For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified…And my speech and my preaching was…in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
—1 Corinthians 2:2,4
This passage of Scripture is very often understood to mean that Paul’s purpose in his preaching was to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But it contains a far deeper meaning. Paul spoke of his purpose, not only in the matter of his preaching, but also in his whole spirit and life, in order to prove how he in everything sought to act in conformity to the crucified Christ. Thus he wrote, “[Christ] was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you” (2 Corinthians 13:4).
His whole ministry and all his actions bore the mark of Christ’s likeness; he was crucified through weakness, yet he lived by the power of God. Just before the words of our text, Paul had written, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). Not only in his preaching, but also in all his activities and behavior, he sought to act in harmony with the weakness in which Christ was crucified. He had so identified himself with the weakness of the cross and its shame that, in his whole life and conduct, he proved that he sought to show forth the likeness and the spirit of the crucified Jesus in everything. Hence he said, “And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling” (1 Corinthians 2:3).
It is on this account that he spoke so strongly and said, “Christ sent me…to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect” (1 Corinthians 1:17); “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Corinthians 2:4). Is this not the great reason why the power of God is so little manifested in the preaching of the gospel? Christ the Crucified One may be the subject of the preaching, and yet, because of men’s confidence in human learning and eloquence, there may be none of the likeness of the crucified Jesus that alone gives preaching its supernatural, divine power.
God help us to understand how the life of every minister and of every believer must bear the stamp of the sanctuary—nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.