Garland translates and comments on 1 Cor 1.17:

‘For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, not with rhetorically sophisticated speech, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied [of its effect].’

Eloquence that elevates the status of the preacher cancels the power of the cross . . .

To preach the gospel intending to charm and captivate the crowds with clever wordsmithery in order to enhance one’s own prestige only empties (kenoo) the cross of its effect. . . .

One does not preach the cross to win the admiration of the audience. The goal is to have them look up in awe at the cross, which implants new ideas and uproots the old ways of interpreting divine and earthly reality.


2 Cor 1.13