For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. (1 Corinthians 1:17)
Most of us, even non-christians, are impressed with eloquent preachers. They are impressive. They wear nice clothes, they have it all together, they are great public speakers, smooth and eloquent. And when you listen to them, their words and their message seem to be full of wisdom.
The problem is, they may be emptying the cross of Christ of its power to save sinners!
That’s the caution that Paul gives here in 1 Corinthians. Read it again.
For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. (1 Corinthians 1:17)
Why not? Why would “words of eloquent wisdom” take away from the saving power of the message of the cross? It is a message, good news (that’s what “gospel” means), so you have to use words. And if you have to use words, why not “words of eloquent wisdom”? You want to convince people, right? So say it in a smooth, well articulated, wise sounding way. Paul says no!
Now, lest we confuse something here, listen to how Paul does want to present the message.
…pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ…that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. (Colossians 4:3-4)
So Paul wants to speak the gospel “clearly”. He’s not arguing for fuddled, unclear, unintelligible thought and speech. He wants it clear and understandable, but not with “words of eloquent wisdom”.
What he’s saying is, stick to the plain, clear, simple explanation of the gospel.
“that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15)
Further down in 1 Corinthians 1, Paul says this about the gospel message.
For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
…it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:1-18, 21-24)
The cross is a stumbling block to those impressed with power, because Jesus died. When the hero dies, it doesn’t look like he wins the battle. But in his death, Christ defeated sin. And that is foolishness to those who think they are wise.
And if that is foolishness to someone, they won’t receive Christ. So we are tempted to massage the message to make it appear “wiser”. We start talking about “empowerment”, and “prosperity”, and a whole host of other things, anything other than the cross where a bleeding savior died! And if we do talk about it, we try to smooth it over, to make it sound “better” (i.e. less offensive) than it is. We may even talk as if a person could get to God apart from Christ, in which case, why did he die so cruelly on the cross?
The problem is, Paul says when we do this, we empty the cross of its power. Elsewhere, he tells what the power of the cross is.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16)
When we try to smooth out the cross and sound eloquently wise to the world, when we obscure the message of a suffering savior who died a bloody death to save wicked sinners as the only way to God, we empty the gospel message of its power to save people! That is a tragedy of cosmic and eternal proportions!
So remember this in your testifying to family and friends, use words that are clear and direct and present the plain message of “Christ crucified” “to save sinners”. Don’t worry about sounding smart, or being impressive. That’s Paul’s whole point. He’s not saying we can’t, or shouldn’t, use language well. He is saying we should use language to exalt Christ, not ourselves.
If our presentation of the gospel is designed to make us appear wise, then we are exalting ourselves not Christ, and we are emptying the cross of its power.
The message of the gospel exalts a savior who died. It may sound like foolishness to some, but to those who are being saved…it is both “the power of God and the wisdom of God”, and good news indeed!
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