1 Corinthians 2:2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
This might surprise you, but very few people have been persuaded to change their view of life through the use of convincing argumentation. One of the reasons this is true is that most people don’t draw conclusions based on facts. Instead, we often base our opinions on our feelings, our internal reactions to events and circumstances. And then those opinions get reinforced over time with additional emotional experiences.
Emotions are a powerful thing. Advertisers and news rooms use them to their advantage and our disadvantage. Video game developers and social media platforms use them to drive up our click rate and their revenue stream. We become their bots employed to increase their bottom line and therefore their influence.
The Apostle Paul had a problem. He was a very well educated person, and skilled at communicating complex ideas to those who were skilled at engaging intellectually. He had been trained by the best, and he excelled at what he did.
And then the impossible happened. Paul’s neat world was interrupted. Jesus revealed Himself to Paul and this changed everything. All Paul’s learning had led him to the wrong conclusion, and now that conclusion was proven to be wrong. Jesus had risen from the dead!
So as he recalls his visit to the people of Corinth, he recounts that he came, not with his great learning (which had led him astray), but with something very different. To put in in modern language, he kept is simple.
I think, sometimes we make the Gospel too difficult for people to understand. We try to come with all the powerful arguments, hoping they will persuade those who listen. But, instead, we face even greater opposition.
Paul came with “a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.” For those who dismiss outright the possibility that there is a God and One who intervenes “contrary to science” are silenced by the Spirit’s power. No amount of argumentation and persuasion would change their minds.
The same was true in Paul’s day. One more philosophy wasn’t going to impress anyone, let alone change their eternal destiny. Paul would not rely on what had failed him.
Paul didn’t just jump to an emotional appeal, devoid of facts. Instead, Paul presented Jesus. The most unlikely of events, a man crucified by the Roman establishment, rising from the grave after three days, and then being seen repeatedly over the next forty days. This is what Paul proclaimed.
And when he proclaimed these simple truths, things happened, logic defying things, things that touched emotions and changed hearts and lives. You see, Paul was more than words. His message had the power to change the unchangeable. And this is what made it successful.
Changed lives. And the people who need the change the most, at least from a worldly perspective, are those that are at the bottom. And that is who is coming to Christ even today. The rich and influential aren’t coming. Instead, those who hear the simple message and believe it are delivered from the emptiness of life they have chosen. They are transformed, and that transformation is beyond human power.
The message is still Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Nothing less can change a human heart. Nothing more in needed.
The Arnold Journey 