Bible Study 2023
Giving Up to Gain
Now in 1 Corinthians 9:19 - 27 this evening, \we study this exciting letter. The whole subject of evangelism from Paul, talks about winning people. He continually talks about this. He talks about running to obtain. He talks about a reward. And what he has in mind here is winning people to Christ. Evangelism: discipling, training leaders and winning people to Christ.
First of all, he had the right message. One of the reasons that people are not effective in evangelism is because they really don’t know what the message is. They’re not sure about the content of the Gospel. Or they’re afraid to get into a conversation because somebody will get them away from what they know and ask them something they don’t know, and they don’t know how to answer.
The second thing that made Paul effective in evangelism was that he had a compelling motive. He said in 2 Corinthians 5 that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive for the things done in the body, whether they be worthless or valuable. He knew he was going to face the record of his life and his service. So, out of love for Christ to someday have Christ say, “Well done, Paul.”
Thirdly, he had a sense of a divine call. In 1 Corinthians 9:16, he said, “Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! I am compelled by God to do it.” He knew God had commissioned him. He knew that he was simply called upon to obey a divine call that occurred on the Damascus Road. In 1 Timothy 1, he says, “I thank Christ Jesus who counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.’
Fourthly, he was successful because he was bold. In Romans 1:16 he said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes; to the Jew first and also to the Gentile.” And this boldness that enabled him to say in Philippians 1:21, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain,” was one other reason for his success.
Fifthly, he had the energizing of the Holy Spirit. He knew what it was to walk in the Spirit. He knew how to be be kept filled with the Spirit. He knew what it was to obey the Spirit. He knew what it was to avoid grieving the Spirit. In Acts 13, where the Holy Spirit said, “Separate to Me Paul and Barnabas for the work which I have called them to,” he experienced the power of the Holy Spirit.
A sixth reason that he was successful in evangelism was that he had a strategy. He was able to take all of these spiritual realities and funnel them through an approach that worked. First he went to the synagogue, won some people to Christ, and then he had a coterie of co-evangelists, and they attacked the Gentile community. And he had that same strategy everywhere he went.
Seventhly, he had an unwavering desire to see people saved. He loved people. He cared that people not go to hell. He said in Romans 1, “I am a debtor.” In other words, “I owe them a debt because I know something they desperately need to know. That makes me responsible to tell them. I know the answer that can change that, and I owe them at least the message. What I do with it is a debt.”
And eighthly, the ingredient that made him so successful, is to sacrifice anything and everything in his life if it might mean he could win more people to Christ. He was willing to set aside everything to win people. Verse 19, “Even though I am a free man with no master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ.” Now, that’s the heart of this text: “That I might gain the more.”
Verse 20-21, “When I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ. When I was with those who follow the Jewish law, I too lived under that law. Even though I am not subject to the law, I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law. 21 When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ.”
But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ. To win people to Christ is the point. Now, he’s illustrating a principle to the Corinthians, and it is the principle that love limits our liberty. Paul says, “No, you now have the freedom to do some things technically, but if you do them, you’re going to make somebody else stumble, and you ought to limit your freedom by your love for that person.”
It all came about because the Corinthian people were asking him a question whether they should eat meat offered to idols. And he said, “Well, it’s not wrong in itself, but it’s wrong if when you do that you offend other Christians. Or if you do that and other people think that that’s wrong, then you have really put yourself in a wrong position, even doing something that in itself isn’t wrong.”
He says, “Basically, there are two items that will make you able to limit your liberty. One is self-denial, and the other is self-control. And really, they’re very much the same. But he’s going to show that in order for us, as Christians, to be able to say, “Hey, I have the freedom to do that; that is not sin in the Bible. But at the same time say, ‘But I don’t want to do that because it might offend somebody.’
Let’s look, first at self-denial in verses 19 to 23. In other words, he is saying, “Look, I have learned that a relationship to God is not a relationship related in any sense to ritual, to custom, or to tradition, or to ceremonies. I am not bound to keep Jewish ceremonies. I am not bound to eat certain things and not eat certain other things. I am not bound to Jewish ceremonies and Jewish tradition.
On the other hand, I am free from all Gentile tradition as well. I am free from all the routines and the rituals of Gentile life. I am free in the fact that I have a relationship to God that is based on the work of Jesus Christ and that is personal, internal and separate from all externals. I have the liberty then to reject all ceremony, all externals, and all side issues.”
“Yet I have made myself a slave to all.” He doesn’t have to technically, but he has. He is free, yet a slave. That is not an uncommon paradox. In Exodus 21:1-6, it says that if a slave reaches the place where he has the right to be freed, he also has the right to come back to you and say, “But I don’t want to be free. My service to you is not an act of obedience nearly as much as it is an act of love.”
Now, the word there, to enslave, the verb to make yourself a slave, is very strong. He is denying himself in the truest sense. He follows the pattern of Jesus, who said in Mark 10:44, “Whoever would be chief among you, let him be your servant,” And that’s precisely what Jesus was, for in the next verse it says, “I even came not to be served, but to serve and to give my life a ransom for many.”
