Week 31—Friday 2 Corinthians 13:3-4
2 Corinthians 13:3-4
“THE KINGDOM . . . NOT . . . TALK BUT . . . POWER”
Nothing could be more to the point than this verse: “For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20). This plants the Christian gospel in the Word become flesh and not in the Word become word.
And yet the whole of the Christian setup is around the kingdom of God consisting in talk. Our “services” are sermons, with a padding of hymns and prayers—they are “talk,” lip services instead of life services. We don’t go out of these “services” asking, “What do I do next?” but commenting, “It was a good sermon. I enjoyed it.” You are supposed to react in comment and not in commitment.
But the kingdom of God is “in power”—power to change lives, power to remake character, power to start movements, power to lift horizons and nerve people to live, power to turn inner and outer defeat into victory, power to break chains and make people free, power to enable people to do what they cannot do—power!
A pastor said in the Morning of the Open Heart in one of our Ashrams: “I am more and more convinced of the truth of the foolishness of preaching—my preaching is foolishness.” And it was, for it was the Word become word. But he surrendered himself to Christ and was made into a new man. On the last day he said, “Now my preaching won’t be foolishness. I’m going to be a witness to what Christ has done for me.” Now it was no longer the Word become word—it was the Word become flesh, hence power.
A young pastor beaten and discouraged saw a sign on a very vital church: “Jesus Christ is in this place, anything can happen here.” It struck him. He went in and found it was true. He poured out his emptiness and defeat and arose a new man. He went in one type of person, he came out another. And now he himself has made over a church, the center of contagion and power.
O Son of God, when we listen to you we hear more than you say—we hear your life and love speaking silently through your words. And your words thus have a strange power over us. They send us to our knees in gratitude. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: The kingdom of God shall be manifested in me today as power—power to change myself and others.