Argument

Argument often degenerates into an unedifying attempt to display superior knowledge or skill. That a man gets the better of an argument does not necessarily prove the truth of his contention – it may only prove his skill in argument. Anyway, if you succeed In “convincing” a man against his will, he is of the same opinion still. Even if you are able to gain his intellectual assent to the truth, you have still fallen far short of bringing him into the blessing of it. God does not reveal Himself to human reason – He reveals Himself to faith.

To enter into an intellectual argument and have the satisfaction of meeting your questioner’s intellectual difficulties or demolishing his intellectual opposition is very pleasing to the natural pride of the human heart, but it does not accomplish the work of God. If our witness is to be effectual in blessing to others it needs to be “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Cor. 2. 4), and it can only be this if we are walking in fellowship with God. When Paul came to Corinth he could easily have interested the Corinthian philosophers if he had been minded to depend on his intellectual powers and discourse on themes which appealed to them. But what was his theme? JESUS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED.