“For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” I Cor 2:2
In Acts 18, Paul arrives in Corinth a political and commercial center of Greece which had a reputation for wickedness and immorality. It’s in Corinth that Paul meets Aquila and Priscilla who had just been expelled from Rome by Emperor Claudius’s decree against Jews. They opened their home to Paul, so can you just imagine all the spiritual wisdom that Paul shared with them during his stay there?
Paul knowing all the idolatry and worship of the goddess of love and war, Aphrodite, he found Corinth to be a challenge and a great ministry opportunity. I guess it’s no surprise then that almost at the beginning of his letter (I Corinth 2:1), Paul says that he didn’t come “with excellence of speech or of wisdom.” In other words he wasn’t going to be a philosopher or a salesman, to argue them into believing something. His audience was mostly made up of, Jews who requested a sign and Greeks who were seeking after wisdom. Paul made a conscious decision to focus on one thing, the gospel.
He just wanted the people to know that while he was with them the only message he had was “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
Many of us have a difficult time sharing the gospel because we feel we need more Biblical knowledge. Well, I’ve got great news, we don’t need the knowledge, we just need our message to be singularly focused like Paul’s message, “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” John MacArthur says “…the focus of Paul’s preaching and teaching to unbelievers was Jesus Christ who paid the penalty for sin on the cross. Until someone understands and believes the gospel, there is nothing more to say to them.”
Father please cause our message to people to be nothing but “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
