“But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.” -Acts 6:10
We see Stephen, full of grace and power, engaged in deep theological debate. By the strength of the Spirit, though it was folly to those who he debated, their own wisdom was made foolish (1 Corinthians 1:18-20).
It is acceptable in our society to view Christianity as a weak faith that is easily disprovable by science or history or personal experience, which is what the crowds tried to do with Stephen as they debated his claims of Christ as the Messiah. Yet in this Stephen was submitted to the Spirit and it empowered him to stand firm in the teachings of Christ (and what would now be the Scriptures) and to beat down the attacks of the doubters. In the same way, we must have faith that by preparing ourselves to give a defense for what we believe (1 Peter 3:15) and submitting ourselves to his authority and voice over our own, then the Spirit will strengthen us and give us the ability to hold fast to what has been revealed and to see souls won for Christ away from the “foolish” intellectualism of the world.
