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§6 Paul’s Apostolic Ministry and Message (1 Cor. 2:1–5)

Paul focuses in this section of the letter on the character and rationale of his apostolic message and ministry. His comments come in two complex sentences: First, verses 1–2 elucidate the continuity between the form and content or the shape and substance of the apostle’s preaching. Second, verses 3–5 demonstrate the continuity of the message and the demeanor of the preacher. Paul’s statements are intensely personal. His remarks make clear that the style of his ministry was deliberate. The sentences are, however, ambiguous and subject to misreading and misunderstanding. Paul is not saying, “I preached the cross only instead of the cross and something more”; rather, he insists that he put aside any devices for persuasion and proclaimed the cross without extra rhetorical frills. Paul presents himself as ministering in weakness and explains this kind of behavior by using the traditional Jewish image of fear and trembling—which is a reference to his worshipful recognition of the actuality of God! Paul tells the Corinthians that his message was one that allowed the Spirit and God’s power to show themselves as they worked through his preaching and ministry. Paul reminds the Corinthians that they came to believe, not as a result of showy human effort, but through the working of God’s own power. Paul’s remarks reveal that although humans are God’s agents, God alone is the one who saves humanity.

2:1 / Paul recalls his original work among the Corinthians in or about AD 50, approximately five years before his writing of this letter. In referring back to his earlier ministry, Paul continues to explain the basic teaching he had articulated in 1:18–25: God’s work defies and even reverses the standards of this world. He had already provided one kind of explanation in 1:26–31, but now he focuses on himself, especially his style of ministry and his message, as illustrations of the truth of the gospel of Christ-crucified. The initial statement is awkward in Greek, but it echoes and amplifies the previous remark in 1:17 that led to Paul’s theological exposition of the cross in 1:18–25. Paul writes, “And when I came to you, I came not according to the excellence of word or of wisdom …”; so that the NIV translation misrepresents the sense of the statement by placing superior (= “excellence”) in relation to wisdom alone. Rather, Paul names two forms of excellence, that of word and that of wisdom, both of which he refused to practice in preaching the gospel. Eloquence in the NIV intends to name the first form of excellence that Paul rejected, but he may have meant to imply the content as well as the form of the word he refused to preach. This point is certainly clear from the second excellence he names: wisdom. Paul’s testimony to God’s work in the cross of Christ was not put in a slick package or toned down to a humanly reasonable level.

2:2 / Paul continues to explain why (for) he ministered as he did. Paul’s resolve to know nothing other than Jesus Christ and him crucified was the result of his understanding of the centrality and significance of the cross. The crucial reality of the cross as God’s work for salvation relativized all other knowledge, so that by comparison all other knowledge was unimportant. The qualifying phrase “and him crucified” identifies Jesus Christ in terms of his cross, because Paul understood Christ’s death on the cross to be the revealed reality of God’s extraordinary saving power. Paul points to the power of God effecting salvation in the cross and in the cross alone. The remarks in this verse logically precede the ensuing discussion that will follow in 2:6–16, but before making those statements Paul will offer still further explanation.

2:3 / This next sentence begins exactly as did the last (2:1–2), literally, “And I”; so that the Greek text signals the connection of this sentence, which runs to the end of 2:5, with the foregoing comments. The NIV renders the Greek verb came, although the word may mean either “came” or “was with.” Following 2:1–2, the latter sense of the verb (“was with”) seems preferable, so that Paul is explaining the conditions of his stay and ministry, not merely the style of his arrival. Paul refers to his weakness, fear, and trembling. By referring to weakness, Paul reiterates the language of 1:25, now applying the notion of weakness to himself. Paul is fond of this image of his person and work; he uses “weakness” in key texts such as Romans 8:26; 1 Corinthians 15:43; 2 Corinthians 11:30; 12:9; 13:4. Especially from Paul’s discussions of weakness in 2 Corinthians, one learns that he valued weakness not for its own sake (as if he were a masochist), but because in, through, and despite Paul’s weakness God’s power was at work in his ministry. The contrast of Paul’s weakness and God’s powerful, sustaining grace reveals that the power and the results of that power are property and achievements of God alone (see 2 Cor. 4:1–12).

Paul’s uses of fear and trembling conjure up obvious, crucial biblical categories of profound piety that recognize the difference between human frailty and divine strength. The NIV rendering “in weakness and fear, and with much trembling” is peculiar in that it couples weakness and fear and separates trembling from the other two terms. This translation slightly distorts Paul’s statement which (lit.) reads, “And I in weakness and in fear and in much trembling was with you.” While Paul’s statement is enigmatic (since today one cannot know exactly what his words described), still his point is clear: Paul’s manner of ministry was far removed from a polished and persuasive performance; his behavior allowed the reality of God’s power alone to bring the Corinthians into the experience of salvation.

2:4–5 / The NIV breaks Paul’s complex sentence (2:3–5) into two parts so that his fluid reasoning is easier to follow in English. Paul refers directly to his message (lit. “word”) and his preaching, declaring that they were not with wise and persuasive words, but (lit.) “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” This statement is ambiguous in Greek and may mean either that his proclamation told of the Spirit and power or that his proclamation allowed the Spirit and power to be shown in working through his (weakly formed) message. In context the latter understanding is preferable. Obviously Paul’s preaching produced results, but he insists that it was not his rhetoric but the Spirit’s power that persuaded people. The NIV wisely renders Paul’s phrase (lit.) “of the Spirit and of power” with the words “the Spirit’s power,” recognizing that in Paul’s thought “the Spirit” and “the power” are practically synonymous ways of referring to God’s presence and efficacy.

Moreover, it is the Spirit’s power that brings about the combination of Paul’s “word” and “proclamation” (NIV = “my message and my preaching”). Whereas the Corinthians were concerned with “word” and “wisdom,” which they believed ennobled those “in the know,” the Spirit’s power at work through Paul brought message into preaching that transformed lives. The power of the Spirit used Paul, it moved him toward others, energizing and directing him beyond his weak self. Paul’s ministry was missional: it was for the well-being of others who were in need of the transforming power of God’s salvation.

Finally it is instructive to notice that these verses introduce the Spirit into Paul’s correspondence with the Corinthians. Earlier Paul denied that humans are saved by what they know; what they know does not make them who they are. Then, he pointed to his own weakness and to his style of ministry that selflessly conformed to the cross of Christ. Only after registering these crucial lessons did Paul refer to the Spirit. He didn’t want the Corinthians to view the Spirit as a powerful possession that would grant them a special guarantee of salvation. In reality, the Spirit is the foundation of faith that moves those who are saved beyond themselves and into the vulnerability of life lived for God and for others. Thus, Paul explained the inappropriateness and uselessness of wise and persuasive words in his message and preaching. His proclamation served as a vehicle for the revelation of the Spirit’s power that formed faith on the foundation of God’s power, so that devoid of crafty rhetoric and content, the gospel (viewed from the perspectives of human values) gave the impression of foolishness (1:21).