By All Means

We are continuing our series through 1 Corinthians this morning. Last week, Charlie pointed out to us that we are currently in a portion of the letter - that runs as one cohesive unit. This section begins in chapter 8:1, and goes to 11:1. Paul is dealing with the subjects of rights and freedoms, and how true Christ-like love will lead us to forsake our rights and freedoms for the good of others.

These issues that Paul is dealing with are wisdom issues. Wisdom is sometimes a tricky issue for us. We tend to like principles and ideas that are black and white, clear and simple. But most of life is not clear and simple. You know the difference between knowledge and wisdom, right? Knowledge is knowing that tomatoes are a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.

Wisdom is working out the knowledge and the principles in the every day difficult circumstances of life. And that’s what Paul is doing here. He’s working out his theology in order to impart some wisdom to the Corinthian church who were struggling with how to use their newfound freedoms in Christ.

The Corinthian church was really struggling with this. And here’s what they didn’t understand. Being free in Christ does not mean that I am free to do whatever I want to do. It does not mean that I am free to hold on to my preferences and my rights no matter the cost to other people. Being free in Christ means I am free to be who God has made me to be, which means I am freed FOR the service of God and the gospel.

The Corinthian church didn’t understand this. If you remember what we talked about way back in Chapter 1, the overall problem that Paul is addressing in this letter is divisions in the church.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.

Divisions were not only harmful to the unity of the family of God, but they were obstacles to non-believers coming to faith. And so what was starting to happen was that these different groups were saying to themselves, “This is just how our group does things, and if they don’t like it, they can go find another group.”

The Christians in Corinth were using their freedoms abusively, thus tearing apart the unity of the church. So, in Chapter 8, and in the first part of Chapter 9, Paul has been urging the church to use their freedoms not for themselves, but for the good and love of others in the church.

In our text this morning, Paul is now directing his audience - which includes us sitting in this room - that we should be using our freedom in Christ not only for those in the church, but also those outside the church, that more and more people might come to faith in Jesus.

Read Text

The word that we use to describe what the Apostle Paul is talking about here in these verses is contextualization. So this morning we’re going to be talking about what this means for us, but rather than muddying the waters and getting into detailed examples for our church, instead I want to focus on giving us a positive vision and motivation to have an ongoing conversation as a church about contextualization. I want to do that by answering 3 question from this text very simple outline this morning: 1) What is contextualization? 2) How do we contextualize? 3) Why should we do the work of contextualization?

What is Contextualization?

There’s 2 words that are repeated 5 or 6 times in these 4 verses. Did you catch them? He uses the word WIN 5 times and ALL 6 times. What do you think Paul has on his mind? SOUL WINNING. He wants to win people for Jesus. So he says, I become like a Jew to win Jews, I become like a Gentile to win Gentiles, I become weak to win the weak, and then this somewhat famous and controversial verse, “I become all things to all people that by all means I might save some.”

Paul is practicing what we today call contextualizing. Let’s spend some time unpacking this idea. Dr. Tim Keller, a pastor in New York City, someone who has really influenced me a lot in this area, gives us a pretty long and somewhat technical definition of contextualization. Here’s what he says:

Gospel Contextualization: Center Church 1. Intentional Contextualization

Contextualization is not — as is often argued — “giving people what they want to hear.”4 Rather, it is giving people the Bible’s answers, which they may not at all want to hear, to questions about life that people in their particular time and place are asking, in language and forms they can comprehend, and through appeals and arguments with force they can feel, even if they reject them.

Maybe for our purposes it would be best to summarize this definition like this:

Contextualization is not — as is often argued — “giving people what they want to hear.” Rather, it is giving people the Bible’s answers, which they may not at all want to hear, to questions about life that people in their particular time and place are asking, in language and forms they can comprehend, and through appeals and arguments with force they can feel, even if they reject them.

Contextualization is the act of bringing the Christian faith to bear on particular people, in a particular cultural moment, by adapting our language and methods, in order to win people to faith in Jesus.

Or, maybe to summarize it even more, contextualization is REAL TALK. Charlie, Porter and I were our the annual Presbytery retreat on Monday and Tuesday, the Presbytery the collection of all the pastors and elders in our denomination that are within our region. The speaker that was brought in was Dr. Carl Ellis, who some of you know because he came to Shady Grove earlier this year to speak on the issues of race, racism and social justice. He was addressing similar topics at our retreat. One of the things I love about listening to Dr. Ellis is you always know when he’s about to get out of the clouds and get real with you. He steps to the side of the podium and he gives you this look and says, “Can we talk!?”

