other nation might give them. What they need above all else is to see the Lord Jesus Christ." That is what Paul is saying here. It is similar, I believe, to the request of the Greek visitors who came to Philip as re corded in John 12:21, "Sir, we would see Jesus." Paul knew that the source of power in the message that he was going to present would not reside in his background or in his eloquence. It was going to re side in God Himself. In verse 5, Paul says that "your faith should not stand in the wis dom of men, but in the power of God." Paul could have preached a message to these people at Corinth that would have led them to be lieve that he was an outstanding preacher. But perhaps they would have accepted Paul's message only until somebody else came along who was more effective in present ing their ideas. Paul says, "I do not want you to accept this message and I do not want you to hold to this message only because it has been presented in the wisdom of men. Because if that is true, and someone comes along who is wiser, then you will follow him." Paul is saying, "I do not want to be seen. But I want Christ magnified." He knew that the source of power was to be found solely in God Himself and not in his personal ability to com municate. When Paul was at Corinth he preached Christ crucified and he spoke of a special wisdom, a spe cial body of Christian doctrine from which the mature Christian could derive great benefit. The tragedy is, of course, that the Chris tians at Corinth were so immature that they could not really profit from such teaching. Page 43
message . . . the testimony of God. Well, the Bible says it is the fool who has said in his heart that there is no God. In Psalms 73:11, there also is evidence that there are some people who are not of clean heart, not worshipping God the way they should. In addition to knowing his peo ple and knowing the content of an effective message, Paul knew the source of power in the Gospel mes sage. Now this power was not in Paul's intellectual insights nor was it in his mastery of the Greek lan guage as he spoke to them. What is the source of Paul's power? In verse 4, he says, "And my speech and my preaching was not with en ticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." Paul did not display his power. Paul did not elude to his educational background. Paul said, "I want to demonstrate, I want to show, I want to set forth the Spirit and the power of God." Several years ago I was listening to a mis sionary answer some questions. Someone asked about what people really need on the mission field. What do the individuals who in habit the land in which you are serving, what do they really ex pect? The missionary said, "What they want is a transparent Chris tian." Then he explained what he meant. He said, "It is one in whom they can see Christ. The people in the land where I serve do not want to see somebody from the United States. They do not want to see somebody from some other coun try that is sending them out to pre sent the Gospel. They simply want to see Christ because their need is not for the culture of this country. It is not for the educational insights that America or Canada or some
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