We have been looking at the importance of unity within the fellowship of the local church recently. The church has been given the responsibility of taking the gospel of Jesus Christ to every people group. For this to happen, there has to be a unity within the church. We have been looking in 1 Corinthians where the apostle Paul has been sharing with a group of Christians in Corinth in the first century about how to strive for unity so that the gospel work that she has been called to do can be carried out effectively. Today, we are going to continue looking at 1 Corinthians 9.
There is great debate about who the greatest basketball player of all time is. There are some that would say Michael Jordan… others would say LeBron James… To be honest, I am not an avid fan of basketball. I can enjoy a good game, but I don’t get all excited about it as I do other sports like college football or baseball.
When the discussion about greats in basketball come up, the name Kobe Bryant has to mentioned in the conversation. Here was a young guy that took the NBA by storm. He lived by what has come to be known as “Mamba Mentality.” The “Mamba Mentality” was said to be the best version of yourself as possible. It was about being singularly focused on the objective. Kobe Bryant was extremely focused and determined to be the best at whatever he set his mind to – both on the court and off.
When we see people excel at what they are in, we take notice. You have to admire someone who is willing to do whatever it takes to be the best that they can be in their field. I don’t know of many people who would strive just for a participation trophy.
Even when you look to the Bible, you see that in our faith journey with Christ there is this encouragement to “win the race.”
Don’t you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way to win the prize.
1 Corinthians 9:24 CSB
When we look at the life of the apostle Paul, it is easy to notice that he had a “Mamba Mentality” when it came to seeing others come to Christ. He had run a good and determined race in the sphere of Judaism. He had studied under one of the most prominent rabbis of the day (Gamaliel). When he came to faith in Christ on the Road to Damascus, he channeled every ounce of his energy into one thing: getting the gospel of Jesus Christ to all people.
What do you have a burden for?
As we look at the importance of unity within the local church, we should recognize that unity is about being centered around a common focus. It is not about having everything uniform. The focus that Jesus has given to each of His churches is to be centered around the work of the gospel – the message that God became a man in order to redeem sinful mankind.
We can see this played out in the life of Paul throughout the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, Paul shows the local church some steps that need to be taken in order for there to be unity among the fellowship and effectiveness in the gospel work that each church is called to do.
1. Waive my rights in order to win the lost
In the beginning verses of chapter 9, Paul had shared about how he had laid aside his right as an apostle to receive compensation for sharing the gospel from the church in Corinth so that the message could go out unhindered. In verse 19, Paul reiterates the fact that he is completely free in Christ. He is not a slave to any person. Even though this is true, Paul states that he has waived many of his rights so that he might be able to reach more people with the gospel.
In our society today, our rights are something that we cherish. We should be thankful for the rights that we have in this land. But if those rights stand in the way of us sharing the gospel with the lost, then there are times when we should waive those rights so that we might see those who are far from Christ brought close.
Paul was willing to sacrifice anything in his life if it meant that he could share the gospel with more people. He didn’t do this to receive special recognition or to be rewarded by people. He did it solely so that others might be able to experience the abundant life that comes only through Jesus Christ and the gospel.
“We are not free to live however we want and let the world go to hell.”
Bob Ingle
Paul was what has been called a “soul-winner” in the past. In these five verses, he uses the word “win” five times in speaking about winning people to Christ. As Christians, we are called to be “soul-winners.” That doesn’t mean that we save anyone. The work of salvation in a person’s life is the work of the Holy Spirit. Our part in the equation is that we have the message that brings salvation to anyone who believes and a responsibility to share it with others.
How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.
Romans 10:14–15 CSB
Paul is quick to remind the church that if there is going to be unity around the mission of the gospel, it will call for us at times to waive our rights in order to win the lost. Sometimes the greatest barrier to another person hearing the gospel is our unwillingness to waive our rights when needed.
2. Contextualize without compromise
In verses 20-22a, Paul shared about times that he had to contextualize to the situation so that he could clearly share the gospel of Jesus with others. This was not about setting aside clear biblical principles. It was more about setting aside personal preferences to advance the gospel.
