faith, it has given us hope.

And so may we completely and totally rest on that hope each and every day, not words of lofty wisdom, but instead the truth of Christ and Him crucified.