Becoming All Things to All People

Becoming All Things to All People

Pastor Allen Snapp  5/17/15

Turn with me to 1 Cor. 9 as we continue our study of Paul's letter to the Corinthians. We are going to read the whole chapter, but our focus this morning will primarily be on vv. 19-23.

1 Cor. 9:1-18

In these verses Paul defends the legitimacy of his apostleship from some who are claiming that he isn't a true apostle. It might seem odd to us that the way he defends his apostleship is by defending his right as an apostle to receive his living from the churches he ministers to but this seemed to have been a big deal to the Corinthians and we see from 2 Cor. that some were claiming that he wasn't a genuine apostle because he didn't charge anything for his services. So the first thing he does is rapid fire a list of arguments that support his right to receive a livelihood by his apostolic ministry. Here is a quick overview of those reasons:

• all the other apostles do
• he gives examples that demonstrate that people receive their livelihood from what they give their life to: soldier, farmer, and shepherd.
• then he uses the OT and law of Moses: "you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain" - a principle that extends beyond oxen: simply put, it means feed the worker when he's working. the one who labors should labor in hope of sharing in the crop.
• Then he applies the sowing and reaping principle: if we sow spiritual things in your lives, shouldn't we reap material support from you?
• Then he says, look at any temple - Jewish or pagan - the priests always receive their room and board from the temple.
• Then he tops it off by recalling the words of the Lord Jesus: those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. 

By the time he reaches the end of this list, he has made it virtually impossible for them to argue that he has the right to receive his living from the churches he ministers to. Paul doesn't need union representation to hammer out a good financial deal - this is salary negotiating par excellence - until his closing remarks. Once he establishes that he has the right to be financially supported for his ministry he says, but I never made use of this right and I'm not starting now! I didn't write this because I wanted to start asserting this right. And just in case they think he's just being humble and wants them to convince him to accept financial remuneration he very emotionally says I would rather die than be paid for my apostolic ministry and thereby be deprived of the ability to boast that I do NOT accept any financial support for preaching the gospel!

See, for Paul the driving motivation and the calling card of his apostolic ministry is never money. His decision to forego financial support from the churches he ministers to isn't because his apostleship is third rate and not worth supporting. He has decided to willingly give up his right to receive financial support because of his love for the gospel and his desire to receive a greater reward from the Lord for his ministry.

Paul knows he has to preach the gospel - he really has no choice. Verse 16-17 says, woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. What Paul means is, whether he wants to be or not, God has sovereignly chosen him to be an apostle and commissioned him to preach the gospel. When Paul says woe to me if I do not preach the gospel he isn't saying, boy, I'd really feel bad if I don't preach. What he is saying is he would be under God's severe judgment if he didn't obey the call God gave him. So he has no choice but to preach the gospel. But...he has the choice of giving up his right to charge and he has the right to preach the gospel freely, and by doing so increase his reward. He so loves Jesus and the message of Jesus, that he wants to demonstrate that love by giving up a legitimate right and endure the greater hardship of having to make a living on top of his ministry - because it demonstrates his eagerness to do what God has commissioned him to do. 

It's that love and commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ that then inspires and motivates him in the passages I want us to focus on over the next two weeks. 

1 Cor. 9:19-27

Over the next two weeks we will look at two gospel-principles in these verses that can help us be more effective and fruitful in our witness for Jesus and in seeing precious souls come to Christ. The first point is: we are to be flexible enough to enter an unbelievers world and relate to them as much as possible without compromising our faith, and the second point is that we are to discipline ourselves so that we don't live aimlessly or mess up our witness for Christ. Boiled down to one word each, to be effective in our witness for the kingdom we need to be flexible and disciplined. This morning let's consider the first gospel principle: 

1.  Christians should be flexible enough to enter an unbeliever's world and relate to them as much as possible without compromising our faith

One of the commentaries I read this week labeled Paul a "spiritual chameleon" and at first that took me back because when I think of that label chameleon I think of someone who tries to look like whoever they're with in order to fit in and not stand out. It's a form of fear of man, and it's not usually a good thing. 

But Paul really does work hard to look like who he's with and fit in. To the Jews I became as a Jew…To those under the law I became as one under the law…To those outside the law (the exact opposite of the group he just described) I became as one outside the law … To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. (vv. 20-22)

He tries to relate to people where they're at as much as possible without compromising his integrity or witness. A person who shape-shifts in order to fit in with the crowd out of fear of man does it because they don't want to look different or be rejected. They are a chameleon because they care too much about what people think about them, care too much that they won't be liked, or that they will stand out or be rejected. In other words, this chameleon-like characteristic (that many of us can be guilty of at times) is really motivated by self-love. We love ourselves so much we don't want anyone else to not accept us or like us. 

But Paul worked to fit in for a very different motive: he loved people enough to want to connect with them and relate to them so that he might have the opportunity to share the love of Jesus with them. He loves people! And he loves Jesus! And he wants with all his heart, at whatever personal cost, to bring people to Jesus. That is the heart of the gospel, and the heart of God!

The heart of the gospel

The heart of the gospel begins with Jesus, God the Son, entering this dark and sinful, lost and broken world, and drawing close to hurting, sinful, lost people, not to condemn them, but to save them. On the cross, Jesus took our sins on himself, identifying with our sin and failure to his own personal hurt. He not only entered our world on a historic level, but Jesus enters our world on a personal level with love and compassion and truth, and he offers us salvation as a gift for anyone who will receive it.

Motivated by the love of Christ, Paul works and flexes and adapts where he can to relate to where people are they are at. If they are under the law, he becomes as one who is still under the law. He's not under the law, but he relates to them as if he still is. Then to the one who has no law, he relates to them as if he wasn't under the law. He's not being disingenuous - he can relate to those under the law and he can relate to those who aren't under the law, so he just changes his focus. He's flexible for the sake of reaching people with the saving message of Christ. 

