anyone with a study bible have a better way of interpreting 1 cor 9:19-23? I think that it is talking about how Paul would adapt himself to certain types of people or groups in order to get on their level, in order to then share the gospel with them and have established a rapport and comfortable community with those groups of people before doing so. i feel that this is a huge insight into the way we ought to evangelize but it also confuses me a bit. i do believe that we are supposed to establish a sort of relationship with someone that enables us to share the gospel with them more meaningfully and relationally, instead of thrusting a pamphlet about heaven and hell in someone's face as they are walking downtown. i believe that Paul has a true point there. however, it's the next verses that confuse me:
Paul writes "to those under the law, i became as one under the law so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law i became as one outside the law (though i am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law) so that i might win those outside the law. to the weak i became weak, so that i might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that i might by all means save some. i do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that i may share in its blessings."
are we supposed to do this too? to become all things to all people, weak, outside the law, Jews even? Paul writes that hebecame a Jew in order to win Jews! What does that mean? Is going to a party and drinking alcohol underaged but having a spiritual conversation with someone okay, even if it's outside the law, because you are "becoming all things"?
any insight on this would be much appreciated, or any insight on evangelism in general.
hey whit! good question. here's what my commentary says on this section:
ReplyDelete9:20 - Paul was a Jew and valued his Jewish heritage, but the Jewish Messiah himself had nullified the distinctively Jewish parts of the Mosaic law (see Matt 15:11, Mark 7:19, Rom 14:14, 1 Cor 7:19, Gal 2:11-14, 6:2, Eph 2:14-15). In Christ, God had created a newly defined people where there was no distinction between Jew and Gentile. Paul was willing to adopt the Jewish way of life TEMPORARILY to gain a hearing among Jews (Acts 16:3, 21:17-26), but his ethnicity no longer defined his existence (Phil 3:3).
9:21 - Outside the Mosaic law, which defined the Jewish way of life... Paul seems to distinguish between the Jewish law and something he calls alternately "the commandments of God" and "the law of Christ," which is of continuing validity for Christians, whatever their ethnicity. This second law appears to include the ethical teaching of Jesus as well as absorbing both the theological structure and many of the moral precepts of the Mosaic law (Rom 7:7, 12, 22, 13:8-10, Gal 5:14, 6:2, Eph 6:2). This "law of Christ" today would also include the moral commands of the NT espistles, since in them the apostles interpreted and applied Christ's life and teachings to the NT churches.
9:22 - This is the attitude that Paul wants those in Corinth with superior "knowledge" to adopt toward the "weak" in their midst.
I hope that makes sense...
To go along with your example of drinking underage:
I don't think it necessarily means that it's okay to drink underage in order to win people over for Christ, because as Christians we are still called to obey the state and national laws that are set in place as authority. We can be in an environment around those people to meet them where they're at, but I don't think that allows us freedom to participate and drink with them underage.