There Is A Balance To Maintain: To Be All Things To All People, While Being All For God

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 9:19-23

For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more.  To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law.  To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.  I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

Insights: The final way we share the gospel without being needlessly offensive is by being in the world, but not of the world.  Paul stated that to those without the law, he was as one without the law, but not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ.  In other words, Paul was saying, I will go out into the midst of the world and live among them, but I will not forsake my relationship with Jesus.  I am not going to sin with a sinner in order to share Jesus with them.  The person who lived this out perfectly was Jesus.  He was known as the friend of sinners.  He hung out with sinners and tax collectors.  These individuals were the low-lifes of society in the first century.  When He was confronted about these relationships Jesus told the religious rulers He came to minister to the sick who were in need of a physician, not the healthy who had no need of a physician.  Jesus admonished us to be in the world, but not of it.  When we live life in this fashion we are communicating to lost people that there is a better way to live life.  There is more to life than what they have personally experienced.  Beloved, there has been a word used throughout this weeks blog posts and it has been intentional.  We need to intentionally engage a lost world.  Join a golf league or bowling league and meet lost people.  Join a civic organization or host a neighborhood bar-b-que and meet lost people.  If you regularly go to the same restaurant, befriend a specific waiter or waitress and learn their story and if they don’t know Jesus work the conversation to Him.  Find a lost person to cut your hair and over time share Jesus with them.  I don’t care what your method for meeting and sharing Jesus is, my concern is we are intentional about doing it and the only place we are going to find lost people is in the world.  So, let’s go reach them.

Questions:

1. Are you of the world too much?

2. Are you in the world enough?

Prayer: Father, help me to truly be in the world, but not of the world.  Amen.