When he meets someone who is weak - in context probably referring to someone whose conscience is easily troubled by matters that Paul knows are matters of indifference - Paul doesn't flaunt his own strength of conscience. He mirrors their weakness so he can enter their world with the gospel.

Paul does this because he loves people: I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. He isn't out to win their approval, he isn't out to win a popularity contest. He wants to win their souls, he wants to see them saved. God's wrath for sin is coming on this earth and Paul, like Jesus, is on a rescue mission to save as many people from that wrath as possible. It's what love does. 

I constantly need this reminder. It's so easy for me to lose sight of God's love for those who don't yet know Him. So easy to relate to people purely on a surface level and lose sight of the eternal stakes involved and forget that those who die in their sins will be lost for eternity. We really do live in a broken and breaking world and there are people around us who might look put together on the outside, but be falling apart on the inside. We aren't the answer, but in Jesus we have the answer they need. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I hear a sense of urgency and priority in this passage: Paul will do anything and everything short of compromising his faith to win a soul. Every single soul is precious to God and they should be precious to us as well. 

I read a heartbreaking story in the news the other day. A wife was coming home from an out of state trip with friends when, just before she got on the plane, she received a text from her husband asking for her forgiveness for what he was about to do. He was about to kill himself. She immediately tried to call him but the stewardess snapped the phone shut and said they were about to take off and she had to turn off her phone. Once in the air, she begged to be allowed to make a call to get someone to go help him, but the flight attendants wouldn't allow her. This poor wife sobbed the entire flight home, and when she arrived home there were police already there with the news that her husband had killed himself.

Now I know this doesn't reflect the majority of flight attendants - I have no doubt that most would have tried to help her much more than these attendants did. And I am sure that these particular attendants weren't terrible or heartless people, I think they just got so focused on the rigid policies of the airline that they were blinded to the depth of human need in front of them - and they didn't see how they could have been a part of a rescue mission to try and save a life. 

Religiosity can do that: it can get so focused on policies it loses sight of people. Instead of doing everything we can to relate to people who don't know Jesus right where they are, we can insist they live up to our "Christian ethics" before we will have anything to do with them. Instead of working to remove barriers so we can to reach out to someone in need, we can erect barriers by magnifying minor issues and disconnecting from people over every little thing. 

One way we can avoid this is to turn our sensitivity dial down a little bit. On my garage door opener there is a sensitivity dial that can be set higher or lower. If it's set too high - in other words making the door opener very sensitive to any resistance - then the door won’t shut if it feels any friction at all. Our relationships with others can be like the mirror image of that, if we are too sensitive we can shut the door on a relationship the moment they say or do something that doesn't line up with our convictions or beliefs. Christians can mistakenly think that holiness is a kind of bubble wrap that protects us from contact with a contaminated world. I thank God Jesus didn't live like that. When Jesus walked the earth he was perfectly holy and hated sin with a passion we can't even imagine. But his sensitivity dial must have been turned down because he loved and embraced cheats and prostitutes and liars and serial adulterers and a woman caught in the act of adultery and he drew them near to himself!!

Don't get me wrong. He didn't ignore or condone their sin. He confronted the Samaritan woman at the well with her many marriages and current state of sin, but not in a way that pushed her away or condemned her. He confronted the woman about her adulterous lifestyle but in a way that gave her hope and forgiveness not condemnation and rejection. The way he spoke to her made her want to hang out with Jesus and in fact, bring the whole town out to be with him. Jesus opened wide the door of relationship with her, and that led to an entire town wanting to have a relationship with him. 

When I was a new Christian I used to take a stand for almost everything. And I left some damage in my wake. God help the person who said a curse word in my presence! I remember getting into a big fight with my mom and stepfather over a commercial where a priest ended the commercial with the slogan "Datsun saves". Wow was I offended! Only Jesus saves! And as I was ranting, my mom and stepfather got fed up with my self-righteousness and we had a big argument. I made a huge deal out of nothing. Datsun doesn't even exist anymore! And I lost sight of being a witness to my family because I was focused on a religious rule. Now when I'm talking to someone - especially someone who doesn't believe in Christ - I'm lowering my sensitivity dial so we can get that door of relationship open and it doesn't come slamming down over every issue.

By the way, parents we need to do this with our children, especially as they get older. They are thinking for themselves and working through their own thoughts and at some point they will press on the Christian faith and what they truly believe. If we turn everything we don't totally agree with into a fight or an opportunity to "set them straight", we will risk shutting the door on our relationship. That's not to say accept everything - that would be just as dangerous - but choose your battles carefully and be flexible - keep the door of relationship open as much as it is possible on your side. 

Becoming flexible without twisting ourselves into a pretzel

Yes, there is a real danger of becoming so flexible we twist ourselves into a pretzel. We never want to compromise our faith or witness. But God's word teaches us to have an elasticity to our faith that isn't rigid and brittle. The Pharisees were so rigid that they couldn't embrace Jesus. They gripped their religiosity so tightly they were offended at Jesus' love for people. While he was saving people, they were enforcing religious policies. When Jesus saw a man crippled and suffering…they only saw the Sabbath rule and Jesus better not break it. God wants our faith to be living and flexible.

Next week we'll look at the connection between discipline and kingdom fruitfulness. But as we leave here this morning, God will put people in our paths: friends, neighbors, co-workers, family, strangers. May God fill our hearts with the love of Christ for them! And let's pray that the Lord helps us to be flexible enough to enter their worlds and relate with them as much as possible, not to manipulate or exploit them, but to win them to the Savior who died for them.