“All Things To All People?”
Text: 1 Corinthians 9:16-23
2-4-2024
In the name of the Father, and the Son +, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Last week in the Epistle lesson, St. Paul warned the Corinthians that they should be careful to not use their spiritual knowledge with reckless abandon and thereby offend a weaker believer. He warned that we should be willing to give up some of our “rights” so that we don’t become a stumbling block to others who might be less mature in their faith. Well, that was chapter 8, and now in chapter 9 Paul takes up that theme again and expands it. He says that to the Jews he became like a Jew to win them over. And to those “outside the law,” that is, the Gentiles, Paul says he became like them to win them over. To the weak, he became weak. Then he sums it all up by saying, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.”
Are you comfortable with that? I mean, it almost sounds like Paul is flip-flopping theologically; constantly changing his doctrine so that he’ll fit in. Perhaps a contemporary illustration is our current election process. Sad to say, quite often politicians will talk out of both sides of their mouth. Depending on who their audience is, the message gets adapted. To one group they claim to be pro-choice. To others, they swear they’re anti-abortion. They do the same with gay marriage, taxes, green energy, and farm subsidies. When it comes to anything controversial, they wet their finger and stick it in the air to see which way the political wind is blowing. That way they can adopt a policy stance that is “all things to all people.”
So is that what St. Paul is up to here? After all, he says that when he was hanging out with Jews, he acted just like them. And when he was with Gentiles, he would be like them. All of it is cloaked in the noble intention of winning them over to Christ. The end justifies the means, right? A well-meaning Christian might very well come to that conclusion and say, “See? It doesn’t really matter how we go about winning souls for Jesus, as long as we get them into the Church!” Is that the lesson that Paul was conveying when he said that he had become “all things to all people, that by all means I might save some?”
Not hardly. If that were so then St. Paul would be one of the biggest hypocrites who had ever walked this earth. Especially considering what had happened in Galatia. There was a group of Jewish converts to Christianity who insisted that in order to become a Christian you first had to abide by all the Jewish customs such as circumcision, not eating pork, and celebrating the Old Testament festivals. When those folks weren’t around, Peter associated freely with the non-Jewish converts, eating in their homes, and socializing with them. But when these legalistic Jewish converts came to town, Peter acted like the Gentile Christians were unclean. He didn’t want to catch any flak, so he separated himself from the Gentile converts. Paul witnessed this and confronted him about it because it compromised the Gospel and sent a mixed message about our salvation. We are saved by grace and not by the works of the law. It can’t be both ways.
That’s key in understanding St. Paul’s words in our text. You can be assured that Paul wasn’t endorsing such hypocrisy when he wrote that he had “become all things to all people.” So, what was he really getting at? Well, it ties in with what he said about not causing a weaker brother in the faith to stumble. Let me put it into a modern context and I think you’ll get the gist of the principle he’s setting down. If I were trying to evangelize a Muslim, I wouldn’t invite him over when I was having a pig roast because pork is a no-no to them. On the other hand, I’m not going to join him at a mosque for the daily prayers just so that I can make him feel comfortable talking to me. Either way, I’m not compromising the truth of the Gospel. I’m simply understanding where that person is coming from and being sensitive to it. In fact, I’d be foolish if I didn’t do my homework on what Muslims believe before meeting with such a person. Knowing their teachings will open the door for me to relate the truth of the Gospel in ways that they can comprehend.
Contrary to what you may think, being “all things to all people” is not a free-for-all where we embrace everything and anything. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. Our task is to speak the Gospel to people who find themselves in a wide variety of circumstances, and we apply it to their lives in ways which show them the beauty of God’s truth and ways. And we do it without ever compromising one iota of God’s Word. That creates a tension for us at times. Let me show you what I mean. I have a nephew who is a practicing homosexual. My heart breaks because I love him and yet I know what God says about this sin. When the news first came out, our communication suffered. Strangely enough, I was the one who was stereotyped. Since I’m a Missouri Synod Lutheran Pastor, it was assumed that I would preach fire and brimstone condemnation. But I didn’t. I gently tried to make it clear that while my love was still strong, I couldn’t condone this lifestyle because God doesn’t. On the other hand, some of my other relatives totally accepted it and acted as if it was kind of cool and modern and normal. My relationship with him, however, was at a stalemate.
But then I found a book that really opened my eyes to many of the dynamics that can lead a person to make this choice. So I contacted my nephew and said I now better understood him and his circumstances. I offered to send a copy of the book and he accepted! It was amazing, because just that little effort opened a dialogue that had gone dead. We had something to discuss. I simply met him where he was at. I didn’t have to compromise the truth of the Gospel in so doing. Unfortunately, he barely skimmed the book and discredited everything it said. That makes me sad but at least I know he’s heard the truth even if he rejected it. Perhaps someday that kernel of God’s truth will turn him back to the Gospel.
We deal with that same tension within the Church because there is a whole slew of sins which our world condones and even celebrates. How do we address the contemporary issues in our culture which clearly violate God’s Law, without compromising the Gospel? In other words, how do we remain warm and welcoming to the people around us while remaining true to God’s Word? How do we speak the message of God’s unchangeable truth to a world that’s constantly changing? The answer is not found in altering or adapting God’s Word to fit our culture. Instead, St. Paul’s admonition is our guide. Showing love and concern for our fellow sinners, we meet them where they are at. We gently but persuasively show them that God truly does have a better way. Most of all, we can express to them God’s love and forgiveness which is for them and for all people.
You know, there is an aspect of this being “all things to all people” that requires some humility and painful honesty on our part. Just before those words, St. Paul says, “To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak.” Of all people, Paul understood just how weak of a sinner he was. Read the latter part of Romans chapter 7 sometime. The apostle confesses that he struggled with sin, and in his weakness, he sometimes gave in. And in 1 Timothy 1:15 he says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,of whom I am the worst.”(NIV) Paul didn’t place himself above the sinners he was speaking to. He didn’t look down his nose at them. Instead, he admitted his own sinful weakness. He met them right where they were at. That opened the door for him to share the good news that God can rescue us from the sin that entraps us. Paul was living proof of it and so are you and I. No, that doesn’t mean we go around telling people all the nasty, sinful things that we have thought, said, or done. But since we’ve received God’s forgiveness for all our sins, we can tell our fellow sinners of our gracious Lord who wants to do the same for them.
Jesus Christ came into our world to secure our salvation. He came here to earth so that He could be “all things to all people.” His atoning death on the Cross covers each and every last sin of every person without exception. That Gospel message is for all people of all time. May our gracious God give us the wisdom to convey that message of love and forgiveness without changing or compromising it. And may we, like Paul, “become all things to all people” so that they too may be saved. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!