And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5 NASB)Of all the problems, or rather excuses I have used for not sharing the good news of Jesus, the one that seems to get at the heart of all the others is how I think any such discussion will be perceived. So, in other words, I fear what others will think of me. This is something I struggle with in other areas of my life, but that it touches here too means that I 'opt out' of some of the things (and the resulting blessings) my Master has for me.
Paul seemed to have no such problem. He was not trying to impress anyone, but says that he brought the good news of Jesus' death, burial, resurrection, and ascension with 'fear and trembling'. But with that, he also says that the content was not 'persuasive words' but 'of demonstration of the Spirit and of power.' This is very different than I see the good news going out today.
Considering these two elements, 'fear and trembling' and 'demonstration of the Spirit and power'; what would that look like in our day? When I think of demonstrating the Spirit and power, I have thought of the 'charismatic movement', but not favorably. When I think of fear and trembling, I think of weakness easily marginalized and ignored; more of a nuisance. I don't think this is what Paul refers to in either element.
First off, I believe that 'fear and trembling' really refers to Paul conviction that what he presents is of immense importance. His trembling is from the source and content of the message, not how it will be perceived. The word for 'fear' is the general Greek word, 'phobos' where we get various 'phobias' from. The word 'trembling' is also a general Greek word for 'shaking' either from fear or even cold. But the context of the 5 places it's used in the Christian Scriptures lends a contextual meaning of 'anxiety of one who distrusts his ability to completely meet all requirements, but religiously does his utmost to fulfill his duty' (Strong's Concordance). My question is whether the Corinthian believers understood it that way in Paul's use of it here.
There's much that I can't really understand looking back 2000+ years to try and understand about what was meant, and how it was understood then. Having said that, I also know my Master's Spirit Who inspired these words, also works in me to understand them. So, while I don't know for sure, here's what I suspect Paul is doing, and how I think it was understood: 1) I think Paul is using an intentional contrast between prominent speakers, speaking venues, and events and his own presentation of the good news of Jesus; but I believe he's using a degree of hyperbole to make his point. I suspect his presentations did not all include shaking in fear on his part, nor did that make up the whole of his 'style' whatever that may have been. So, some, at points, especially when speaking of the mighty acts of God on our behalf, sure, shaking in awe; but not all the time as he spoke. 2) Paul is beginning to make a case that, as the message preached is not about him or how he is perceived, just as the life lived in Jesus is not about them or what others think of them. In other words, just as he was not afraid to show his consternation over the magnitude of what he preached, so they should not be afraid to live out the 'foolishness' of what has been done for them by their Creator.
Second, I believe the 'demonstration of the Spirit and of power' refers to miraculous things done among them through Paul. Considering the context of other things he says in this letter, I think that's a fair assessment. I don't think that everything was 'miraculous' in the same way, so just healing, or just raising dead, or just casting out demons', but I do believe that some of each of those was demonstrated among them. Such things are not mentioned occurring in Corinth in Acts, but I don't really consider that a problem. I lean that way because partly I believe Luke, as he wrote Acts, really considers those sorts of things to be commonly associated with Paul. In fact I suspect, for him, they are such a regular occurrence that he stops mentioning every occurrence of them in Acts.
So, I'm left with a completely absent foundation for my fear. It doesn't matter what others think of me as I speak of my Master Jesus. What matters is that I speak of my Master. And I do not need to wait until I have some sort of 'second blessing' of His Spirit because I believe that will come in the course of my obedience, the consequence of which will be increased boldness to speak. So, while I know what I'm afraid of, I need to 'man-up', 'stand up' and go forth in spite of my fear. What I should fear is the 'Sender' of the message, not the receivers. That I don't is pretty dumb really. So, the core of my problem is a lack of faith. Well, that comes from my Master too, so that's no excuse either. Better get up and get on out there!
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