1 Corinthians 2:1″And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God”.
There’s a place for oratorical skills amongst men, but certainly NOT WITH THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST.
The reason for this is simple: ‘wisdom of the Gospel discernible by the spiritual faculties alone’.
1 Cor 2:12-13
“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual”. Apostle Paul justified his preaching by asserting that it was not that of one skilled in the fashionable argumentation of the day, or in oratorial prowess.
If anything, the New Testament records Paul’s speech as boring and his personality as lacking in charm or intimidating presence.
2 Cor 10:10″For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible”.
The testimony of God given by St Paul manifested to the world in the Life and Death of Jesus Christ only, pure and simple. There were no airs and pretensions of human packaging, because the Gospel of Christ is designed with “dunamis”(a self-generating power).
Heb 4:12″For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Paul ran with the testimony of Christ alone and he was quick to remind the Churches he planted of this salient fact.
1 Cor 1:4-6
“I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.”
1 Cor 2:2
“For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ……
Paul had come to deliver a testimony concerning God, and as we have seen, that testimony must needs result in the humiliation of man.
Accordingly, its matter is very simple. All he knows is Jesus Christ, and even Him as having been reduced, in His humanity, to a condition which to the purely human apprehension appears one of the deepest disgrace.
Jesus Christ stooped to the deepest low in order to fulfil the Redemption of Man.He deliberately avoided stardom with all it’s implications.
Bible says He withdrew himself from men, because he knew what was in man.
John 2:23-25″Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man”. Above verses should tell you a thing or two about courting stardom in ministry. The perils of it.
– Dr Nich Mbaezue