Have you ever met a “smooth talker”? Maybe this was a salesman trying to pitch a vehicle at the car lot, or a telemarketer trying to persuade you to make a purchase or a donation. Maybe someone was trying to sell you a timeshare, as the “1-hour presentation” ran into its third or fourth hour. Maybe it was a politician or someone on a TED talk.
When someone is really good at presenting their point, everything they say sounds reasonable, and you want to follow along and jump onto the bandwagon (even if a little voice suggests that maybe they aren’t telling the truth). Classes and seminars teach marketers how to manipulate human tendencies to get us to do things that our rational selves might ignore. (I’m sure that there are many moral marketers, too, who stick to the benefits of the product or service that they are advertising.)
Paul shared the good news about Jesus Christ in a different way, though. He delivered the message of God with the opposite demeanor of a “smooth talker”.
And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
1 Corinthians 2:1-5 NIV
Paul was apparently weak and fearful, and didn’t come with a carefully-polished sales pitch or a slick suit. He didn’t post signs for people to meet him in a fancy venue with a custom sound system and lights.
Now, that may sound counter-intuitive in a world where pastors and teachers in the church rehearse their message, deliver it with carefully-prepared lights and music, and advertise with professionally-filmed TV spots. It seems like the opposite of how you would tell people good news in today’s Photoshopped world of Instagram and TikTok.
However, my point is not that the message of Jesus can’t be shared professionally and with polish. Let’s get the good word out to a world that needs it! Instead, I propose that Paul’s secret is that, when you have the message of Jesus to share, it’s not about you:
- You don’t have to be popular.
- You don’t have to be confident.
- You don’t have to be a professional.
- You don’t have to have a Bible college degree.
- You don’t have to be a trained speaker.
- You don’t even have to get the credit.
However, you can’t just go out and tell people things at random, and expect the power of God to be behind you. Note that Paul spoke in the power of (or and) the Holy Spirit. That, I think, is what differentiates human-speak from God’s message. The Holy Spirit not only directs us when to speak, but also what to say. When we speak His words in His time, it’s no longer our strategy or our skill, but His. After all, we’re not trying to trick someone into agreeing with us. We’re merely presenting the truth, for the good of those who will listen and accept it.
And, God’s plan should be our goal. If Paul came in with a bunch of trailers and set up a traveling road show or “concert series”, people might have followed the glitz and the glamor and the lights, rather than the Savior that Paul was teaching about. (If Taylor Swift fans are called “Swifties”, would Paul’s followers have been “Paulites” or “Paulindians”? Maybe not, especially since Paul had condemned partisanship in the church earlier in chapter 1!)
There are few things sadder than people leaving a congregation (or the church overall) just because their favorite pastor retired. If you follow anyone except God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – you are following the wrong person. How regrettable it would be for someone to have been at church, listening to someone preach the word, but to miss the message itself.
So, whether you are listening to God’s word or telling it to others, let’s not make it about ourselves. God’s plan (enabled by God’s power) is going to be fundamentally better than any “smooth talking” that we may try. And, like a perfect meal or dessert, with the amazing joy that the truth brings (all on its own), there’s no need to add anything to it.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for April 7, 2024
References:
- The Lookout, April 7, 2024, © 2024 Christian Standard Media.
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – 1 Corinthians, by Richard E. Oster, Jr. © 1995 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 