PREACHING: Style or Substance?

Sophistry was popular in Paul's day, and, in Corinth, it had infiltrated the church. Preachers focused on manipulating people through style without substance, superficiality, and self-promotion. Persuasion was the purpose of rhetoric, and these oratorically skilled preachers were highly successful persuaders. They ridiculed Paul because he did not employ the techniques and styles that were successful in the world. Paul, too, sought to persuade people (2 Corinthians 5:11) but he did not place emphasis on the showy skills of the sophists. He tried to persuade people in the fear of the Lord. Paul used rhetoric carefully and ethically.

We are not again commending ourselves to you but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart (2 Corinthians 5:12).

The sophists of Paul's day practiced four kinds of rhetoric. Epideictic rhetoric honored rulers with flowery words. Deliberative rhetoric used arguments to persuade people in a public assembly. Forensic rhetoric defended people in court settings. Declamation or ornamental rhetoric emphasized form over substance, eloquence over content (Witherington, Conflict & Community, p.392). Paul used mostly deliberative rhetoric - the language of the assembly. He rejected the showiness of sophistic rhetoric commonly used by the preachers traveling through Corinth.

Paul says we are not commending ourselves to you even though he is obviously commending himself to them. He is rejecting the kind of commendation that the sophists used. The word "commending" (συνιστάνομεν) means to present or recommend someone to someone (BAGD, p.790). There is some evidence to suggest that when Paul wants to disapprove of self-commendation, he places the pronoun before the verb as in this case (ἑαυτοὺς συνιστάνομεν cf. 2 Corinthians 10:12). When Paul wants to approve of self-commendation, he places the pronoun after the verb (συνίσταντες ἑαυτοὺς, cf. 2 Corinthians 6:4). Paul seems to make a distinction between good and bad self-commendation in this way (Witherington, Conflict & Community, p.393, fn.5).

Paul's goal in good self-commendation is to give the Christians an "occasion" (ἀφορμὴν) or opportunity for "boasting" (καυχήματος) about him. He would use rhetoric so that others could speak positively about his ministry because such "boasting" was boasting in the Lord, not in Paul. He qualifies the boasting as a way to answer those who boast in appearance, not in heart. The sophistic preachers put their faith in the latest methods and approaches to attracting people, but Paul was more interested in using rhetoric to get to the heart - the content - of the truth.

We don't want to embarrass Christians by how we look, talk and act so we preach in culturally appropriate styles. Whether we preach in jeans and a t-shirt or a three-piece suit is a matter of style, not substance. We use the style that fits the cultural context to give people a reason to be positive about our message. However, these are all matters of appearance (προσώπῳ), literally the "face" of the matter (BAGD, p.720). Styles are external. By themselves, they are all show but no substance. Styles and methods are not "heart" (καρδίᾳ) issues. Matters of the heart are matters of substance. We must not compromise content to achieve persuasion. Such persuasion is manipulative and deceitful. Emphasizing style over substance to reach people may be popular but leads to a superficial faith.

PERSUASIVE FEAR

Fear is highly persuasive as long as we can see an effective solution. Fear boomerangs when fright outweighs the credibility of the solution. Healthy fear sees God as the holy solution. The "fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," the psalmist wrote (Psalm 111:10, cf. Prov. 1:7). Paul, too, knew the fear that moves our minds to know God and our wills to serve Him. "Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are revealed to God" (2 Corinthians 5:11).

"Therefore" (οὖν) points us back to verse 10 where Paul spoke of standing before the Judgment Seat of Christ to give an account of his life. We will stand exposed, stripped naked, before the eyes of Jesus on that day. Our thoughts, actions, and motives will be revealed to us by the one who loves us more than anyone. We will know and be known. The fear of His piercing vision drives us to serve Him. The fear (τὸν φόβον) is not the terror of damnation but the reverence of love (BAGD, p.864). We will not go to hell because of His grace, but we will face His judgment because of His holiness. We fear the Lord (τοῦ κυρίου). This is an objective genitive (Robertson, Grammar, p.500). The person of Christ is the focus of our fear.

