Speaking With Power

DEVOTION

2 CORINTHIANS

SPEAKING WITH POWER

2 Cor 10:1-6

10:1 By the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you — I, Paul, who am "timid" when face to face with you, but "bold" when away! 2 I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. 3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 6 And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.

NIV

Way too much here to deal with it all but the one thought which strikes first is about people who think we live by the standards of this world. Of course Paul is talking about the way he argues the truth of the gospel message. He does not have to engage in the intellectual battle of wits as the those how do not know Christ feel it is necessary to in order to appear to have some form of wisdom. The weapon of his words has divine power to demolish strongholds so he can in fact demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. Here is where we need to take our lesson from. It may appear we may have taken on the standards of this world in thinking in order to be able to speak with authority about the gospel message, or any other truth of God, we must graduate from some institution of higher learning, especially one which has been established by some Christian denomination. If a person does not have the degree, no ordination is given. If we think this is not the world’s way then we are being fooled. Paul spoke with divine power although he had not attended our universities. Many who have attended our universities do not speak with divine power, but with intellectual prowess, with silver tongues, smooth words, and persuasive language, but it is weak and without power and without the authority of God. When we buy into the standards of the world we become weak as the world is without the power of God. But when God calls us into service, when God places the call on someone’s life, as he did with Paul, then our words have divine power and authority. Now it is true that some people who have been called by God feel it is necessary to go to one of these schools, because the church at large has bought into the worlds standards by selling a degree for profit and if this person every wants to be paid for his service to God, he needs that degree. True, there may be a few exceptions to this, but this is the norm. We need to see that each one of us can have this divine power, speak with authority from God to demolish strongholds. We do not have to engage in intellectual arguments about the truth of God, the Bible, and about salvation through Christ. We merely have to rely on the power of God. We do not need a degree, we need the Spirit. We do not need to be overbearing, loud and obnoxious in our defense of the gospel. We only need the Spirit for the power.