In our Pastor’s meeting last week we read 1 Corinthians 9:19-23.
For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those 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. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
There is a strong challenge in this text not to let any consideration get in the way of the gospel ministry.
Specifically we started talking about issues of tradition, personal preferential practices and national patriotic or political opinions.
D. A. Carson’s commentary provided a snapshot of the way that Christians who really live out these verses will look:
The Christians who live in this way are those of whom the following things are true:Their allegiance to Jesus Christ and his kingdom is self-consciously set above all national, cultural, linguistic, and racial allegiances.Their commitment to the church, Jesus’ messianic community, is to the church everywhere, wherever the church is truly manifest, and not only to its manifestation on home turf.They see themselves first and foremost as citizens of the heavenly kingdom and therefore consider all other citizenship a secondary matter.