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I am using readings from the 49 Week Bible Challenge as the basis for these devotions. I encourage you to join me in this discipline. Today’s readings are 1 Corinthians 2; Isaiah 64; 2 Chronicles 27; Psalm 146.
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 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.
I seldom bring the wood chips in from the workshop. That’s preacher talk about bringing all the fruits of our study – especially the nuggets of insights around word studies of the original languages. It can serve to enlighten, but it can also serve to spotlight the preacher more than illuminating the text. But this is different. Here are some wood chips from one of my earliest sermon studies on this text from 2 Corinthians 2.
In my studies I realized that Paul utilized a word that is found only here in the New Testament and never outside the New Testament prior to his writing. It is as if Paul coined a word that began to be used after he used it! He was the first to use the word and others then began to take it up in their writings.
I think he was trying to help the Corinthian Christians to understand that while he could have come to them with persuasive words of wisdom, he chose rather to bring a simple word of grace and truth about Jesus’ suffering and death, and his resurrection from the dead. There is no need for rhetoric in order to serve the cause of Christ.
Some people think they cannot pray because they don’t use eloquent speech. Paul would beg to differ. So would Jesus. Some would say that the highest form of proclamation is in the form or well-honed rhetoric. Paul didn’t choose that tact. Some would say that the messenger has to be well-coiffed if he is to gain an audience.
Paul desired that the power of God would carry the day. So he spoke in plain language about Jesus. This is the power of God: not sophistry. Not clevernous. Not eloquence. These may all be used by those so gifted to bring the message. But we must never mistake the power of human wisdom for the power of the gospel.
The Holy Spirit brings us to Jesus, enlightens us with his gifts, sets us aside for his glory, and uses us to gather others into his kingdom of grace and truth. Never let your perceived inability to speak stand in the way of giving witness to Jesus’ love for you and for your neighbor. People need to hear the gospel in plain and simple words of grace and truth. Let the Holy Spirit do his work of inspiring you to be Jesus’ witness. And the Holy Spirit do the work of persuading, convicting, and converting. He does that through the power of the Gospel not the power and persuasion of man.
David Bahn - Reflections 
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