“And I, when I came to you,
brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty
speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ
and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,
and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in
the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:1 – 5.
My how I wish we had engaged this
passage when I was in seminary, both in exegesis classes and in preaching
classes. How I wish we had explored the inherent tension in these verses,
indeed, in this entire section of 1 Corinthians. On the one hand we are to “rightly
divide the Word of Truth” (2 Timothy 2:15) and are to speak wisdom and mature
teaching from God (1 Corinthians 2:6; Hebrews 5:11 – 6:2); on the other hand we
must not confuse the wisdom, and even the communication methods, of the present
age with the wisdom and communication patterns of God.
Are we likely to invite a speaker
who will walk up on the platform in “weakness and in fear and much trembling”? Are
we not rather going to invite someone who will communicate according to current
trendy communication patterns? If the answer to the former question is “no” and
the answer to the latter question is “yes”, then ought we not to engage in some
soul-searching as we submit to the Word of God?
The Church Fathers, and many
since their time, believed that a pastor’s or teacher’s relationship with God
strongly influenced their insight into Holy Scripture. They believed that a
right relationship with God, along with diligent study and meditation, was
necessary to receive illumination in the Word of God. I never heard this discussed
in seminary – and I was at what I consider a pretty good seminary. It was never
suggested that we could not do godly exegesis unless we were devoted to Jesus
Christ, unless we submitted to God’s Word. It was never suggested that we could
not preach effectively unless we were abiding in the Vine. I think this way of
teaching and discipling would have been foreign to the Church Fathers, I know
it would have been foreign to the Apostles.
But then I have never picked up a
commentary that addressed this, in fact, in this day of “scientific” commentaries
it is no wonder that it is not addressed – we think we can do it ourselves.
To be sure, there are likely
exceptions to the above mentality, and I sense that there are Bible training
environments that emphasize a holy relationship with God and devotion and
worship and obedience to His Word – but they are not likely to be closely
associated with the broader “academy”, indeed, they may even be considered second-rate
institutions.
I see the same cancer in Sunday
school and small group material – we are therapists and sociologists before we
are anything, and that means the Gospel is an afterthought, if that. The Nicene
Creed has gone the way of the manual typewriter, “Isn’t that quaint?”
And what about this idea of the “power
of God”? This “demonstration of the Spirit and power”? Don’t we like to make
excuses for not seeing this in a palpable fashion? “Times have changed” we say.
“God has changed” we think. We manufacture some of the most implausible “Biblical”
excuses for why the power of God seems to have departed from the Western Church;
rationalizing away our lack of prayer, our lack of obedience, our stark
disobedience, our anemic faith, our worldly hedonism. We have reason upon
reason why these words of Paul are as remote to us as the sometimes planet
Pluto. Little wonder we run to sociology and therapy and business and marketing
models – all in an effort to hide ourselves from the conviction of the Word of
God.
What have we come to? What,
please tell me, is a theological education worth if it is not steeped in the “demonstration
of the Spirit and of power”? What is a commentary worth? A sermon worth? A gathering
of God’s people worth?
Just perhaps the “demonstration
of the Spirit and of power” is inextricably associated with “knowing nothing
but Jesus Christ and Him crucified”? Now there is a thought. Not a thought
likely to gain currency in the narcissistic Western Church, but nevertheless
a thought.
You know, of course, that if we
preach “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” that we must also preach ourselves and
our listeners crucified with Christ (Mark 8:34 – 38; Galatians 2:20) – do you
think that is likely to happen?
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