So, Paul says, “I’m willing to sacrifice everything to be your servant.” It goes just as far as it needs to go to reach somebody. Anything that stands in the way. And Paul gives the reason in verse 19, “In order that I might gain more.” He said in Romans 11:14, “For I want somehow to make the people of Israel jealous of what you Gentiles have, so I might save some of them.”
Here is a practical illustration in Acts 15. The Jerusalem Council was meeting to try to determine what they should do with the Gentile converts. They were still hung up on Jewish tradition. So Gentiles were getting saved. And the Judiazers were saying, “But they can’t be real Christians; they haven’t been circumcised.” But James, the chairman, said. “We’re not going to add anything.”
They’ve turned to God; we’ve seen it; that’s beautiful. There’s nothing to add; don’t trouble them. Let’s accept them as they are. But, abstain from pollutions of idols,” that means meat offered to idols. That’s precisely the Corinthian problem. That was not only a hindering to Gentile converts, but that was a hindering to Jewish people. Second, “Stay away from fornication.”
Thirdly, “Stay away from things strangled.” The Gentiles would eat certain things that had been strangled as a way of killing them. And that means that they had never been cut with an open wound. And that was wrong for a Jew because a Jew had to have the blood drained before he could eat anything. It would have blood in it, and that would be a violation of their traditional law, their ceremony.
Fourth, “Stay away from blood.” The Gentiles, in many of their ceremonies, drank blood. Why did they say, “Now, it’s all right; we accept you in the family, but would you do these four things? Stay away from meat offered to idols; stay away from fornicating idolatrous activities; stay away from things strangled, and from blood.” Why? Verse 21, “For Moses of old has, in every synagogue, has preached that.”
Look at Acts 16:1, “Paul went first to Derbe and then to Lystra, where there was a young disciple named Timothy. His mother was a Jewish believer, but his father was a Greek.” Timothy is a child of a mixed marriage, and in the Jewish world, he would be considered a Gentile because his father was a Gentile, and his mother would be considered a traitor because she had married a Gentile.
Verse 2-3, “Timothy was well thought of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium, 3 so Paul wanted him to join them on their journey. In deference to the Jews of the area, he arranged for Timothy to be circumcised before they left, for everyone knew that his father was a Greek.” Did he believe he had to be circumcised to be saved?” Nope. Paul’s ministry, in his strategy, was first of all in every town to go to the Jews.
He knew that his companion would have to have acceptability. So, Paul says, “We need to circumcise him, not for salvation, but to have entrance to evangelize the Jew so the Jew will at least accept him as a proselyte, as somebody who has adopted Judaism.” Does it violate grace? No, it was only done to enable him to have entrance into the Jewish community together with Paul.
Verse 20, “When I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ. When I was with those who follow the Jewish law, I too lived under that law. Even though I am not subject to the law, I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law.” He’s saying, “Even though I’m not under the ceremonial law, I will put myself under their ceremonies; in order to win them.”
Verse 21, “When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ. But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ.” And that is the law of love. He says, “I’m not talking about moral things; I’m not talking about ceremony. Please don’t misunderstand me, I don’t mean I reject the law of love given by our Lord Jesus Christ.”
When he was in Jerusalem, he would follow the Jewish customs. When he went to Antioch, in Galatians 2, he ate with the Gentiles and ate the way the Gentiles ate. Paul had fallen right into the Gentile patterns of Antioch, and it didn’t bother him at all. But it still bothered Peter’s conscience. And to clear the misunderstanding, he says, “I’m not talking about the law of love regarding Christ.”
Verse 22, “When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some.” That is not unlike the Roman Catholics today. Many of them are coming to Christ. Not all of them are yet coming out of the Church. Here are some who are still zealous of the traditions of the Jewish style of life.
Verse 23, “I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.” What a man. What a life. The guy had one thought, “How can I win people? I do everything for the gospel’s sake. My whole life is set with that intention, that I might be a partaker of it with you. I want you and me to be in a family together. And so, I’ll do anything to see that happen.” Self-denial.
I’m going to have to discipline myself. In verse 24, he uses an athletic metaphor, “Do you know that only one wins the price?” he says to the Corinthians. Now, notice, people, the prize is not salvation; it is winning men to Christ. Verse 25, “All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal undefiled prize.”
So, athletes deny themselves many lawful pleasures, many rights. So must the Christian. Verse 26, “So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing.” I know where the opponent is, and I flatten him.” Verse 27, “I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.”
Paul says, “The one thing I would never want to happen to me would be for me to be the guy who gives everybody else the rules and then gets in the race and breaks them and is disqualified. I’m the apostle who spreads the word. What would happen if I became disqualified? And I could be disqualified if I didn’t subdue the body.” And he sets for us the model of how we ought to live. Let us pray.