God’s Word for You
1 Corinthians 2:3-7 Weakness, fear and trembling
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, November 11, 2022
3 I came to you in weakness, in fear, and with much trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with persuasive or wise words, but with proof of the Spirit and proof of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on man’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
I don’t know if all preachers go through this, but I served as a missionary before I was called to a parish, and “weakness, fear, and much trembling” describes everything I felt in those early years of my ministry. I was going door-to-door with the gospel, often in the evening, often with people who did not want to talk to me. Many of them made me know that they would rather have been doing anything but talking with me. But while part of me dreaded doing it, it was also my divine call. I was chosen by God through my church body to do that, and so I did it with the confidence that it was the gospel at work. I tried different approaches, different opening lines, but it is never the man or woman who makes the difference. It’s always the gospel at work in hearts and that makes all the difference. Faith does not rest on man’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
Paul explains: His message was all about Christ crucified, and of course the resurrection, too (“proof of power” indeed!). Christ crucified is the most important teaching about Jesus, and to the Corinthians it was the most offensive. Luther said: “The world can’t understand that a man accustomed to sins and born in them has nevertheless been received by God into grace, so that he is (and is called) a child of God. The flesh doesn’t grasp this. The world doesn’t accept it. But Scripture says in Psalm 2:12: ‘Kiss the Son…’” (LW 30:266).
The crucifixion brings us to the vital point of contact between God and our sins. It’s the moment of our forgiveness. It’s the moment when our relationship with God changed forever. He himself forgave your sins. They are paid for.
6 As for wisdom, we do speak it among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are becoming powerless. 7 No, we speak of God’s wisdom, hidden in mystery, and that God foreordained for our glory before the ages.
From this point to the end of chapter 2, Paul is guiding the Corinthians to wonder about what he means by “the mature.” He doesn’t say “we who are mature” or “you who are mature”—in fact, he doesn’t include the Corinthians in what he says here at all. He enticingly says “we” and “our” but does he mean himself and the Corinthians, or himself and others? He knows they will think, “Where do we come into this picture of mature / immature Christians?” The answer that most people would come up with is, of course, “I am mature. There must be others who are the immature.” But by the beginning of Chapter 3, we will see that this isn’t what Paul means at all. So it leads us to notice that we may not be all we think we’re cracked up to be. How spiritually mature is the greatest theologian of our time? And how would he compare with a great theologian of a day gone by: a Walther, a Luther, or a Paul? Or a Moses?
And how spiritually mature are you? Am I? We all have growing to do. Being spiritually mature means knowing that there’s room to grow. When we think we know it all; when we think there is not another Bible class, not another sermon, not another Psalm we need to explore, then we will have hit rock bottom in our spiritual immaturity.
There is so much to learn about our Savior’s love. Probe the depths of his word, and marvel at the riches that are there! It’s the very word of our holy God! It is truth in every way. It reveals the mystery of salvation. It uncovers the veil over human eyes. It unstops human ears. It brings peace to troubled hearts and rest to exhausted souls. It assures us that our sins are forgiven. “But if,” Paul says, “on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you” (Philippians 3:15).
Today, don’t worry about eloquence or persuasion. Persuasion is not the goal. Proclaiming Christ is. Sin can’t be overcome any other way except through Christ, who took it away, nailing it to the cross (Colossians 2:14). We are weak, fearful, trembling servants. But we are the servants of Christ. Cling to him, and to his cross.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.