That’s contextualization. It’s getting real with people. It’s getting our heads out of the clouds and bringing our faith to bear on the needs, questions and issues that people have from a particular cultural perspective.

Contextualization can be a tricky concept for some people. And that is because what has often happened in church history is that people use contextualization as an excuse to change the gospel message. So what some people have said and done is that we need to change the message of Christianity in order to reach the culture. And you take that 10 miles down the logical river and next thing you know we are embracing all kinds of sins that the culture embraces. So, rather than the gospel of Jesus Christ transforming and bringing life to the culture, the gospel of Jesus Christ is transformed by the culture and death is brought upon the church.

This is not what Paul is saying here in these verses. Remember, contextualization is not saying what people want to hear. It’s saying things in a way so that people hear it. When I was a child, if my dad wanted me to do something, and he just kind of said, “Ben, go do this.” I may not be inclined to listen. But when he yelled at me from another room, “Benjamin Robert!” I knew to get off my rump and get going. That’s contextualization. The message didn’t change, but it was said in a way that arrested my attention.

Paul is not telling us to change the message, Paul is telling us that we need to be willing to change so that others might be won to Jesus by his message. We don’t change the message, we allow ourselves to change and be changed. We don’t trim the message, we trim ourselves. We don’t sacrifice the message, we sacrifice ourselves.

A word of warning: the author, speaker, or person who is willing to change the message of Jesus but who is not willing to allow themselves to be changed by the message of Jesus is not a person worth following.

Biblical contextualization is getting down to earth with real people, in a real cultural context, by bringing Christianity to bear on their lives through our language, customs and practice.

Culture is fluid, its forms, customs, language, goods, values, are constantly in flux. So, unless our customs, traditions, or language is mandated by Scripture, we too must be willing to be fluid. We must be willing to sacrifice our preferences and traditions so that by all means we might save some.

You follow me? God’s kingdom is too big to be contained within any one cultural form or moment.

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So what are some examples of this? Contextualization can occur on a pretty small scale. It can also occur on a larger scale. So, small example, how you try to explain the gospel to someone who was never raised in church will likely be different from someone who has been burned by a former church. Or, perhaps the themes you draw out of Scripture to communicate the gospel may vary person to person. You may choose to emphasize the family of God when talking to someone from a cultural background that places a strong emphasis on family. You may choose to obey certain cultural customs in order to have a conversation with someone from a different background.

But it can be even bigger than that. The language we use on Sunday morning might need to be over-explained for those who have no clue what is happening here every week. We’ll talk about that more in Chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians, where Paul is very concerned that outsiders will be able to understand our worship service.

It might also mean that our ministry programs, strategies, and emphases need to adapt to our context. Perhaps, for example, as people in our community become more and more skeptical of Christianity, might we need to go above and beyond in earning their trust by loving the people in our community?

Now, if that’s where she is - and where so many other people in our society are today - how much of our worship service do you think is intelligible to them?

Or how about this. An article recently came out a couple of weeks ago titled “Crossfit is my Church”, and it talked about how more and more people - especially younger folks in my generation - are finding their community in places like gyms and yoga studios. That’s because these fitness centers are essentially replacing religious community by providing a place to be on mission and have purpose and belonging. To the extent that this is happening in our context, we should be evaluating our ministries and programs and asking if we are providing a better and deeper sense of mission, direction and purpose than can be found elsewhere. After all, Scripture has a lot to say about mission and purpose, does it not? Do people know that when we come into contact with them?

And still, it can go even deeper. When you look at the ministry of Jesus and his crew in the New Testament, they would intentionally address the needs and issues people had in their context. Contextualization also means that we deepen our understanding of other people’s core issues, values and concerns in order to speak to them and address them from a biblical perspective. Dr. Ellis has been very helpful to me here. Core concerns are life-controlling and life-defining issues or values that people have. Some concerns are universal, like loneliness or family.

He breaks these core concerns down in three ways. The first is personal concerns, which are universal to almost all people. These are issues like loneliness, anxiety, meaning and purpose. No matter who you are, where or when you live, these are personal concerns for you.

But some core concerns are issues or values related to particular cultural situations, and they tend to relate to particular people. So, for example, in middle and upper class america, the opiod crisis, prescription drug abuse, and self medicating ourselves to sleep is a huge cultural concern.

Then there are social concerns, which can be universal, but also manifest differently within different cultures. These are things like health, education or family. Family concerns among Latinos have a different manifestation than amongst Asians, but nevertheless they are social concerns.

