Sunday, September 19, 2010 pm
ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN
1 Corinthians 9:19-23
Continuing to explain his ministry, Paul now turns to his
attitude toward opportunities to teach others.
Paul’s selfless goal was to reach as many as possible.
In our lesson tonight I want to examine these few verse and make
some application to our responsibilities to do the same.
While there may be many areas where many of us fall short, I
believe one of the most prevalent is our failure to seek the lost as we
ought to. Paul gives us an
example of one whose top priority was first to please Christ and to
introduce Him to as many as possible.
But Paul was not just interested in introducing Jesus as the
Christ, he actually wanted them to become believers and fellow heirs
with him. As a result, Paul
not only did the work, but he was CAREFUL as to HOW he did it.
Let us notice our text, 1 Cor. 9:19-23.
a.
Paul made
himself “a servant to all, that I
may win the more” – as many as possible.
i.
Paul
understood the importance of being a servant of Christ (cf. 2 Tim. 1:3,
1 Cor. 4:1) and others.
He imitated Christ in this attitude (1 Cor. 11:1), cf.
John 13:14-15 where Jesus
washed His disciples feet and gave them example of being servants.
He told the Galatians in
Gal. 5:13, “For
you brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an
opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
On more than one occasion he referred to himself as “a bondservant of
Jesus Christ.”
Many equate Paul’s statement here to
Romans 1:14-15 where he
said, “I am debtor both to Greeks
and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. So as much as is in me, I
am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.”
ii.
Keep in
mind that we are in the midst of a personal section of this letter.
Recall how in 1 Cor. 8 Paul called for us to respect the
liberties of our brethren.
But toward the end, in vs. 13 he noted, “Therefore,
if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I
make my brother stumble.”
Paul had freedoms to do certain things, BUT he cared more about
his brethren than he did his personal agenda and comforts.
He was willing to give up whatever he had to give up if it meant
strengthening his brethren.
He will revisit this in chapter 10 (1 Cor. 10:23-33).
In this text, Paul extends that attitude toward ALL men, including those
who are outside of Christ.
iii.
What an
example of service he sets for us.
As a servant, Paul realized that he needed to serve or minister
to others. That was his
focus in his ministry and in his life.
He freely and willingly
sacrificed comforts,
possessions, and liberties (things he had a right to do) for the sake of
others.
b.
Adaptability – One way he served was to adapt to whatever environment he
found himself in. With
wisdom Paul considered who he was with and adapted his conduct
accordingly.
i.
To the
Jews I became a Jew – in
ancestry and heritage, Paul could ALWAYS claim to be a Jew.
As such, he had opportunities to influence his Jewish brethren.
He took advantage of customs associated with Judaism.
For example, he did not seek to have his circumcision reversed
(not that he could), but being circumcised afforded him access to
certain places, including going first to synagogues when he entered a
city (in fact, he even had Timothy circumcised – Ac. 16:3).
Acts. 21:21-26 describes taking a vow at the temple.
He did these things because he could, without violating his
Christian conscience, appease men in hopes of reaching them with the
gospel
ii.
To
those who are under the law, as under the law.
There were certain elements of the Law of Moses Paul could still
do (such as many of the moral standard outlined by the Law, keeping
vows, perhaps controlling his conduct on the Sabbath, restricting his
diet, etc.).
BUT he understood that the Law had been done away with.
The NASU, ASV adds “though
not being myself under the Law.” (According to NU manuscripts)
Paul CLEARLY taught that the Law of Moses had been nailed to the cross
(cf. Col. 2:14, etc.) and had been brought to its fulfillment (Gal.
3:19-24). Thus he did not
keep the Law of Moses as a religion any more.
Paul’s point is that he was not deliberately antagonistic, even toward
his Jewish brethren. In
fact, do not forget Romans 9:3 where Paul would trade places with them
if he could.
iii.
To
those who are without law (not being without law toward God, but under
law toward Christ).
Clearly here Paul speaks how he conducted himself in the presence
of Gentiles. For example:
Recall how previously he had spoken of (not) eating meats offered to
idols – it would be Gentiles that would have a problem with this.
And Paul was willing to NEVER eat meat again if it would
strengthen his brethren.
YET, in this he NEVER compromised the word of God!
Friends, we CANNOT EVER compromise God’s word to accommodate others. See
Galatians 2:5, Prov. 23:23, 2 Tim. 1:13, etc.
iv.
To the
weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak
– I believe that primarily Paul speaks of those whose conscience will
not allow them to do certain things.
Consider again the liberties one has (like eat certain foods,
observe certain days, etc.)
