The Gospel Coalition, Session 10 - D.A. Carson

Text

1Cor. 9:19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

Exposition

In 1998 in a journal Evangelical Missions Quarterly, there came an article C1-C6 spectrum. The name of the author was John Travis. The name was a pseudonym or had been serving in an Asian Musilm community for over 20 years. The “C” stood for Christ-centered community. We will use Islam as an example.

C1 - Believers exists as an distinct ethnic community and start English churches.

C2 –This is the same as the first. But this time, the church looks, deals and sounds like a western church only uses indigenous language.

C3 – These are people who are happy to adopt the cultural features of local the environment that are non-religious. So converts in this system, think of themselves as former Muslims and are perceived as former Muslims, by the community. They adapt to cultural forms.

C4 – These people are often called contextualized communities adopting many Islamic forms wherever it is believed that the Bible does not forbid such forms. For them, many forms of their worship are Islamic in pattern. The converts are still not viewed as Muslims by Muslims however.

C5 - These folks are viewed as Muslims by Muslims but claim to still hold biblical convictions. They are really open to what is permissible. They adopt most of things in Islamic culture.

C6 –These are underground communities in hiding.

Those who defend the c5 scale appeal to Acts 15. “There is no God but Allah” and we can recite this because we do believe in one God. C5 supporters also regularly appeal to 1Cor 9, our text for today. The emerging church uses some of the same arguments. “To the postmodern we become postmodern” etc.

No one compelled Titus to be circumcised, but Paul and the others agreed that he did not have to be. Paul decided to do it, so that he could be a little more helpful to those in whom he was trying to reach. So, should be not seek to be flexible like Titus?

But are their not some limits? To the child molester I became a child molester. To the adulterer I became an adulterer.

Paul says, “to the weak I became weak”. The whole flow of Paul’s argument shapes how we should understand 9:19-23.

I. Paul’s Approach to the Weak and Strong (Ch 8)

Paul wants to talk about food that been sacrificed to idols. He says knowledge is important, but it also puffs up. So, anything I am about to say, need to be seen in light of that, and in light of love. But having said that, we know that an idol is nothing in the world. Tim Keller helped us to see that there is a tension however when it comes to idols. They are nothing, but they are very dangerous at the same time. So before we have too much flexibility, we better see the dangers present. Here, it is not participating in the worship service in one of the pagan temples, but rather food left over from this temple service.

In Paul’s letter he responds to reports he has received, namely chapters 5-7. When you read this, you can see a divided church. Thus he has a yes/but type of argumentations. This yes/but argumentation constrains almost all of his argumentation, except when we get to his instruction on the Lord’s supper when it is all BUT and no yes.

So what does he introduce this “but” in chapter 8? The issue is preserving the integrity of the individual conscience. Be careful that the exercise of your rights (your perfect right to do so as a Christian) does not become a stumbling block to the weak. The weak is a person who has sensitivity, thinking something is wrong, even when it is not. Deep down, this person thinks that it is still not right for him to do it. Isn’t it amazing that Paul does not want you to harm your conscience, even if your conscience is so weak that it is ill-informed about what is right and wrong. A mature Christian should not lead such a person astray.

In some circles, some Christians abuse this passage. I don’t think you should drink alcohol, because I do not like it and if you do, you will offend me. “Do you think no Christian can drink, that a person who drinks is not a Christian, or cannot be a Christian.” If they say yes, I say, pass me the corkscrew. (lot’s of laughter) The word of God will not allow anyone or anything to jeopardize the sufficiency of Scripture.

II. Paul’s Approach To His Own Rights (Ch 9)

Paul asks a sting of rhetorical questions to clarify who he is. Particularly Paul is clarifying what he means when he uses the word apostle because it had rather broad usage in his day. Paul means, I have seen Jesus the Lord, so I pass that test as an apostle. In this sense there are only about 500 potentials. But then he says, he received his commission from Jesus. So this narrows the group even more. He says, look, I am an apostle in the strictest sense.

