When Paul wrote his First Epistle to the Corinthians, he clearly felt himself forced on the defensive.  Some parties in the church there were highly critical of his ministry and compared him very unfavourably with the ‘super-apostles’: men distinguished both by the superior wisdom they taught and by the rhetorical skills they deployed in delivering their message.  Paul has no inclination to answer the charges on these terms.  He cannot claim to be either as erudite a philosopher or as mesmeric an orator as these brilliant communicators.  But, then, that wasn’t what he was about.  His call was to a very different kind of ministry:  ‘we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.’ (1 Cor. 1:23-24)  Nor was he merely claiming that this was the best style of ministry for him personally.  His claim was that if we are called to the ministry of the word (whether as apostles, prophets, evangelists or pastors) this is the only legitimate way of performing the duties of our office.

But, more specifically, what is he saying?

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Posted 10 years ago by Donald Macleod