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Bishop Stephen Hale reminds us that the Apostle Paul was willing to give up his rights and freedoms for the sake of the gospel. We tend to think of Lent as a time for personal spiritual growth, but may there be things we should give up in Lent (and beyond) so that others may hear the saving good news of Jesus Christ.
I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 1 Corinthians 9.22
This wonderful verse comes at the end of a famous section where Paul has used the term ’to win’ 5 times before changing it to ‘save’ here in verse 22.
The word here isn’t so much about winning a prize but getting a return on an investment. God has invested everything into saving people, especially in his very own Son, Jesus Christ. Now he wants to ‘gain’ something back from it, namely the people from all sorts of backgrounds whose lives will be ‘won’ through the gospel.
Paul applies this principle to the key groups of his day. He was a Jew by birth, but he says he still became like them to win the Jews. Christianity is built on the foundation of the Jewish faith, but it is also distinct from it. Jesus was the Lord’s messiah and the fulfilment of God’s promises to win his people the Jews. In order to win Jews Paul still went to the synagogue and used the occasion to tell them about what God had done through Jesus. He was often beaten up and kicked out, but he didn’t stop doing it. If it helped, he sometimes conformed to Jewish laws, in order to not put a barrier in place for those living under the law.
On the other hand, he was flexible enough to mix with many non-Jews, the gentiles, and was happy to live alongside of them in order to seek to connect and communicate with them. He lived a godly life but not in some legalistic way. As a roman citizen he participated in society like anyone else and he tried to not put barriers in people’s way.
Finally, he became like the weak, in order to win the weak. He wasn’t arrogant or assertive but was willing to do whatever was required to assist those who were deemed weak in a worldly sense.
All of this leads to the overarching principle spelt out in the famous words of verse 22
I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.
Paul gives up his own rights and freedoms for the sake of others. What matters isn't his own freedom but that somehow God might be at work in and through him.
Paul was flexible when it came to how he lived and connected but was clear and unwavering in terms of what he communicated. It was always about pointing people to Jesus. As the messenger he gives up his rights and freedoms for the sake of others not the other way around. As Tom Wright puts it 'Woe betide those who trim the message so that they don't have to trim themselves.'
For Paul, it is all about the gospel. His life and actions are all for the sake of God and his gospel and the great life transforming work of the Holy Spirit in people's lives. For each of us the question is - how flexible are we so that we can play our part in this great ongoing work of the gospel. Are we expecting people to just come to us and to find faith on our terms or are we willing to be flexible in seeking to reach out to them.
a) cultures are relative in a way that the gospel is not
Paul has an unchangeable gospel which he communicates within each culture. He takes the same gospel to the Jew and the non-Jew; the weak and the strong. This captures one of the hallmarks of Christianity – translatability. The unchanging gospel revealed by Jesus and preached by the apostles and recorded in the Scriptures, has to be translated into each context and era. Jesus himself spoke Aramaic - but the gospel was preached by the first apostles in Hebrew and Greek.
One of the wonderful privileges we have living at this time in human history is that we can see the way the Christian faith has spread just about everywhere. In fact, it is true to say there have never been more Christians in the world than there are today. It has been translated and crossed cultures in all sorts of remarkable ways.
The gospel is to be translated but it isn't relative There are ethical limits to gospel work. Paul doesn't say - to the racist I have become a racist or to the immoral I have become immoral.
b) Paul picks up on the incarnational principle of Christ
Jesus became human to show us God's love in all of its reality. He came as a unique person to a particular place, a particular people and at a particular time. His love and incarnation ended up in sacrifice - the sacrifice of his life!
Paul here uses the language of exchange. As Jesus became sin so we who are sinners might become the righteousness of God. So, we who know Christ need to become like those we seek to reach so that they might have the opportunity to become the righteousness of God.
Paul was passionate and wholehearted in his desire to see people saved. He was flexible and gave himself fully to the task so that by all possible means he might have the joy and privilege of seeing some people saved.
While each of us have many responsibilities to fulfil, may Pauls’ example challenge inspire us to live in such a way as to see people saved today.
Bishop Stephen Hale
General Secretary EFAC Global
