& Share In Christ's Blessings

For The Sake Of The Gospel

10.20.24 [1 Cor. 9:7-12; 19-23] River of Life (22nd Sunday after Pentecost)

Grace & peace to you from God our Father & our Lord Jesus. Amen.

Flip-floppers & flim-flammers. Slick glad-handers & slimy carpetbaggers. There are many ways to describe politicians who pander to crowds and say whatever they think it will take to please the audience in front of them. We have many names for that kind of behavior. None are complimentary.

We have real concerns about the character of an individual who talks or acts one way with one particular group and then seems to speak and act differently when they’re in a different setting. We think they’re smarmy and insincere. We suspect they don’t have any real principles. Based on the changes we observe, we suppose that they don’t really stand for anything at all. We also conclude that we know why they behave this way. We believe they’ll say and do anything—whatever it takes—to get elected. Since we believe that, we do not trust them.

A political leader can still serve his or her people effectively even if they are not honored, respected, or trusted by their constituency. But a spiritual leader cannot. Honor, respect, and trust are paramount.

That’s why Paul writes these words from 1 Corinthians 9. People in Corinth had been watching the Apostle Paul. They all knew about his checkered background—how he was once a persecutor of the very faith he now proclaimed and promoted. Many were confused about how Paul could be an apostle and not have been one of Jesus’ 12 disciples. More than a few suspected that Paul was some kind of apostolic charlatan. How else could you explain his changing behavior?

When he spent time with those who were children of Abraham, Jews, he ate as they ate, observed their customs and traditions, and celebrated their festivals and holy days.

When he spent time with Gentile converts, who worshipped the One, True God, he lived under the laws they lived under. No longer did he insist on eating only kosher foods, or observing all the customs he had grown up with, or celebrating the Jewish high festivals.

When Paul found himself among people who did not have the law, Gentiles who did not know Noah or Abraham or Moses, but only had the law that God has written on the hearts of all human beings, he tells us he became like them. He did not use their company as an excuse for sinful behavior. At the same time, he didn’t hammer them with the standards and scruples of the Law they didn’t know.

Finally, Paul tells us that when he found himself among the weak—people who shared the faith but had particularly sensitive consciences—he became like them. If they were stumbling over the fact that that piece of meat was once a sacrifice to an idol and therefore had been defiled, Paul would refrain from exercising his right to eat it knowing that an idol isn’t anything at all.

Here’s the gist: Paul coordinated his behavior with the company he kept without contradicting anything the Scriptures taught. If you’re a bit confused, that’s okay. So were the Corinthians.

When we see strangers behave this way, we presume it’s because they want power, money, and or influence. When we see our peers behaving this way, we assume it’s because they want to be liked. When we see our friends or family do it, we defend them more and say they are just afraid of being attacked or ostracized.

But Paul tells us his motivation wasn’t any of these. He didn’t want money, power, or social influence. In fact, though he had the right to receive financial support from the Corinthians, he relinquished that right. In Galatians, Paul remarked: (Gal. 1:10) If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. In fact, precisely because he was a servant of Christ, Paul was attacked, flogged, beaten, stoned, imprisoned, and (2 Cor. 11:23) exposed to death again and again. Paul (1 Cor. 9:12) put up with anything and everything so that the Gospel might be proclaimed.

Does that describe you? Will you put up with anything short of sin rather than see the Gospel of Christ be hindered?

Will you put up with the worship music not being your style? Will you put up with the idiosyncrasies of a pastor who doesn’t get you or fellow members who don’t share your interests? Will you put up with the service time or location being inconvenient? Will you put up with Bible classes that feel beneath you or way over your head? Will you put up with a congregation that doesn’t support your ideas or plans?

Will you put up with guests who don’t share your sense of reverence or don’t discipline their kids the way you did? Will you put up with rolling up your sleeves and working for those who can’t? For those who won’t? Will you put up with preparing for those who aren’t here yet?