Finally, there are cultural core concerns. These are issues or values related to particular cultural situations, and they tend to relate to particular situations. So, for example, in middle and upper class america, the opiod crisis, prescription drug abuse, and self medicating ourselves to sleep is a huge cultural concern.

The issues of slavery, jim crow segregation, oppression, and present issues of social injustice are a huge cultural core concern for the African American community.

For refugees in our country who have fled here over the last 5 years, but who still have family waiting to come over back home, immigration reform is - you guessed it - a huge cultural core concern.

The point is this. Each of us are a complete mess. We’ve got all kinds of messy stuff going on in our lives.

Now, here’s what can happen in the church. We become very reluctant to address the core concerns of a particular or different people group because we say we don’t want to divide the body of Christ. We worry somehow that addressing cultural core concerns is going to be divisive. But if you read the gospels, you read the book of Acts, you see Jesus, you see Paul doing this all the time. For Jesus, it meant addressing the felt needs and core concerns of hunger, thirst, sickness, and belonging. For Paul, all the time in Acts, you see him hitting these issues right on the head: “Jews have this issue; Gentiles have this issue.” You see it in with the appointing of Greek deacons to take care of the Greek widows. It didn’t divide the body of Christ, it united the body of Christ.

If we want to get people’s attention we must contextualize and address their core concerns. Ignoring cultural core concerns does not bring unity to the body. When has brushing our problems under the rug been helpful in any of our relationships? In how many of your marriages is brushing conflict under the rug helpful?

When we do not do the difficult work of contextualization and seek to address the core concerns that others have, then we fall flat of the mission Paul is setting before us this morning. We grow comfortable talking about our own core concerns, but entirely uncomfortable, and even irritable or angry, when talking about the concerns of others

Listen - can we talk? One of the things I’ve noticed can so easily happen is that we are just simply unaware of how messed up everyone else is. So what is often - not always, but often - happening when I hear someone say, “We shouldn’t talk about that issue because it will be divisive,” the real problem is just a kind of indifference or lack of awareness. Because if we knew how deep the hurt and pain other people have with their core concerns and issues, we would realize that addressing peoples core concerns wouldn’t be divisive, but it would be a healing and restorative for many.

But if I preached a message addressing social injustices for minority communities, or the problems refugees our facing in our country and around the world, my hunch is I might get quite a different response from some people.

Later on in 1 Corinthians, in chapter 12, Paul uses this metaphor of a body to describe the relationship of Christians to one another. And what are the two issues that Paul addresses there in that chapter? The dominant members of the body say to the less dominant members, “I have no need of you.” And so how do the less dominant members respond? They start to think alright, I guess because I’m not like them, I don’t belong to the body.

You see, that’s a contextualization issue. And because its a contextualization issue, its a gospel issue.

You see, and that’s exactly what happens when we don’t contextualize the gospel to the core concerns of people in our community. The message we send is, “We have no need of you,” and people in our communities really start to believe, “Ok, I guess I don’t belong to the body.”

By all means, Paul says, by all means, that I might save some. We contextualize, like Paul, for the sake of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, that we might share with others in its blessings.

How Do We Contextualize?

A couple of years ago I spent 6 months as a volunteer serving weekly in the children’s cancer unit at Inova Fairfax Hospital. And one of the things I learned, and I learned many, many things in my time there, is how to contextualize my service and care to those children. The nurses and doctors in this room know where I’m going with this, because they have to do this every day. I had to learn how to read the room the moment I walked in and respond accordingly. I had to learn how to change my language, both audible and body. I had to learn how to change my mood and my emotions. I had to learn what activities or suggests for comfort and care would work best for the child. I had to learn to read the parents or caregivers, and minister to them appropriately.

Rather, it is giving people the Bible’s answers, which they may not at all want to hear, to questions about life that people in their particular time and place are asking, in language and forms they can comprehend, and through appeals and arguments with force they can feel, even if they reject them.

So, I was deeply convicted, because I much preferred the confines of my own library than the awkwardness of engaging other people. And the Lord impressed upon me that nothing was going to change about my life and my obedience unless I took action. I ended up doing 2 things. The first is something many of you have heard me talk about, I started attending a couple different atheist groups that met in my area. The second was I started volunteering weekly in the Children’s Cancer unit at the Inova Fairfax hospital.

Long story short, I ended up volunteering to serve weekly in the children’s cancer unit at Inova Fairfax Hospital. And one of the things I learned, and I learned many, many things in my time there, is how to contextualize my service and care to those children. The nurses and doctors in this room know where I’m going with this, because they have to do this every day. I had to learn how to read the room the moment I walked in and respond accordingly. I had to learn how to change my language, both audible and body. I had to learn how to change my mood and my emotions. I had to learn what activities or suggests for comfort and care would work best for the child. I had to learn to read the parents or caregivers, and minister to them appropriately.

