Paul went out of his way to ensure the Good News of Jesus could be heard by all people. He did not want his own “politics” and “personality” to prevent others from dancing with Jesus. Take a few moments to think about this: When you go dancing where do you go and who do you, if anyone, take with you? Are you part of a Square Dancing Club? Do your prefer Faces in Midtown? Do you stick with school dances? Maybe you usually choose the simple privacy of your own living room?
Now wonder: With whom are you most comfortable in your identity as a follower of Jesus? With whom are you least comfortable?
Eugene Peterson translates 1 Corinthians 9.19-23 in the message like this:
Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!
When you think of “becoming a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people,” what comes to mind? What would it take for you to try something like this?
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