Thought provoking...

Yesterday Andrea and I attended a new church because even though we love Scum of the Earth Church in Denver it takes a great commitment to even go to a service once a week, and we really can't participate more than that. We are hoping to find a new church home closer to home. The church had a guest speaker who is a missionary. He is in a few weeks relocating his young family to central Asia to share the gospel there.

He brought up a passage from 1st Corinthians 9, which reads:
"Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 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. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings."


I've read this passage, and have heard it in the church setting numerous times but I don't think it ever really hit me the way it did yesterday. Here the Apostle Paul says he "became like" different communities of people in order to reach them with the gospel message. Here's the one difference I never noticed: When he wrote about ministering to weak people he does not say that he "became like" he was weak, but he said, "to the weak I became weak". Paul doesn't spell out what this looked like. Maybe it meant he became vulnerable, or cast his pride away, or lived meagerly. Maybe that meant he suffered oppression along with those who were oppressed instead of demanding better or just treatment. Whatever Paul meant by "became weak", we know that weakness involves a special level of humility.


From time to time a church I'm attending sings the ever popular hymn "I Surrender All" or the Lincoln Brewster song entitled "Surrender". Both songs speak of giving up everything for Christ.

"I'm giving you my dreams, I'm laying down my rights

I'm giving up my pride for the promise of new life"

(- From Surrender)

Do we actually believe the things we sing? Are we being honest? A.W Tozer would suggest this, "Christians don't tell lies they just go to church and sing them." Speaking for myself, I'm not being honest when I sing that I'm laying down my rights, or that I'm surrendering everything. There are things I expect, comforts I love, and legal protections I take for granted. Unless I can die to myself I don't think there is truly a way to be follow in Apostle Paul or Christ's footsteps and  be weak for the sake of others.  

Are we being vulnerable? 

Are we seeking to be weak or strong?