If a child was on their 3rd or 4th treatment, had gotten to know the nurses and doctors, their treatment was going well, the room was generally up here.

Now you see, before this point, I had a lot of theories about caregiving that I had learned in my books, I had a lot of opinions about mercy ministry, but it wasn’t until I actually took action to immerse myself in those opportunities and environments that I was being obedient to God’s call on my life to be merciful.

If a child was on their 1st treatment, had just found out about their cancer, it wasn’t going well, the lights would generally be off, they’d be in the corner by themselves. The room was down here.

Now could I have just blitzed into every room and treated every child and family the same way? Yes. Would I have been effective? Absolutely not.

Could Paul have addressed the Jews like Gentiles, the Gentiles like Jews? Yes. Would his ministry have been as effective? No.

Here’s my point. If we want to be a contextual people, we must be intentional about it. If we want to reach people immediately in our area, then we must be intentional to address their core concerns in a way that they can understand. It is rarely the case that people just drift into a church service and suddenly come to faith. I mean, that happens, and God saves however he wants to save, but that’s not the norm, and I don’t think it’s the norm we see in Scripture either.

But, more often than not, people are drawn to Christ because they begin to see how Christianity addresses their felt needs, their longings, their unfulfilled desires. They begin to see how, once my sins have been forgiven and I become a child of God by faith, everything about my life and my sense of self can change, my dignity is renewed, I have a new and deeper purpose and meaning, I belong in a new family in a way I could never imagine.

When you look at the Apostle Paul here as an example, and he says to this group I became like them, by this other group I became like them, when you see his ministry in Acts, you get this impression that he was incredibly intentional about every possible opportunity that he could get. The Christian

You know whats interesting about this text, especially for those of us who have a high view of God’s sovereignty in salvation. We absolutely believe that God is the one who does the saving, right? That by his Holy Spirit he redeems and saves his elect?

says this:

Romans 9:15 ESV

For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

says,

English Standard Version Chapter 2

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Ultimately it is God alone who does the saving, he draws dead men and women to himself, he gives them the gift of His Holy Spirit, he forgives them of their sin, he unites them to Jesus Christ, he protects and keeps them until they are with him in paradise.

There are a handful of questions I’ve gotten a lot since coming to Shady Grove last year. You can probably guess what the first one is, because we’ve started to joke about that a lot. “Why do you introduce yourself every week..” Hint: it has to do with contextualization.

Look at the end of verse 22. “By all means I MIGHT SAVE some.” Would you look at that. Paul, the great expositor of God’s sovereignty of salvation, says that he is going to do anything he can so that he might save some. So does God sovereignly save his people? Yes. Do we know who those people are? No. So God uses our intentional, purposeful actions in engaging non-believing image bearers to bring people into his kingdom.

But one of the other ones is, “Why do you quote non-Christians in our bulletin when you preach?” But you know what, I get where the question is coming from, and again, the answer has to do with intentional contextualization. On the one hand, I’m trying to take these quotes, and show the non-Christians who are hopefully joining us every week how Christianity answers the needs, longings, concerns and issues that they have. On the other hand, I’m trying to equip the members and believing Christians of our church to intentionally contextualize how you engage with your friends, neighbors, coworkers, you name it.

Look at this quote from Alain de Button that’s in your bulletin this morning. The book is entitled “religion for atheists: A non-believer’s guide to the uses of religion.” The title says it all, doesn’t it? And look at just this one quote I pulled from the book. Essentially he says, we disagree with Christianity, but it’s hard to discredit the provocative thesis of Christianity, that there is something precious about us that needs to be cared for. Isn’t that insightful? Now how might you contextually use what Button says here in a conversation with a non-Christian friend? I’m not going to give you the answer. But I do hope you’ll be thoughtful about it.

There’s another lesson in here for us. Unless we have real, human interaction with people in a culture or context different from our own, then all of our opinions about that culture or about that group of people will be mere speculation rather than proper contextualization.

We have to actually come into contact with different kinds of people and engage them if we’re ever going to faithfully bear witness to the gospel in our present age. If light is actually going to shine, it has to be in dark places. If salt is actually going to season meat, it has to actually come into contact with the meat. Salt by itself is of no use except for making our blood pressure boil.