In light of that, do I not have the right to … (list)

Apparently, when these apostles went around they took their families with them. Paul defends his right to be married and to not have to work for a living etc. Even though Paul did not choose to do this, he defends the right. He did accept money from an earlier church. In this case he was not being paid for services rendered but for future ministry.

This was written for us. We read and we need the principle of farming and sharing in the harvest. He then uses a temple metaphor. Paul is saying that “a worker is worthy of his hire”. Nevertheless, Paul affirms that he has not used any of these liberties.

“I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me. I would rather die than let anyone deprive me of this boast (that I do not follow my rights) for when I preach the gospel I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. If I preach voluntarily, I have my reward, but if not voluntarily it is still a stewardship ”

This may be an allusion to the Damascus road. Paul’s conversion is so tied into his mission that he cannot separate them. The two are tied up intimately. Paul feels the compulsion to preach the gospel as it is bound up with his entire conversion. Paul feels constrained. So how does he demonstrate, that despite this degree of compulsion, this is his heart.

Paul is showing that he is in this work with his whole heart and soul.

III. Paul Speaks About Flexibility In His Preaching (19-23)

A. He has to flex because he does not belong to any of these categories anymore. Paul knows that at the end of the day he is racially and ethnically a Jew. Paul is grateful for his heritage. But then he says, “to the Jews I become a Jew”, assuming that he is not one when he knows he is. So he clarifies, “I become like one under the law.” Paul is not under law as covenant, I am under the new covenant. It is not the act in itself that is significant, it is whether something is undermining the sufficiency of Jesus. He also has to flex because he does not fit with the Gentiles either. If he is not under the law covenantally, how does he have to flex in order to be like Gentiles. He inserts a parenthetical statement, “I am not free from God’s law”, but “I am under Christ’s law”. He is saying, I am not lawless, I am not antinomian, I am under the law which is Christ’s.

But still, how is he flexing? To the weak I became weak to win the weak. He cannot mean “weak” in the exact same sense he meant it in chapter 8, because they were Christians and here the weak are those he wants to win. They are probably Gentiles who have gotten close enough to Christianity that they have some real problems with idolatry now. These Gentiles do not have the OT law, but they have a weak conscience. Paul is in the third position, under Christ’s law. So he has to flex. He has to flex because he does not belong to any of these categories.

B. He has to flex because he wants to win people in all of these categories.
If Paul is in this position, he is trying to win others and want them to become like him. He is a Christian living in a third position, and once he flexes to them, he wants to move them out of their problem areas and move them into his third position, which is the Christian position. This means, if they become Christians, they will have to learn to flex with their own people. Thus, if you want to make the flex to make the gospel accessible in a postmodern context, you have to understand that in order to win them, you do so in order to get them to leave their position and embrace the third position which is Christ’s. This is where the mistake of C5 is so desperately profound. It does not recognize that there are idols everywhere. The aim is not to leave them as C5. How is this a Christ-centered community at all? The goal is to get them out of this category.

C. He has to flex because he wants to participate in the Gospel category (v.23)
Most of our English versions render it this way, I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. But the original is more literal, namely, the NET translation carries it, “I do all these things because of the gospel, so that I can be a participant in it.” Jesus identifies with sinners, in fact he does it so much that in the end he takes our place. Union with Christ undergirds justification. He comes to me in the form of a human being and my sin and his righteousness are exchanged forensically. We must not read this text without the flow in mind. But if we read it with the flow in mind we will understand it. Jesus so desires to serve in his leadership that he dies a ransom for the sins of man. When Paul says that he does this for the sake of the gospel that he might be a participant in it, he is saying that he wants to participate in the gospel. Paul wants to be a participant in the gospel, even the fellowship of its sufferings. He is saying, I am not only believing in the gospel, I am living it. Paul is dying to self, taking up his cross, and living to others.

Key Point: In other words, the flexibility of accommodation in this passage is the flexibility of the messenger not the message. Paul is so identifying with the third position, that he will have to flex in order to win those outside that position. He will have to flex himself, not the message.

Applications

1. As messengers we have to change and be flexible to those in whom we are ministering to get them to the third poison, which is Christ.

2. Participate in the gospel. We are called not only to believe in his name, but to suffer for his sake.

Closing Prayer.