Paul resolved to NEVER put a stumbling block in anyone’s way.
v.
Summary,
“I have become all things to all
men, that I might by all means save some.”
Romans 15:2 says, “Let
each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.”
c.
Why did
Paul do this? For the
gospel’s sake and so that he could be partakers of it with them.
Paul’s goal was to make it to heaven and to take with him as many
as he possibly could. He
emphasized this on many occasions.
2 Timothy 2:10, “Therefore
I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain
the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.”
II.
What can we learn from this?
a.
Seeking the lost is important
– is that not the underlying point Paul is driving home in this text?
We need to remind ourselves of this often.
2 Peter 3:9 tells us that
God does not want any to perish.
1 Timothy 2:4 tells us
that God “desires all men to be
saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
Let us again be reminded of the great commission – Matt. 28:19-20, Mark
16:15-16.
This will NOT happen if we do not see seeking the lost as important!
b.
Seeking the lost OUGHT TO BE a priority to us.
But is it?!!!
In our text, Paul clearly saw reaching others as a primary focus in his
life. It is the reason he
sacrificed as much as he did.
There are so many reasons to consider WHY this is a priority.
i.
The lost
are doomed to face the terror of the Lord – 2 Cor. 5:11
ii.
Christ
died for everyone – John 3:16, Rom. 5:8
iii.
Because
we are EXPECTED to tell others about Him – 1 Pet. 3:15, 2 Tim. 2:2, John
15:1-2, Romans 10:14 – NOTE: The text says, “How shall they hear without
a preacher.” In the
original Greek language, the word preacher there is a verb.
It should actually read, “How shall they hear without preaching.”
Friends, we ALL have that reasonability to a certain degree.
c.
Are we
the servants to others we ought to be?
We again emphasize that the Christian life is about serving others.
We understand this, but do we practice it adequately?
We serve our brethren (Gal. 5:13, cf. John 13:14-15, James
2:14-17, 1 John 3:16-19, etc.)
But what about mankind in general? (James 1:17, Gal. 6:10, cf.
Acts 10:38 which speaks of Jesus, “who went about doing good”, etc.).
MY POINT: We need to develop a servant attitude toward the lost.
If we have such an attitude, perhaps it will give us greater
opportunities to teach them.
And is that not what the gospel is about?
d.
We
need to “become all things to all men”.
This is associated with the last point about being servants, BUT
there is a specific application I want to make here.
If we want to be successful in reaching others, we need to take time to
get to know them.
It has been proven that one of the best ways to reach the lost is to
first establish a relationship with them.
Do we take the time to get to know our neighbors and others so that we
can in some way lead them to the truth?
Are there certain individuals whom we judge “unworthy” of the
gospel? NOT in word but in
action?!!! (cf. James 2:1-13)
I recently heard a preacher speaking about evangelism make the point
that we need to seek to befriend more who are not Christians.
He included those who have problems in society.
They need the Lord just like everyone else.
How much effort will we put into reaching them?
Remember that our Lord was accused of being “a friend of tax
collectors and sinners” (Luke 7:34).
Jesus did not exclude the lowly of society, including beggars and
outcasts. Based upon our
text, neither did Paul, AND NEITHER SHOULD WE!
e.
We
need to be tactful in our approach.
A part of becoming all things to all men, with a desire to reach them
for Christ, means that we need to carefully weigh our words and use
diplomacy. Recall how Paul said,
“to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak.”
The idea of weakness is one not ready to receive something.
I believe Paul’s point is that he chose his words carefully and
did not go beyond the capabilities of his audience to comprehend.
In other words, he was tactful.
We need to be tactful
– Col. 4:6 speaks of our
speech being with grace, seasoned with salt.
1 Peter 3:15 tells us to
answer each one of the hope within us “with meekness and fear.”
I fear that sometimes we turn people off unnecessarily because we tell
them what they are not ready to hear.
In other words, we fail to lay the foundation before we pound
them with some truth. We
come out “with both barrels blazing” and in a seemingly condescending
way we attack something they have said or done.
The problem is not that we do not have the truth, but we are
determined to prove we are right and they are wrong, regardless of how
they respond. In other
words, we win the battle, but what good is it if we loose the war?
There are many who are turned off to the truth, because of the
way we approach them, rather than what we teach.
All I am saying here is that we need to use some wisdom and
common sense and compassion in trying to teach others.
And a little patience might be helpful as well.
Paul made it his goal to reach as many as he could.
What a noble goal that is.
May we strive to have the same desire and may we like Paul, seek
to become all things to all men, that we might win some.
Think about it!