Preaching Christ Crucified
PREACHING CHRIST CRUCIFIED
1 CORINTHIANS 2:1-5
Paul gives his personal testimony about his coming to them.
The equivalent of the Jews’ insistence on credentials (eg Mark 11:27-33; John 4:48; 6:30; 7:15) was the Greeks’ love of impressive public speaking. To them the height of learning was the presentation of a well-ordered and persuasively uttered speech on some noble, and preferably new, theme (Acts 17:21).
It is not to be wondered at therefore that Paul’s preaching in Athens should be dismissed as the weird pronouncements of a babbler (Acts 17:18-20). And Paul himself possibly felt that little good had been accomplished at Athens as he moved on to Corinth. But it would be wrong to infer that he viewed his Athenian “experiment” as a dismal failure and that 2:1-5 were written out of a new resolve to abandon completely a more philosophical approach.
The present paragraph must stand on its own feet as representing the declared aim of Paul at every phase of his ministry; but at Corinth it was brought home to him with special intensity that his ministry was to offer a straightforward presentation of the cross (2:2), decked out with no human embellishments and conveyed with no reliance on rhetorical persuasion (2:4).
In fact, his bearing and public proclamation were the opposite of the qualities which marked the accomplished Greek orator and debater. He chose no high-sounding terms (2:1), and resorted to no clever notions to dazzle his hearers into acceptance (2:4). His sole reliance was on the Spirit who gives an unaccountable authority to the Christian preacher who recognizes his own weakness and the sufficiency of God’s help. But there was another motivating factor in Paul’s self-chosen aim. What was it (2:5)? People who can be won over simply by forceful rhetoric can be lost when a more persuasive pleader comes along with a glib tongue and an engaging manner. Isn’t this one reason for the success of many present-day false cults, with their salesmanlike approach and easy flow of language?