- To the Jews, I became like a Jew (v 20)
- To ones under the law, like one under the law (v 20)
- To those without the law, like one without the law (v 21)
- To the weak, I became like one weak (v 22)
We need to be clear that this does not mean that we act like unbelievers to win unbelievers. We do not become alcoholics to win alcoholics. We do not become adulterers to win adulterers. We are never called to compromise the truth. Some have asked about why do we not keep all of the laws in the Old Testament. The reason for that is that there are different types of laws found in the Old Testament – moral laws and ceremonial laws. Moral laws are truths that are to be kept for all time in all places. This would be things like the Ten Commandments. Ceremonial laws applied to the nation of Israel as God was calling out a people to be separate and unique in their culture. These laws (dietary, sacrifices, etc) are not binding on all peoples at all times.
We see this concept of contextualize without compromise carried out when people are sent to different countries to share the gospel. If you have ever gone on a foreign mission trip, there were some things that you had to change in order to gain an audience with the people you were going to. Missionaries are trained in both the language and culture of the people that God is sending them so that there will not be any hindrance to the gospel getting to the people they are sent to share with.
When I went to Thailand in 1995, I had to learn that stepping or standing on the threshold of a doorway is highly offense in that culture. I had to learn that showing the bottom of my feet to others was highly offensive in that culture. Touching the top of someone’s head is highly offensive in that culture. There is nothing inherently sinful about any of these actions, but they can create great barriers to the people I was trying to reach hearing the truth of the gospel needlessly.
How do we know what should be contextualized and not? The same principle is applied that is applied to the laws of the Old Testament. How do you know an Old Testament law is moral (true for all people at all times) or ceremonial (for the nation of Israel at that time)? The principle is this: is it reinforced in the New Testament?
Paul shows us in 1 Corinthians 9 that when it came to matters that were not ethically or theologically essential or implied by Scripture, he believed in flexibility. For us to be able to do this well, we have to know what the Bible says ourselves and not just the word of someone else. We must use the wisdom that God grants to us to know how do we best contextualize without compromising the message of the gospel.
3. Modify methods without changing the message
In verses 22-23, Paul reminds the church that when it comes to sharing the gospel with others, there is not necessarily a “one size fits all” approach. There is one message that we have (the gospel of Jesus Christ), but God has given us different ways of sharing that message so that it will be understood by those who hear it.
If we as a church are going to be faithful in sharing the gospel message with people, we will come to realize that there will be times when we may have to change our methods but never change our message.
Change is a hard thing for most people. We are creatures of habit. We like things to be the same way many times because there is a comfort in “being in the know”. Too many times, we live our lives in a lazy fashion because we accept the saying, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”
The truth is that change is a part of this life. Things do not stay the same as much as we want them to. Just as a baby naturally develops into a toddler then an adolescent then into an adult, so cultures change – some for the better and some for the worse. Ways of taking the gospel to people that were effective in the past and in certain areas become difficult and unwelcome. That doesn’t mean that we are to stop sharing the gospel. We are to look to how can we modify the method so that the unchanging message of the gospel gets to where it needs to go.
This is what Paul was speaking about when he said, “I have become all things to all people, so that I may by every possible means save some” (v 22b). It is not about trying to do every program under the sun. It is about using the wisdom that God gives us to present the message clearly to those who God sends us. When the group shares the gospel in Juarez, the methods may look very different from how we would do it at the Street Fair in town in a couple of weeks.
Conclusion
As we see Paul sharing his heart with the church at Corinth, we can see that he most definitely had a “Mamba Mentality” when it came to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was willing to do whatever it took to get the gospel to those who need it. We would do well to follow suit.
It is the gospel of Jesus Christ that has given us new life. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the single most important message that is in our world. It has been entrusted to us to share with a lost and dying world. This world is not going to hear the gospel through news media or political debates. It will be the church unifying together, living in the freedom that it brings, and sharing it with those who need to hear.
My prayer is that we will unite around the unchanging message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. May we have at the forefront of our minds not our rights and freedoms but the urgency to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with those who need to hear it.