Will you put up with people who vote or think differently than you do? Will you put up with people who try your patience? Will you put up with people who will test your perseverance? Will you put up with people who will question you? Criticize you? Attack you? Condemn you?

Putting up with any of these things for quite some time can leave a person feeling put out. Putting up with all these things feels impossible. How did Paul do it? He never lost sight of where he stood. He tells us where he stood in that parenthetical remark in verse 21. I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law. What does that mean?

Paul uses this same idea in Galatians. He writes: (Gal. 6:2) Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. This law of Christ is the principle by which he lived, died, & rose. It shaped Paul into the servant God has chosen him to be.

Consider how Christ carried the burdens of those around him. To the Jews, Jesus lived like a Jew. He ate as they ate. He worshiped in their synagogues. He paid the temple tax like every other man. He went to Jerusalem and celebrated the Passover. Jesus wasn’t looking for their approval or support. In fact, when they tried to make him into a political leader, he refused. When they tried to compel him to serve as an entertainer—a miracle-worker who did signs for the sake of putting on a show—he refused. Jesus wasn’t interested in making their nation as great as it was under David or putting on a show. He came to win their souls from captivity to sin.

To those who were under the law but not Jewish, people like the Samaritans, Jesus showed patience, kindness, and compassion. He sat down with a Samaritan woman at a well in John 4. Her own people considered her to be the town hussy, but Jesus loved her enough to tell her he knew everything she did and also that he was the Messiah God had promised. Jesus healed a Samaritan leper and even used a Samaritan as his example of sacrificial love for one’s enemies. Jesus loved those under the Law as his own.

To those who did not have the law, the Gentiles, Jesus spoke with power and mercy. He freed the Gerasene man from his demon possession. Even the pagans were afraid to have him around town! But Jesus drew near to him and freed him. Jesus acclaimed the faith of the Syro-Phoenician women and the Roman centurion as being greater than anything he witnessed in Israel.

Jesus was gentle and gracious to the weak. When his disciples didn’t understand his parables, he took the time to fill them in. When hopeful parents brought their infants to him, Jesus was eager to bless them. When a man with weak faith asked for a miracle for his son, Jesus did not refuse him on account of his shortcomings. When a spineless criminal who had mocked him earlier asked for Jesus to remember him, Jesus did him one better. Jesus promised that today he would be with him in paradise. Jesus did all this for the sake of the Gospel or as he put it in our Gospel reading from Mark. The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

When we stand back and consider how Jesus treated the Jews who should have been much more eager to see him, the Samaritans who were all mixed up, the Gentiles who had lost sight of the clues God had written on their hearts, and the weak ones around him who couldn’t do anything for him, we should be amazed. Christ put up with anything—everything!—so that by all possible means he might save some.

This is what he has done for us. This is what he does through us, too. We do not carry each other’s burdens to Calvary’s cross. But we do carry each other’s burdens and lay them at Jesus’ feet.

We have spent significant time discussing how we can make ourselves servants to as many as possible to win them for Christ in our local congregation. There are some things we cannot and will not sacrifice. Anything that changes the Gospel to suit itching ears is unacceptable. (2 Tim. 4:5) We must keep our heads in all situations. We must endure hardship. We must do the work of evangelists. But most of all, to keep up our morale and keep our course correct, we must keep our eyes on the prize. That’s how Paul ends this section. He writes: Run in such a way as to get the prize. Not aimlessly. Keep your eyes on the prize—winning as many as possible to Christ.

Running like that requires sacrifices, like training & self-discipline. Some of the sacrifices we must make will make a lot of sense to us. But not all. Some might be very hard for us to get behind.

In those moments, the question we must ask is not: Why aren’t we doing what I like? Why can’t we comply with my preferences? The question we must ask is this: How does this help bring some to the saving truth of the Gospel?

Then, for the sake of the Savior who loved us, lived for us, sacrificed himself for us, and lives in us so that I can live for others, we will put up with anything so that the Gospel of Christ might be known and its blessings might be shared. Amen.