1 Corinthians 2:2-5 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For I determined not to know any thing, &c. To act as one who knew nothing, or to waive all my other knowledge, and not to preach any thing save Jesus Christ and him crucified That is, what he taught, did, and suffered. Or, not only to preach the gospel sincerely, without any mixture of human wisdom, but chiefly to insist upon that part of it which seems most contemptible, and which human wisdom does most abhor, namely, concerning the sufferings and crucifixion of Christ. And I was with you At my first entrance; in weakness Of body, 2 Corinthians 12:7; and in fear Lest I should offend any; and in much trembling The emotion of my mind affected my very body. For I knew that I had enemies about me on every side, Acts 18:6; Acts 18:9, and laboured under natural disadvantages, 2 Corinthians 10:10; and the force of the prejudice which I had to encounter was strong. And my speech In private; and my preaching In public; was not with enticing words Or persuasive discourses; of man's wisdom With eloquence or philosophy, or with that pomp and sophistry of argument, which the learned men of the world are so ready to affect; but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power With that powerful kind of demonstration which flows from the Holy Spirit; which works on the conscience with the most convincing light, and the most persuasive evidence. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, &c. That your belief of the gospel, and the various important truths of it, might not be grounded on, or appear to be gained by, human wisdom or eloquence; but in the wisdom and power of God Teaching men's ignorance, guiding their foolishness, and giving efficacy to such weak means as he has seen fit to use.