By and large, people are not just going to seek us out. We must seek them out and engage them. And not just engage, but befriend. To really learn what makes people tick, and earn the right to speak to their issues and concerns, we must be willing to become their friend. Many of you have heard me quote theologian J.I Packer who said that if we want the gift of evangelism, we ought to pray for the gift of friendship. Well, I think if we want the gift and ability to contextualize, we ought to pray for the gift of friendship as well.

So be intentional, engage others, and be creative. I can’t tell you how to do this in your context. But it doesn’t have to be anything extraordinary. Do you have a dog? Invite your neighbor to come with you while you’re walking it. Do you have kids? Invite your neighbor with kids to come with you to the playground. Do you have coworkers? Buy them lunch instead of reading a book by yourself.

Halloween is coming up, right? Some of you have kids that come to your house. Buy some great candy and make your house the memorable house on the block to go to. Engage the parents. You don’t have any kids that come to your house? Find a church member who does and help them buy awesome candy and support them in making their house the memorable place to be. Do you live in an apartment complex? Buy your neighbors awesome candy to hand out and tell them you want to band together in being the fun floor for families to come to.

Look, I can’t tell you how to do it, but you get my point. Be intentional, engage people and be creative. If an idea pops in your head, just do it, even if it sounds silly or awkward.

Why Should we do the Work of Contextualization?

Follow along with me on this train of thought for a moment.

One of the things that we see the New Testament speak of a lot is how the Christian is a servant, or a bond-servant, or even a slave of Jesus. The Apostle Paul in , identifies himself as a bond-servant of Jesus, James does the same thing at the beginning of his letter. Jesus, in matthew 6 when he says no one can serve two masters, he’s identifying himself with a master to be followed.

I think most of us are pretty comfortable with that language. We have no problem with it because we know, of course, Christ has saved me, my sins have been forgiven, I deserved eternal wrath and punishment, I have been set free, so I owe me life to Christ.

The New Testament takes this language even further, because it exhorts us to be servants of one another in the church. For some of us this is difficult, especially those of us who have been hurt by other Christians, but by and large I think most of us are cool with these passages as well. You know, all the one another commands, which we read this morning, serve one another in love. The Apostle John in his first letter declares that whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

Ok, and so again, most of us are cool with that and we understand that. But I’ve noticed that sometimes we as Christians can begin to draw kind of this hard line between how we are supposed to serve people inside the church, as if it is somehow extremely different from how we serve people outside the church.

Now are there places in Scripture which make something of a distinction between how we serve our family inside the Church and those who are outside the church. Perhaps the most well known is

Galatians 6:10 ESV

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

So, might there be a distinction? Sure. The degree to which we open ourselves up to others, how much we invite the advice or input of others, perhaps even the priority of our service in care, sure, there might be small differences there.

But not in our willingness. Not in our eagerness. Not in our intentionality. Look at what Paul says in verse 19. I have made myself a servant, which we could also translate a slave, to all.

He does not say, I have made myself a servant to people in the church, nor does he qualify his statement with “especially to those in the church.” He makes no distinction. I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more.

But why? Why should we make ourselves servants to all people? Why should we contextualize ourselves, sacrifice our preferences, give up our freedoms, to serve others?

Isn’t that what Jesus did for us?

Didn’t Jesus serve us by contextualizing the eternal and unseen God to us? He takes on human flesh so that we can understand God through our sight, he communicates in human language so we can understand God in a way that we can read and hear, he addresses all of our personal, social and cultural core concerns so that we can understand God in a way that we can feel, he takes on all of our sin in exchange for his grace, so that we can understand God in a way that we can trust.

, this beautiful passage, says that we ought to count others more significant than ourselves, because Jesus emptied himself and took on the form of a servant, so that we might be won back to God.

So where does this leave us? Loved ones, my hope and my prayer is that we will not shrink back from conversations about how to bring the gospel to bear on the people of our place and time here in Montgomery County. May God give us the wisdom, love and courage to intentionally think through these things, to engage people who aren’t like us in our context, and to be creative about it all along the way.

If this is the Jesus we know and love, then let’s trust him to work in our efforts of contextualization, so that by all means we might save some. Let’s engage others in new and powerful ways so they can hear of the grace we’ve received from Jesus. And let’s shine a light to the community around us, that more and more people might be drawn to our Savior.

Here’s the heart of the matter: Christ died to set us free. Free from the wrath of God, free from the curse of the law. Free FOR love and service to himself.

Are we using this freedom to make the gospel reach the hearts of others in our context? Or are we so far removed and indifferent about our context that we are making no connections with people in our context?

English Standard Version Chapter 9

I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

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