Articles
For The Sake Of The Gospel
“For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more... To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:19-22).
Within the context of this chapter, Paul is explaining that he has been maintained by nobody, that he is not dependent on their support for his survival. The Corinthians had, in some ways, failed to support Paul for all his efforts on their behalf, especially in a monetary sense. While he could have exacted a fee from them for his work as an apostle and minister (9:11-14), he decided not to press the matter so that he could prove what his true focus was – teaching them the Gospel. His interests were not physical, but spiritual, and he was not willing to walk the fine line between the two when misconceptions seemed to come easy to the Corinthians. Right away, we are given a glimpse of the general lesson of this text: what are we willing to sacrifice to be effective workers in God’s kingdom? Paul would have lived as a pauper if it meant winning a soul. He would have been impoverished all his days if his hunger and want led to a soul’s conversion to Christ. He would have done anything for the sake of the Gospel!
“I have made myself a slave to all…” The apostle’s unbiased attitude is admirable, and it is unfortunate more of us have yet to develop it in ourselves. Notice that Paul made himself a slave to “all”, not just to a particular group. Many people, though, are willing only to be slave to those they like, or who are similar. We will be a slave to the kind of people we want around us. Yet Paul made himself a slave to his enemies, to those who were prejudiced, to those richer than him, poorer than him, to those whose ethnicity or background was foreign to him, etc. He made himself a slave to all so that he might “win the more”, which means his motive was always about spreading the Gospel. Besides, there is a practical side to this, in that if we open ourselves to all kinds of people, it increases the likelihood of winning some. Ecclesiastes 11:1-6 recommends that we cast our bread upon the waters, and diversify our crops. Surely this is a metaphor, not just for good business sense, but also in the kind of relationships we cultivate and the spiritual treasures we seek. Matthew 13 includes the parable of the sower and his seeds. Notice that the sower showed no prejudice in where he threw the seeds – every kind of soil was seen as fair game to him because he never could have known which one may or may not have accepted the seed.
“And I do all things for the sake of the Gospel, that I may become a fellow partaker of it” (1 Corinthians 9:23).
