I Corinthians 4:19,20
“But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant, but their power. For the kingdom of God is not in words, but in power.”
Interesting comment that the kingdom of God is in power. He’s not saying the words aren’t important, but that power must accompany the words. For a few moments let’s stick with the words.
We need to have sound doctrine. Paul says in Titus 2:1, “But as for you, speak the things that are consistent with sound doctrine.” These are the teachings of Christ and the things important that the apostles have established.
Many of the letters in the New Testament are written because the authors want those churches to have sound doctrine.
2000 years later we all have our own bibles and belong to churches that should be teaching sound doctrine. Unfortunately, many of the denominations don’t adhere to it. They adopt culture and its values as a legitimit source for their doctrine. Culture can be fine, but only if it is in line with scripture. That is a big problem. We are to leave those churches and give our reasons why.
As we live our lives and walk with Christ we are to be bold with our message. Ephesians 6:19 says, “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will boldly make known the mystery of the gospel.” We aren’t to be shy or shrink back. Nor are we to be obnoxious. We are to share with those we come in contact with.
Now let’s focus on Paul’s point, “For the kingdom of God is not in words, but in power.” The first thing that comes to mind is actions. James makes this argument in his epistle, ‘but someone will say, “You have faith and I have deeds.” Show me your faith without works and I will show you my faith by my deeds’, (2:18). Then later he says, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead”, (2:26).
Paul makes some similar points. He talks about the fruit of the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control: against such things there is no law”, (Galatians 5:22,23). Fruit is like works as they are the product of the Holy Spirit being in us and us yielding to Him. It’s the byproduct of Him being in us. If we say we are a christian, but don’t have this fruit we are wrong. This is one point of what Paul is talking about.
Another aspect of Paul’s point about the kingdom of God is in power is that there are results. If we are walking with Christ He will open doors, we will get victories in His time. Our witness will be seen and some will respond to it.
There will be tribulation. We will have problems and pushback. That’s to be expected. We aren’t to be discouraged, but to keep looking to Him in faith and gratitude and He will work it out.
Thank You, Lord, for Your Word and Your power. Both are working in conjunction with each other.