The false front

1 Corinthians 2
1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.


Have you ever felt like you HAD to do something, but you did not want to? Have you found yourself in a circumstance that seemed like a great idea at the time, yet right before the moment arrives, your stomach drops to your knees? In those moments, the best thing to do is strip yourself down mentally to what you know. The flash, the fancy words, the sales pitch, it all means nothing. In the times when you find yourself in doubt, you bare you soul, because your soul never betrays you!

This is the situation Paul put himself in. He came to Corinth not knowing what to expect. He did not stroll in to town puffed up with knowledge, and pride. He did not store a huge vocabulary so he could wow everyone with his wisdom. HE walked in to town, as just a man. A man with the truth of Christ in his heart, and the assurance of knowing that that was all he needed. He came baring his soul.

I had a friend that anytime he wanted something he would make a huge production out of asking the question. HE would wait for just the right time. He wanted everything to be prefect. He would go over and over again just how he would frame the request. He thought up just how he wanted to present it. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it did not. The funny thing is, if he knew it was something that was not a good idea, or what you would call a hard sell….the harder he worked at making the presentation.

This really comes out in our children; anyone with kids know that when that child shows up with the big puppy dog eyes, and starts off the sentence with “You know how much I love you?” yep, the butter is out in full force!

What Paul did not bring into town was a false front. Remember the old western towns? All of the stores looked huge when you walked down main street. Yet when you walked down the side of the building and looked up, you saw the truth. The top of the building was just for show. They build up the front wall to make the store look bigger than it really was.

The truth that Paul was bringing to Corinth did not need a false front. Typically the truth never does. When you arm yourself with the truth it is all you need; and there is not a bigger truth than the truth of salvation in Jesus Christ. There is no need to build up that front wall, because the wall reaches all the way to the heavens.

Peace,
Rev. Thetford