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.
that your faith might not stand in men's wisdom, but in God's power.
Paul had just described how he came to Corinth: no polished speech, no clever argument, only Christ crucified. Here he gives the reason. The verse asks not what a person believes, but what that belief stands on.
Paul kept his preaching plain on purpose. He wanted the Corinthians resting on something no better speaker could shake.
His speech was not attractive with the artificial persuasiveness of manufactured eloquence. It was the expression of the presence and action of the Spirit, and of the power that came with that presence. So their faith did not rest on the fine words of a man. A more eloquent or more subtle speaker could overturn words like that. Their faith rested on the power of God — a solid foundation for our feeble souls. Blessed be His name for it!
The Corinthians held the truth. Paul's concern goes past what they believed to how it reached them.
How unassailable must be the faith that stands in the power of God! This was not a question of the truth itself — of their getting it. The question was how they got it: from God Himself, by dealing with Him directly about it, or merely from a man, even though the man was an apostle.
Faith is not only our answer to the gospel. It is itself evidence of God's power at work.
If the gospel is God's wisdom, then the faith that embraces it is also a token and a witness of His power. People may believe the teachings of men. Human wisdom has its followers, because our nature responds easily to what is natural. But the faith that justifies discerns the Person of its object. That faith is itself the gift of Him who sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Its quality matches its origin.
Only one foundation holds. Everything else fails, however respected it may be.
The ground or authority on which we must rest our souls is the same for us as it was for Abraham and all true believers in every age. It is the Word of God, the holy Scriptures. There is no other foundation of faith, and the faith that rests on any other is not true faith at all. Some rest their faith on human tradition, on the authority of the Church, on so-called general councils, on the clergy, or on learned men. That is not divine faith but mere superstition.
The same question presses on preaching today.
Should evangelists adopt the pleasant things of man, the novelties of the age, or anything else, to make the gospel of God attractive to the world? The gospel is indeed called powerful — the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16) — but is it ever to be made "attractive"? The heart of man rejected the words and works of Christ. It rejected moral goodness and divine glory in His Person. That same heart is not one bit more willing today to accept the grace and truth of God in the story of His love and shame on the cross.
So how do you tell real power, if not by the size of the crowd?
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 have truly been 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 may use.
Time shows which foundation holds.
Some people are merely following men. They accept what a preacher says because he says it. They cling to certain preachers or teachers because of something in their style and manner, or because those men seem very holy, very separated, or very devoted. All this will come to nothing. Those human links will soon be snapped. The faith that stands, in any measure, in the wisdom of men will prove hollow and worthless. Nothing will prove permanent, nothing will last, except the faith that rests on the testimony and in the power of the only true God.
- Two foundations. Faith stands either on human wisdom or on God's power. There is no third option. The verse asks which one is under you.
- Not what, but how. The Corinthians had the truth. Paul's concern was how it reached them: from God Himself, or merely from a man, apostle though he was.
- Faith as evidence. Real faith is itself a token of God's power, because that faith is His gift — from the God who sent His Son.
- Nothing human underneath. Tradition, councils, clergy, learned men — faith resting on any of these is not divine faith at all.
- The test is permanence. Ties to a preacher's style snap. Only faith resting on God's testimony and power lasts. Souls truly saved are the only measure of a ministry's power.