1 Corinthians 2:4-5 (ESV)
[4] and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, [5] so that your faith
might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Paul
wrote, “I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.” In an
earlier blog I addressed the question, “What was it that caused Paul to come in
fear and trembling? But there is a second part to this passage. “My speech and my
message were not in plausible words of wisdom” (1 Cor 2:4) Paul wrote. So what
was his message? In 1 Corinthians 2:2 he
wrote, “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him
crucified.”
Why
nothing except? Does that mean it is wrong to preach on anything besides the
crucifixion; anything other than the “pure” gospel? One summer I preached a
series of sermons based on a church’s statement of faith. Is that wrong? I’ve
heard teaching on worship, work, marriage and family, and a variety of other
topics. Is that wrong? Should we be preaching only from the gospels? Should
every message be about the cross? What does Paul mean when he says that he
determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified?
Remember
that Paul came to Corinth from Athens. In Athens he argued powerfully for the
uniqueness of Jesus Christ and creatively communicated the gospel—with very few
positive responses. When he came to Corinth he decided that he was not going to
try anything fancy or creative. For him, it was time to get back to the basics.
Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Understand
that Paul is not instructing preachers, in this passage, about what they should
preach. Rather he is reminding the Corinthian church of how he came to them and
what his original message was to them. In his discouragement and fear he
understood the necessity of getting back to the basics in his ministry.
I
love the Vince Lombardi quote, “Gentlemen, this is a football.” It is about
getting back to the basics. I’m not a very good golfer, but I enjoy the game. I
can occasionally hit a pretty decent drive. Unfortunately after a couple of
good hits my game has a tendency to fall apart. In fact, the more I play the
worse I get. What happens is that I begin thinking, “Why can’t I hit it that
way every time?” I start fiddling with my grip, playing with my stance,
swinging a little harder. Pretty soon my balls are all over the place, mostly
out of bounds. When that happens there is only one thing to do. Get back to the
basics. Go back to a simple grip; relax; keep my eye on the ball; quit trying
drive the length of the fairway; just an easy swing. All athletes occasionally
need to remind themselves to go back to the basics. We get so caught up in the
nuances of some small aspect of the game that we lose what the game is about.
That’s
what I think Paul is saying here. He’s saying, “I tried all the creative
outreach concepts, but it’s time to get back to the basics.” In Athens he has
used Athenian altars, quotes from Greek poets, and persuasive arguments with
little results. It was time for him to get back to the basics. In our day we
have some incredible resources for communicating to gospel. We have video, the
Internet, art and drama, television, multimedia, multiple styles of music, and
on and on it goes. None of these things are bad. All of these means and methods
have their place. But we need to be careful that the methods do not replace the
message. Occasionally the church needs to go back to its roots and ask the
question, “Why are we here and what are we doing?” Why do we meet every week?
Why do we have the services and meetings we do? What are we about as a church?
Sometimes we need to go back to the basics.
Paul
says, “[When I came to Corinth] I decided to know nothing among you except
Jesus Christ and him crucified.” That doesn’t mean that a series of sermons on
marriage is wrong. It doesn’t mean that the scriptures do not speak to any
issue other than the gospel. It does not mean that there is no place for
intellectual arguments for the existence of God. But it does mean that we must
never lose sight of why we exist. We must never forget that the good news of
forgiveness based on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the
foundation and focal point of all that we are and all that we do as a church.
Sometimes we just need to go back to the basics.
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