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BRAVER THAN LIONS
Sam Stringer
Dec 19, 2024
Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you shortly, if the
Lord wills, and I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power. For the
kingdom of God is not in word but in power.
1 Corinthians 4:18-20
BOOM!!!!! Did you just hear that dynamite blow up? I’ve never seen a stick of dynamite up
close, let alone seen one lit and thrown like they do in the cartoons. (I believe they actually
placed them much further away from themselves and used long wires and ignition boxes or
something like that, but I digress…) Probably the most central verse in the Bible to speak of the
Gospel is found in Romans 1:16, where Paul says that he’s not ashamed of the Gospel because
it is the power (dunamis) of God for salvation for everyone. I wrote a devotional a while back
about why we shouldn’t be ashamed of something that has such amazing raw power (if you
remember, I compared it to a monster truck with a weird paint scheme). Well, my friend, we see
the very same word in the Greek used here near the end of 1 Corinthians 4, dunamis, translated
as “power” once again. Interesting…
How is “power” used in 1 Corinthians 4? Well, it’s not talking about the Gospel here, but it is
talking about people who have been affected by it. Paul says he’s coming (if God wills) and he’s
going to put things in order, and that he will know people by an identifier. Notice that this
phrase “will know” is spoken with certainty; the word for “know” here speaks of recognizing. In
Greek, there’s generally two words for “know” in English: ginosko (gin-oh-sko) and oida (oy-
duh). Think of the difference between the two this way: ginosko is a knowledge that is
apprehended over time by familiarization like a kid learning subjects in school, whereas oida is
(at least often) knowledge that is complete and thorough.
A great example of both being used together is John 8:55, and it should make sense why when
you consider it’s Jesus talking to the Pharisees: “Yet you have not known (ginosko) Him (God), but I
know (oida) Him. And if I say, ‘I do not know (oida) Him,' I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and
keep His word.’” How profound! Jesus says that the Pharisees haven’t learned who God is through
growing experience, but Jesus has known the Father completely and perfectly, which they couldn’t do.
Even in translation, it seems that that kind of knowledge of the Father with the Son may only be reserved
for them if we consider that even believers will continually be learning who God is forever, never coming
to a fullness of understanding the infinite God. That’s a point of theology I love, since so many people in
church seem to think Heaven will be boring; they forget that we’ll never fully grasp God no matter how
much time we speak of. I’ll just say it here like I teach it: ten thousand years from now, you’ll know God
better than you do 1,000 years from now, but not as well as you’ll know Him a million years from now, and
so on. Pause and think about that; a Christian will never fully know the depth of the love or wisdom or
holiness or knowledge or anything of the infinite nature of God, always learning but never fully
apprehending. I hope that sweetens an imagination for Heaven for you today.
OK, back to the text. Paul has learned to recognize…(drumroll)…the Gospel’s power. Important for us to
see that, it is (inner Yoda coming out). Have you come to recognize the power? Because if you can and
when you do, you will begin to recognize it in other people; that’s how you start identifying the true blue
believers around you. This is not to say that we are to judge or to label people as fakes, but to say that
when you do see “them” (believers), you’ll know them and your heart may warm once again. You’ll know
when people have been changed by it, and you’ll know when it’s all talk, all fluff, without the God stuff. I
play a lot of guitar, like Seth, our Braver than Lions (CEO?) who also played my wedding (sweet lad).
When I pluck a string, it resonates with the guitar. If I pluck a string detached from a guitar, it doesn’t even plunk, because it needs stretched and it needs a guitar body to reverberate it’s sound. When a person
reverberates the power and truth of God’s word in their life, the Gospel acts like a guitar that reverberates
with the person. There is resonance and there is compatibility within it. No Gospel power, no resonance.
Paul said that he’d recognize people by the power, not by the words. Churches are full of parrots in this
country, people speaking truths they’ve learned but they don’t necessarily own within. Knowing the
Gospel presentation does not make me a believer; trusting in Christ in my innermost parts makes me a
believer. Being touched by God and recognizing His hand, His voice, His warmth, His conviction, His
prompting; those are signs of life. You can be a Bible-smart parrot or you can be a person marked by the
power of the Gospel. Transformation is not merely altered intellect but transformed desires, mastery,
convictions, awareness, character, etc.
Who are you? Who am I? Do we know about God or do we know Him? Does the power of the Gospel
sing forth from our beings, or merely the awareness of it? The kingdom of God is not in word (profession)
but in power (possession). It’s not in claims but in unalterable changes that have happened to us by the
work of God upon us. Learn what that means by looking at the Gospel in the Bible, seeing what people
were like when they were changed by it, and then you will start recognizing it in yourself and others. What
marks us out? May it be the power of the Gospel in a changed life. Be brave and be blessed.
Sam Stringer
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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