1 Corinthians 9:22-23, "To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings."
When people receive a message from God, they should obey it at once. The person who brings that message may belong to their nation, or not. He may follow their laws and customs, or not. These things should not matter to the people; they must obey God. However, the reality is that people do care about these things, because of their weakness.
People also do many other foolish and wrong things because of weakness. Like Cain, they are jealous of the person whom God approves of (Genesis 4:4-5). Like Joseph’s brothers, they hate the person who receives God’s message (Genesis 37:5-8). Like Jonah, they dislike the message that God has given (Jonah chapter 4).
Paul understood this human weakness. He knew that it comes from a person’s desire to please himself. It becomes very clear when a person allows his emotions to control his decisions, attitudes or behavior.
Of course Paul was not doing that. Instead, he recognised people’s weaknesses. He could help those people, because he too had felt such feelings. In fact, for many years, he had behaved like that (Galatians 1:13-14). But now he wanted to save people from it.
So Paul declared God’s message to everyone. He lived humbly among them. He served them in every kind of way. He did not consider himself greater than them. He urged them to trust God as he himself had done. And the result would be that, together, he and they would share God’s goodness.
Dear God, I pray that all those I love will trust You fully!
No comments:
Post a Comment