We are drawn to power. In fact, some of us find it intoxicating. We strive to gain power or at least to have powerful friends. For some, power becomes the fuel for the world in which we live. Life itself becomes about acquiring and using power. As George Orwell famously observed in his book 1984, “The object of power is power.” Power often functions as the currency of business, politics, and even of relationships. This desire for power is never more evident than in an election year. We want the people who share our worldview to acquire power and then use it to defeat the other side. Power is the way of the world, but is it the way of the Kingdom of God?
The Apostle Paul knew how power worked. He lived in a world controlled by the Roman government. He suffered through beatings and imprisonment. He had seen people crucified. He had even used power himself to persecute followers of Jesus prior to his conversion. However, by the time he wrote this letter to the church in Corinth, he had come to see that the gospel was not dependent on human wisdom and power but on the work of the Spirit. He had come to see what is often described as the “inverse nature” of the Kingdom of God where true power is found in weakness. Paul knew that “the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” Paul knew that the restoration of all things would come not by the Church’s wielding power but by reflecting Christ to the world.