Filled With Power

DEVOTION

1 CORINTHIANS

FILLED WITH POWER

1 Cor 4:18-21

18 Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. 19 But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. 20 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 21 What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love and with a gentle spirit?

NIV

It sure appears some people were really thinking a whole lot more of themselves than they ought to. They must have been a real bunch of smooth talkers spreading ideas that were not part of the Gospel, but rather aimed at making them look like they were more spiritual than the rest. It sure is a good thing we don’t have anyone like that in our time, in our churches. Well, maybe we actually do have people like that. But it interesting about what the Kingdom of God is like, for it surely is not about smooth talk. We can remember how people were healed just by the shadow of Peter. We can remember what kind of power Paul was filled with and how he spoke boldly even under much persecution. So what are we to think? Should we listen to those who simply talk about living as Christ did, or should we listen to those who are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit? We know how to discern the difference between the two for we also have the Spirit who gives us this discernment. In our modern era, many people believe that only those who have paid enough money, spend enough time, and graduated from some school of highly learning run by one denomination, have the right knowledge to preach the Gospel. But then it is possible their talk may by just that, talk. Now there surely is some of them who are filled with the power of God as well, but it is not the school or the degree which has filled them, it is God and He surely also fills people who have never been to one of those places. For years before our modern times, God called and fill people to share His message, He does not change and so we should listen to those called and filled by God, and not to those who just have the smooth talk, the great orator, the ones who only have a great style of delivery but no power from God. It would seem clear this passage contains a prophetic statement concerning the coming of Christ. Shall he come with a whip of in love and with a gentle spirit? When Jesus returns what will happen to those arrogant people who use the Gospel for their own benefit? What will happen to those who think themselves the intelligent, educated ones who are the only one filled with the knowledge of God? Is a whip waiting for them? Yet for those how speak with the power of God, Jesus comes with love and with a gentle spirit. We all need to live as ones filled with the power of the Spirit. Do we live with human effort, or do we live with the power?