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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadWilliam Burkitt Notes and Observations - 1 Corinthians 4:18 - 4:18
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Observe here, 1. The advantages which the height and haughtiness of some envious teachers took, upon St. Paul's absence from Corinth; they entertained low and contemptuous thoughts of him, and vaunted that he durst not come before them, nor stand among them.
Observe, 2. St. Paul's positive resolution to come again to Corinth, with God's permission, with the reason for that resolution: I will come, and know, not the speech of them that are puffed up, but the power; that is, I will certainly come and try your boasting, envious teachers, not by their plausible words and fine talk, discovering who hath the smoothest tongue: but I will examine the power; that is, first their authority to preach; and next, what power and efficacy there is in their preaching; and lastly, what power and influence their preaching has upon their own practice: I will find out what real good they have done among you, after all their ostentatious braggings. Behold here the true and great end of episcopal visitations.
For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power; that is, Christianity doth not consist in talking, but in doing; not in vaunting, but in performing great things. But by power, here, may be understood, a power of working miracles for confirming and propagating the gospel, which the apostles had, but these teachers at Corinth had not. To convince men at first of the truth of Christianity, the dead were raised, the devils cast out, and many mighty wonders wrought by the apostles; by all which the gospel doctrine was planted, propagated, established, and confirmed. The kingdom of God, or the gospel church, was not raised at first, or carried on since, by the wisdom of words, by the charms of popular eloquence and rhetorical flourishes; but by a plain way, and familiar manner of preaching the doctrines of the gospel, attested by miracles, and accompanied with works of divine efficacy and power. Thus the kingdom of God was not in word, but in power.