"Knowing" (Εἰδότες) the fear of facing Jesus we persuade men. The perfect participle is used of completed action that results in a state of existence contemporaneous with the time of the main verb (Burton, Moods and Tenses, p.71). The main verb, to persuade (πείθομεν), is in the present tense, so the state of our knowing is now. We know the fear of the Lord because we have been made known to God. The perfect passive verb (πεφανερώμεθα) means to be revealed or made visible (BAGD, p.852). Already exposed before God, we know the fear of final exposure which drives us to persuade others.

The verb translated "persuade" means to convince or appeal to others (BAGD, p.639). It is a conative present. The persuasion is incomplete. A conative present emphasizes the attempt while leaving the result unknown (MHT, Grammar, 3:63). Living with the knowledge that God will judge us for how we invest our lives, we try to persuade men. We make every attempt to appeal to people. We constantly seek to convince people.

What do we try to persuade others about? What is the objective of our persuasion? Paul leaves the objective unspoken. There are at least a half-dozen options that interpreters have proposed over the years (Meyer, 2 Corinthians, p.523).  Perhaps the most popular interpretation is evangelistic. We are trying to persuade others to become followers of Christ - to become Christians. However, the context is not evangelistic making an evangelistic emphasis suspect. The better understanding is to see the persuasion in terms of Paul's own motivation expressed in verse 9 (Meyer, 2 Corinthians, p.524). Our ambition is to please God, a form of fear, so we seek to persuade others to fear God, and so to please Him.

Motivated by the fear of the Lord we persuade others to fear the Lord.

ON TRIAL

Christ's courtroom can be a scary place for Christians. We are safe by the blood of Christ but culpable for our personal actions. Our lives are an open book before His eyes. We will be judged for what we do with what He gives. Paul wrote: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10).

We will stand before the dais of justice some day. The word translated "judgment seat" (βήματος) referred to a raised platform where civil authorities sat to hear legal cases (NIDNTT, 2:369). The purpose (ἵνα) of Christ's tribunal for Christians is not to determine entry into heaven but to evaluate our lives on earth. Each one of us individually (ἕκαστος) will be recompensed (κομίσηται) for what we have done. The verb in the middle voice means to "get back" or "recover." In Jesus' parable of the talents, the master wanted to get back what was his with interest (Mt. 25:27). Abraham received his son back after offering him to God (Heb. 11:19). We will get back from Christ what we spend in life (BAGD, p.443).

We will get back the things (τὰ) according to what (πρὸς ἃ) we did. The preposition "according to" (πρὸς) is used in a comparative sense meaning in proportion to our deeds (Moule, Idiom Book, p.53). The word translated "deeds" (ἔπραξεν) is a verb, not a noun. It means to accomplish or do something. The word is never used of divine action in the New Testament and primarily emphasizes negative or neutral human activity (NIDNTT, 3:1157). Paul uses it with a neutral sense in this context since he goes on to say "whether good or bad."

Paul is very clear that he is talking about the things we do "in the body." The prepositional clause is bracketed by the article τὰ and the relative pronoun "what" (ἃ) indicating that our reward is for our bodily actions. The prepositional clause (διὰ τοῦ σώματος) expresses the means or the instrument by which something is done. The preposition (διὰ) identifies the agent that comes between the actor and the result of the action (Robertson, Grammar, p.582). What we do we do by means of the body. We are judged by what we accomplish through our bodies as the instruments of our intentions.

The Christian life is all about investment. We use our bodies to make eternal investments. Some investments are good, but some are bad. We will present to Jesus our investment portfolio when we stand before His dais of justice. Our portfolio will contain good investments and wasted opportunities, and Jesus will evaluate it all on that day. The return we receive is proportional to the amount we invested that has eternal value.

We get back in heaven what we put in on earth!