Viewpoint

The Power of Persuasion

How many of us have longed for a power of persuasion? If only we had this power, we think, we could use it to help convert so many people and bring them into the kingdom of heaven. Many have indeed gone onto the mission field, become ministers or church leaders, with this very thought in their minds – but they are the ones who have ended up being followed, not Christ. And this is the problem.

Let me tell you of the lady I know who married a man whom one of her friends called “the most spiritual man I have ever met.” He was a church leader, running the Sabbath school and convincing many gainsayers with his human powers of persuasion. But she soon found out he led a double life, going out late at night to do dirty things with his Sodomite friends. It turned out he had always been like this, and had been abusing some of the children in the Sabbath school long before they got married.

Or what about the three people I have known in my life who have been convicted of theft (two of them were in the church, incidentally). They were the smoothest talking men you could possibly meet, persuading everyone that they were trustworthy. That is how they got away with their crimes for so long.

Or what about the top barrister I heard on the radio once, who said, “My job is to persuade people that black is white.” So much for the British legal system!

Or what about the tele-evangelists who can persuade people of all sorts of things which just aren’t true? Yes, if we had the power of persuasion, be assured we would not use it for the glory of God at all, but for our own ends. The power of persuasion is not a gift from God, but a lust from the devil.

The apostle Paul had such a lust before conversion. He was a terrifying figure, “making havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison” (Acts 8:3). But after his conversion, look what he says: “And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).

He, amazingly, did NOT use the power of persuasion that he had known from before his conversion, in order to win converts to Christ. This was a deliberate decision on his part. He subdued his carnal nature, and ability to persuade men with worldly wisdom, and determined only to present the truth in a straightforward, genuine manner, so that their “faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God,” i.e. so that their faith would be genuine. This is against all our natural instincts. Paul deliberately did NOT use a carnal ability of persuasion, when he knew he had one and could so easily have done. How many preachers are like this today? We should be thankful that “we have our treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

The poor in spirit are the only ones who will inherit the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3), not those who know they have a power of persuasion and use it.

Jeremiah said to Baruch: “And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 45:5).

This is a call to us all.

(October 2010)