1 Corinthians 2:3

I was with you (egenomhn pro uma). Rather, "I came to you" (not hn, was). "I not only eschewed all affectation of cleverness or grandiloquence, but I went to the opposite extreme of diffidence and nervous self-effacement" (Robertson and Plummer). Paul had been in prison in Philippi, driven out of Thessalonica and Beroea, politely bowed out of Athens. It is a human touch to see this shrinking as he faced the hard conditions in Corinth. It is a common feeling of the most effective preachers. Cool complacency is not the mood of the finest preaching. See pobo (fear) and tromo (trembling) combined in 2 Corinthians 7:15 ; Philippians 2:12 ; Ephesians 6:5 .