Epiphany 5—1 Corinthians 9 19-23 - Whatever it takes
Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
Whatever it takes
Gentlemen, do you know what this Friday is? It’s Valentine’s Day! You see, it’s a good thing I mentioned it, otherwise you would have forgotten, and then you’d be in the doghouse. This morning I’m going to go over a couple of things you can think about between now and Valentine’s Day.
If you learn to say them well, it will go well for you on the upcoming special day. I want you to repeat after me: “I would climb the highest mountain . . . I would swim the deepest ocean . . . I would cross crocodile-infested rivers . . . I would cross the most scorched desert . . . with no shoes on my feet . . . if you will be mine.”
That’s what you should say to your beloved on Valentine’s Day. Now, it helps if you can commit those lines to memory, but if you can’t, just write them down and keep them somewhere that you can look at them each day until Friday. But, take my word for it, it really works a lot better if you look like you mean it—so try not to read it off the page, if you can help it.
Obviously I’m being a bit facetious here, but my point is this: When it comes to communicating your love for someone, how will you do it? What steps will you take to show that special someone how important she is to you? The answer is simple: You will do whatever it takes.
Friends, you and I are witnesses to a love story. It’s the story of a love so high, so deep, so wide, so broad, that it transcends human understanding. It’s the story of God’s love for sinful human beings, the love of our heavenly Father that desires that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. It’s the story of God’s love so intense that he did not spare his only Son, but gave him up on the cross to pay for the sins of the world.
You and I are witnesses to the love of God. Now, when it comes to communicating that love to the world around us and touching lives with the gospel of Jesus Christ, how are we going to do it? What steps will we take to get the message out of God’s eternal love and touch lives with the powerful message of the gospel? For the Christian there is only one answer: By the power and grace of God, we will do whatever it takes.
That’s the message that St. Paul wants to communicate with us this morning in his 1st letter to the Corinthian Christians. He describes his efforts to do whatever it took to share the word of God with people around him. He says, “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many s possible.”
Do you understand what Paul is saying there? Even though he had rights and freedoms as a citizen, he willfully chose not to exercise those rights but instead submitted himself and made himself subject to the people around him, so that he could meet people where they are at and relate to them in their lives. St Paul writes, “To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.”
Do you grasp what it meant for Paul to “become like a Jew?” It meant putting aside his Christian liberty and submitting to the Jewish legal requirements about what you could eat and when you could work and all the rituals you had to follow and whom you could and could not associate with. He submitted himself to the requirements of that Jewish law so that he could mingle with the Jewish community and relate to Jews where they were at in life.
“To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.” Do you realize what it meant for Paul to step into the shoes of all the Gentiles around him? The saying goes, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. It meant that wherever Paul went, whether it was to Athens or to Corinth or to Philippi or to Jerusalem, he would accommodate himself to the customs and way of life wherever he was.
If you think that was an easy task, let me remind you it would be like you going to a market in China and saying, “I want that dog carcass there to eat,” because that’s what they eat in China. Or going down to Hy-Vee and selecting a nice round of horse steak, because that’s the local delicacy. All of this adapting Paul did because he wanted to reach people where they were at with the gospel. Paul says, “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.” How did Paul strive to reach out with Christ’s message? His philosophy was: Whatever it takes.
Why would a well educated, middle-class man like the Paul leave his comfortable life and go cavorting around the Greco-Roman world sharing the gospel? He gives us the answer in his second letter to the Corinthians. There in chapter five he says, “For Christ’s love compels us, for we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised to life.”
Paul knew that life is a dangerous proposition. You only go around once in life, and then you die and face the judgment. The tragedy of the space shuttle Colombia just this past week reminds us just how suddenly and how unexpectedly that life can come to an end; and when the end comes you are before the judgment seat of God. There are only two types of people before the judgment seat of God: those who have been led by the Holy Spirit to repent of their sins and to trust Jesus for complete forgiveness, and those who have not heard or have not believed in our only Savior from sin. To reach those people with the saving truth of God’s love story in Christ, is it worth doing whatever it takes?
You see, my friends, we can’t just sit back and wait for people to come to hear about Jesus. We want to roll up our sleeves and go to work to reach people where they’re at. That means removing the stumbling blocks we put up that hinder the Gospel, stumbling blocks like our own preconceived notions of who is worthy of the Gospel and who is not. It means getting out and canvassing the neighborhood for the un-churched and inviting them to come and see as Andrew did for Peter. It means digging deep into our pockets to give a little more of our treasure back to God so that new missions can be opened. It means taking time out of our busy schedule to sit down and read the Bible with our children so that they also become witnesses to the love story of God in Christ Jesus. It means doing whatever it takes.
You know, I was amazed at harvest time when I was told that in order to get the crop in farmers have to wait for the right time and the right conditions to harvest their bean crop. Corn is a lot easier to harvest but soy beans were a bit trickier. But when the time came a farmer will do whatever it takes to get the crop in; even if it means ridding in a combine for 3 days straight with out sleep to get the job done.
If we will go the extra mile and do whatever it takes to get a job done that will benefit our material needs, how much more will we do whatever it takes to get the job done for our or someone else’s spiritual needs?
Just look at what God did for you and me to get the job done. Our heavenly Father asked Jesus in eternity, “What will you do to complete the salvation of the world?” And Jesus’ answer was simply, “Whatever it takes.” Crossing the scorching desert? Jesus did that. He spent hungry days in the wilderness contending with Satan. He knew thirst and poverty. He climbed the highest mountain. It wasn’t Everest. It was Calvary. He made his way up the mountain carrying on his back the cross of our shame, loaded down with our guilt, burdened with our sins. He bore our sins of lovelessness; he carried our appetites for material things; he shouldered our apathy. And there on the cross, suspended between heaven and earth, he uttered the cry, “It is finished!” The guilt was removed. The sin was paid for. We are forgiven. The cost was the innocent life of our Savior and the innocent blood that poured from his wounds. That’s what it took to complete the world’s salvation.
God hasn’t made you an apostle to go to the Gentiles. God hasn’t made most of you pastors or teachers. He hasn’t called you to go off to Timbuktu to preach the gospel to the heathen. But he has made you—every one of you—a witness to a love story. You have seen and experienced the love of God for sinful human beings revealed to you in Jesus Christ your Savior. Now there remains but one simple question: How will you communicate that precious love to the people around you? What steps will we take to get the message out of God’s eternal love and touch lives with the powerful message of the gospel? For the Christian there is only one answer: By the power and grace of God, we will do whatever it takes. Amen.
