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Knowing Nothing But Christ...And Him Crucified - 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

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And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

I heard a story of and Egyptian Christian who had extraordinary Arabic and communication skills. He was widely read and followed as he sensed God's calling upon his life to enter ministry. This blessing was not without its difficulties. He came to realize that people were becoming more impressed with is Arabic than his Savior. This man responded by switching to a more colloquial Arabic from his "high class" Arabic. His desire and purpose was to convey the message of the cross and he had come to the realization that his rhetoric was getting in the way.

In other words, he decided to know nothing among [his people] except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

The Corinthian triumphalism extends to all people in all places at all times. Christians are not immune from the desire to be accepted, clever, amusing, open minded, relevant, wealthy, and influential, to name a few. It is no sin to be any of these things. However, when the message of the cross is substituted for a version of one of these hopes then the message of the cross is being jeopardized. Paul makes the conscious decision to subtract anything from his ministry that might be the real reason people are following him. If it isn't the cross that they are impressed with, then what? It would be their own lusts for the love of the world, in which the love of the Father is not present (1 John 2:15-17).

This gets to the offense of the cross and the need for Christians to do some self-examination. Are you impressed with Jesus who died for you or your church's slick ad campaign? Or is it the slickness of your pastor or the slickness of your worship team or the slickness of your programs and your building? It is possible to be slick and honoring to God. However, it is also possible to think you are mature in Christ when really you are just impressed with being slick. Again, self-examination is required.

Paul has the ability to be...slick (since this is the term we are using now). Some might conclude that Paul is deciding to not be slick because he is a poor orator. Considering Paul with Barnabas in Acts 14:12, let's not forget that his pagan audience had mistaken him for Hermes, the Greek god of communication. Paul isn't a poor orator. Second, he wasn't avoiding the cultural considerations that needed to be made as he presented the Gospel. In other words, he wasn't saying that he decided to nothing other than Christ and him crucified as a license for laziness in repackaging the same sermon with the same presentation (and looking mighty spiritual at that). Compare and contrast Paul's sermon in Antioch at a Jewish synagogue (Acts 13:13-41) with his sermon in the Areopagus in Athens which was a pagan context (Acts 17:16-31).

For Paul, there is a real concern and sincere realization that the Corinthians, in all of their spiritual maturity, were really immature in their lust for their Christianity to resemble their worldly prizes. So he draws a line and says, I am not going to let my rhetoric from keeping these Christians from coming to know Jesus.

As Paul moves away from slick presentations there is an important point that Don Carson makes about the nature of preaching and the working of God. Consider this:

"God has taken action, and the good news is announced, it is proclaimed. God is not negotiating; he is both announcing and confronting. Done properly, preaching is simply the re-presentation of God's gospel, God's good news, by which men and women come to know him. Thus preaching mediates God himself."

 Here are some follow up questions that Carson asks in light of his statement:

"Has the smoothness of the performance become more important to us than the fear of the Lord? Has polish, one of the modern equivalents of ancient rhetoric, displaced substance? Have professional competence and smooth showmanship become more valuable than sober reckoning over what it means to focus on Christ crucified?"

 Let me close by inviting you to ponder these things with me. Often times idolatry and love for the world are so subtle it goes unrecognized. Considering the stakes, we wouldn't want that to happen. May we know Jesus and be satisfied in the message of the cross.

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