Paul on Preaching: A Demonstration of the Spirit and Power (1 Corinthians 1:4)

What follows is an excerpt from episode three of season three of the Blessed Hope Podcast which covers Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.

What was characteristic of Paul’s preaching was its content–Christ and him crucified. Even though he was not worldly-wise, nor did he seek to impress the Greeks, nevertheless, in verse 4 of 1 Corinthians, Paul speaks of his preaching as accompanied by “a demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” Readers of 1 Corinthians have long debated what Paul means by this.

The context tells us that Paul does not mean by this demonstration of the Spirit’s power what we might call “signs and wonders” as contemporary Pentecostals contend. Rather, “the power of the Spirit is linked with the proclamation of the cross.”[1] Or, as Ciampa and Rosner put it, Paul’s stress upon his own weakness being overcome by the power of God in his preaching of Christ crucified, means that “power here is about moral conviction, not miraculous display.”[2] God’s power supplants the preacher’s weaknesses.[3] Paul said much the same thing to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 1:5, “our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.”

No doubt there were signs and wonders present in the apostolic age. Paul speaks of miraculous signs a number of times in his letters (Romans 15:19; 1 Corinthians 12:10, 28, 29; 2 Corinthians 12:12; Galatians 3:5) including later on in this letter. There may indeed have been signs and wonders when Paul first came to Corinth, but signs and wonders are not mentioned in Luke’s account of Paul’s arrival in Corinth in Acts 18. Luke only says that Paul went first to the synagogue and preached Christ to the Jews gathered there. Nor is there any hint that miraculous signs is what Paul means here when speaking of the demonstration of the Spirit’s power.[4] Paul links the power of the Holy Spirit directly to preaching the cross of Christ, not to speaking in tongues, miracles, or healing [5]. Sensational demonstrations of power are what Jews were demanding and such signs would certainly impress Greeks. Instead, they get a message which is to their minds a stumbling block or foolishness, yet through which God’s power is evident.

How is it then that when the unimpressive Paul preaches to Greeks seeking wisdom and Jews seeking signs that people respond with faith to the offensive and scandalous preaching of the cross? The answer is that the power of the Holy Spirit points beyond himself to Christ crucified, transforming a message of shame and humiliation into a manifestation of the power of God to save sinners.

The Spirit’s power is manifest in the fact that Jews and Greeks, who were dead in sin, and who could never understand God’s wisdom if left to themselves, have now been united to Jesus Christ through faith. The demonstration of the Spirit’s power must be seen against the personal weakness of Paul. It is the message, not the messenger, which is emphasized. Through Paul’s preaching of Christ’s cross, God exposes the worldly wisdom of the Greeks which kept people from the kingdom of God. The demonstration of the Spirit’s power is seen in the fact that there is a growing church in Corinth! Through the scandalous message of the cross (where God’s wisdom and power are revealed and wherein the Spirit manifests his power), God effectually called many Jews and Greeks to faith. This is how the power of the Spirit is made manifest. Those dead in sin are given new life, and granted faith through the preaching of the cross, not through seeking after Greco-Roman wisdom.

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[1] Schreiner, 1 Corinthians, 78.

[2] Ciampa and Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians, 118.

[3] Garland, 1 Corinthians, 87.

[4] Contra Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, 95. Fee correctly regards this as conversion, but contends it is evidenced by speaking in tongues as a demonstration of power.

[5] Schreiner, 1 Corinthians, 78.