David Hathaway

Paul is saying, v3, he came ‘in weakness and fear and much trembling’. Why? Perhaps because even here in pagan Corinth, Paul is also facing up to educated Orthodox Jews, trained as he had been, who rejected the crucified Messiah and persecuted His followers. So he’s ‘in weakness’, because he wants to present something he hadn’t been brought up with, that he himself had violently rejected, but was more powerful than anything he’d ever known. He didn’t use wise and persuasive words - no, he came with a demonstration of the Spirit’s Power! Why? So that their faith might not rest on men’s wisdom but on God’s Power! What we need in our Christian ministry is a practical demonstration of God’s Power. Not just words. I was a pastor for 15 years. One day God said to me, “I’m tired of listening to you. Stop talking. Go out and put into practice what you preach. And don’t come back until you’ve done it!” That’s why I’ve spent 60 years of my life ‘out there’, doing it. And I’m still doing it!  I take the Book literally.