1 Corinthians 2:4-5 My speech and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom[a] but with a powerful demonstration by the Spirit, 5 so that your faith might not be based on men's wisdom but on God's power. Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
While Paul, the prophets and preachers through history have called people, called the church to "reason together", the power of their preaching does not reside, does not come from themselves, it come from the Holy Spirit working and speaking from them.
Today's verses remind us that it we are not dependent upon men, upon specific people and their persuasive words in themselves that reach us, that stir our hearts to respond, to change to seek Christ, rather, it is God's power.
If we were to depend on man's wisdom, perhaps we'd subscribe to man's reasoning. Max Lucado writes of others who have written their own Bible verses such as "Popular Opinion 1:1 God helps those who help themselves.". We'll fix ourselves thank you. We'll make up for our mistakes with contributions, our guilt with busyness. We'll overcome failures with hard work. We'll find salvation the old fashioned way: we'll earn it."
These are man's wisdom, man's reasoning or "fancy footwork" (The Message). If we hear things like that we should hold them up against God's word, examine the scriptures to be aware of such falsehoods.
Let's listen to those who admit that they are working under the Spirit's power, reasoning with us the Word of God, from God's Word, chapter and verse.
1 Corinthians 2:4-5The Message (MSG)
3-5 I was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate—I was scared to death, if you want the truth of it—and so nothing I said could have impressed you or anyone else. But the Message came through anyway. God's Spirit and God's power did it, which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God's power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else.
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