MAKE IT CLEAR AND PLAIN!

Thursday, January 30, 2020

MAKE IT CLEAR AND PLAIN!

1 Cor 2:4-5

4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

1 Cor 3:1

3 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

Did Paul “talk down” to the Corinthians? According to one source, “The great apostle Paul was born as Saul, A.D. 1-5 in Tarsus in Cilicia, a province in the southeastern corner of modern-day Turkey.

He was of Benjamite lineage and Hebrew ancestry. His parents were Pharisees - fervent Jewish nationalists who adhered strictly to the Law of Moses - who sought to protect their children from “contamination” from the Gentiles (non Jews).”

According to Acts 22:3,  he was educated in the school of Gamaliel. He could both read and write Greek as well as his native language. We would consider him, today, highly educated. Yet Paul adjusted his message and presentation to his hearers.

If you were writing a love letter, how would you do it? Would you write it on the finest of paper with majestic pen? Would you perfume it with the finest fragrance so that your beloved could sense your love? Hallmark had, as its slogan, “When you care enough to send the very best.” Yet the most wonderful love notes I have ever received were written on paper napkins from the school cafeteria!

1 Cor 9:22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

Lord, let me learn as much as possible so that I might make the message plain. AMEN