And *I* was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling;
Paul had just told the Corinthians that he came with no polished speech and one subject only — Christ crucified. Now he tells them what he was like as he preached.
This verse is about the man delivering the message, not the message itself.
The preacher himself was among them in a condition that was humiliating to the pride of man. He did not come as a self-confident orator. He knew his own weakness. He saw the deep need of the people he preached to, and how serious his message was. So he was among them in fear and much trembling.
The phrase is easily misread as dread of judgment.
I would point to Philippians 2, 1 Corinthians 2, and other passages. They show that we should not lower "with fear and trembling" to mere dread of punishment. We should see it instead as a sense of weakness joined with solemn responsibility before God.
Two things pressed on him: an enemy at work in the city, and his own sinful nature still in him.
He did not arrive among them with a great flourish of trumpets. He did not announce himself as "Palestine's most powerful Preacher," or something of that sort, as people do today. The very reverse. Weakness, fear, trembling are the things he mentions. He was keenly aware that the flesh was still in him. It might draw him away from undivided faithfulness to his Master, and betray him into something that was not of God. He knew the mighty power of the devil, entrenched in Corinthian hearts. So he feared and trembled. And so there was room for the Spirit of God to show His power.
There was another reason to tremble, and it lay in the hearers.
Paul did not want the Corinthians to lean on him; in fact, he "trembled" in case they should be tempted to do so. He would have done them a serious wrong if he had come between their souls and the true source of all authority. That source is the true foundation of confidence and peace. Had he led them to build on himself, he would have robbed them of God, and that would have been a serious wrong indeed.
The Lord met him during that same stay in Corinth. The encouragement did not remove the danger. It moved the question off Paul altogether.
Paul's labours at this time were of no ordinary kind. He who saw from the mountain-top His disciples struggling at the oars also saw His servant's need of encouragement. So He spoke to Paul in the night by a vision: "Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city." The opposition was rising. If Paul had only weighed his own ability to meet it, he might well have lost heart, or even been driven from his post. So the Lord showed him in a special way that it was not a question of himself, but of the Lord against the enemy.
Felt weakness and real strength are not opposites.
So when we are weak we are strong. Weakness that we feel leads to dependence, and only as we depend on Him are we strong with His strength. And we shall not always be conscious of the power, even though we are dependent. So Paul writes to the Corinthians, "I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling." Yet the letter and the account of his stay in Corinth in Acts 18 show something else. At this very time he was, in a special way, the channel of extraordinary power in his ministry of the Word. It will often be the same with the Lord's servants. Often they pass through a season when they feel weak and unfit to preach the Word. Later they learn that this was the very time when the Lord used them most in the blessing of souls.
- Weakness owned. Paul came to Corinth with no self-confidence on display. His condition humbled human pride.
- Weakness explained. The fear is not dread of punishment. It is a sense of weakness joined with solemn responsibility before God.
- Weakness guarded. He knew his own sinful nature and the devil's grip on Corinthian hearts. He also feared that they would lean on him instead of God.
- Weakness answered. The Lord spoke to him by night: "Do not be afraid… I am with you… I have many in this city." The contest was no longer Paul's ability, but the Lord's against the enemy.
- Weakness used. He felt least capable when God's power showed most. Servants often find the Lord uses them most when they feel weakest.
and my word and my preaching, not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of [the] Spirit and of power;
Paul had just told the Corinthians what he preached — Christ crucified. Now he tells them how he preached it in a city that prized polished speech and clever argument.
Paul matched his manner to his message. He would not dress it up in a style that drew attention to the speaker.
He refused every artificial method, both in the thought and in the words that clothed it. He wanted the truth of God to speak straight to a person's heart. In the same way he was with the Corinthians in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. This is not the picture people imagine of the great apostle! But that deep sense of weakness was, by grace, his strength. The Corinthians' straining after power was their weakness. His one desire was to exalt God, admitting the nothingness and the guilt of man. He dreaded that any word of his might cloud God's true glory. He wanted his preaching to be God's testimony to and in Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. So his word and his preaching — the thing preached, not merely his manner in it — was not the rhetoric of the schools, but preaching that gave room to God's Spirit.
"Demonstration" is a wide word, and commentators note it may take in the miracles of the early days. But the weight of it falls elsewhere.
He would not sweeten his teaching with flattery to please his hearers. He would not commend it by tricks of rhetoric either. In both manner and substance his ministry was to be "of God"... This broad phrase probably points to the outward miracles. God gave them so freely at the start of the gospel, as a visible sign to everyone of where the testimony came from. But if so, they hold only a secondary place in this description of his work at Corinth. What he insists on is that his ministry was spiritual through and through, and that it reached the hearts and consciences of those who received it.
Refusing human methods was not modesty for its own sake. It cleared the ground.
Paul refused all human means, and all appeal to human nature. That left room for the Spirit to work in mighty power. Suppose faith appears under such preaching. Suppose someone believes a message so humbling to man, a message that ends man in judgment. Then it is not human wisdom that leads them to believe, but the power of the Spirit of God working with them... It is not only a question of the truth they believed, but of the way in which they received it. They received it not from a man, even though that man was an apostle, but from God.
The two methods produce two different kinds of belief, and only one of them survives pressure.
Weakness, fear and trembling marked the man who carried the message. But the message came with the wonderful demonstration of the Holy Spirit and the power of God. If persuasive words of man's wisdom win a person, another display of the same can overturn it. But what the Spirit's power gives stands in the power of God.
If power is not eloquence, then crowds and applause prove nothing either way.
We measure power by work done, not by the show made. A man may be an eloquent preacher. He may draw thousands to hear him. Large numbers may even claim to be saved under his ministry. But the only test of his power is whether souls are truly saved. That is how we know the Holy Spirit has been at work. New birth is His work by the word of truth, whatever instrument He uses.
This pull works on hearers as much as on preachers. It also shows why God often uses the poor speaker instead.
How common the mistake, even in the Church of God! Christians themselves want eloquence, and give it a place above the power of God... Even the saints who know the truth in theory are charmed and drawn by splendid gifts. They take pleasure in the display of those gifts, apart from the truth the gifts pass on. How different was Paul's thought... This is why God often uses those who are "slow of speech" far more than the eloquent. Then no one is tempted to lean on the wisdom of men, and everyone sees that it is the power of God.
- Subject — Paul kept to Christ crucified, a message that humbles man instead of flattering him.
- Vessel — He came in weakness, fear and trembling; that sense of weakness was, by grace, his strength.
- Method — He dropped every artificial device of thought and language, so the truth could reach the heart and conscience.
- Power — The Spirit's own working filled the gap. You see it in changed hearts, not in the speaker's skill.
- Result — Another clever speaker can talk down faith built on human persuasion. Faith that comes from God stands in the power of God.