This is the eighth lesson in a series on 1 Corinthians. Please read
all about it in the Introduction. I’ve broken the post into sections with
journal prompts at the end of each part. These would be great stopping points.
I’ve also linked the Scripture references to biblegateway.com; click the blue
font references. I’d love to hear what you’re learning in the comments!
Week 7: Freedom to go Right-less (1
Corinthians 9)
I have teased before that I
am going to relegate my blog posts to a discussion of ice cream. Because with
almost every post I write there is a testing period. A chance to prove only to
myself that I’m not just writing “talking”
about the lesson, but am also willing to walk in it.
{Although, I think I would probably get more traffic
if I wrote about ice cream}.
This is one of those
lessons. As I sit down to write what I’m learning I am squarely confronted with opportunities I’ve had to demand rights I feel are owed to me
or rest in the freedom I POSSESS to give them up and let them go. Even as I’m
tempted to swing to the opposite extreme {martyr
syndrome} and willingly forfeit my self-declared due rights, I am reminded
that unless that willingness is on a God-led path to advance the gospel it’s
for nothing and I might as well keep fighting.
Fun. This is why I wish I could
write about ice cream.
“The challenge to the Christian woman is to remove
those obstacles of her own making along the pathway of faith. She must make
choices that “seek…the good of the other person” (10:24) and make her above
reproach. But she must never think that she can or should remove the obstacle
of the cross. If someone is going to stumble on the pathway of faith let it be
over Christ crucified – not Christians vilified.” (Patterson/Kelley, 435).
I love this quote as it
bridges chapter 8 and 9. Choosing what to let go and what to hold tight is
crucial in a life of faith. I have freedom, you have freedom, to let go of
well-deserved rights because we always
fall safely into Jesus. Always. When we are betrayed or misunderstood or
wrong or right or struggling or successful or confident or terrified – in all
places at all times we belong to Him. Nothing can change that. So can we
finally let that be enough and quit being so demanding of one another? The
Truth of the cross and the advance of the gospel should always be our goal….everything
else falls away.
Journal
Prompt: Have you ever thought about protecting your rights before? What does
being free to let go of your rights mean to you?
Defense of Rights
Read 1 Corinthians 9:1-14
This passage reminds me of
the awkward feeling when you walk into a conversation or a meeting and are
surprised by unexpected tension. Don’t you just want to tiptoe backward and
pretend you never heard anything? I alternate between wanting to avoid these issues
and feeling defensive for Paul. In the first three verses he states his
connection to the Corinthian believers and then he lays out a defense citing
the habits of Christian leaders in his day (3-6),
the traditions of Judaism (8-9), and
common sense examples from every day life (7).
He even brings up the actions of the Corinthian church toward other leaders (11-12).
And just as I’m ready to
high five him for putting those pesky Corinthians in their place the “nevertheless”
in the second half of verse 12 robs me of all swagger and leaves me "high-five hanging….."
His whole point in bringing
up all of his rights was to trash them in verse 12. He would rather endure
anything than “put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.” (ESV). In the NIV it says Paul would rather “put up with anything than hinder the gospel” and the Message
says, “Our decision all along has been to
put up with anything rather than to get
in the way or detract from the Message of Christ.”
Look at this interesting gem
I found in my studies…{this corresponds
to the words in bold in the Scripture references above}:
“Paul’s word for
hinder is unusual (here only in the New Testament). It means ‘a cutting
into’, and was used of breaking up a road to prevent the enemy’s advance. Paul
had avoided doing anything that might prevent a clear road to the gospel
advance.” (Morris, 133)
When was the last time that
I used this question before I sought after something I rightly deserved? What would happen if church people started using this criteria?
Instead of asking:
I should be asking:
Is there anything about this
expectation or demand that will chop up a smooth trip for another person
seeking the Truth about Jesus?
Oh, so hard. I just want to
quit here. I miss this mark with such completeness I don’t even want to move
on. {Seriously, I’m totally pouting;
clicking save and exit}
“It is certainly easier to demand your own way,
especially when you are deserving. However, Paul had already surrendered his
life first to Christ and then to others. He was very willing to sacrifice his
comforts for the greater cause.” (Kelley, Patterson, 436)
Journal
Prompt: Think of a place in your life right now where your rights are not being
honored. How can you apply this day’s lesson to that situation?
Boasting
So I quit this lesson for
awhile, but I’m back. I can’t leave us there.
Today we will do some more
cross-referencing to see more fully what Paul is teaching us.
First let’s look at “boasting” which is not typically a
positive word. This is what my Study Bible said, “Paul uses this word not in its usual sense of pride that steals glory
from God, but rather as expressing a rightful sense of joy and fulfillment in
what God has done through him.” (ESV, 2203) When I studied further I saw
that more literally the end of verse 15 reads “for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my
glorying void.” (Zodhiates, 561).
Let’s try to contemporize
this. Let’s say you are passed over for a position in leadership or service at
church. Being convicted by 1 Corinthians 9, instead of harboring a grudge or
pushing forward in your right to have that spot, you recognize your freedom to
let it go and seek to serve in a different way. Because of that freedom and
willingness to keep the Gospel Road smooth you are able to minister in a way no
one else did. You are able to disciple an individual that would’ve been
overlooked, minister creatively to someone who really needed it, lead a seeker
to the true gospel for the first time. Once that whole scenario is played out,
how would you feel about the Spirit-led results of your humble obedience? THAT
place, the one you just imagined or have experienced is your ground for
boasting. And the original “right” you expected would actually have drained
your service of God’s glory, made it void.
Read the following verses to
see Paul’s example of this….
Journal
Prompt: What did you learn from the list of verses above and how do they apply
to your life today?
One last little nugget in
this section: do you see the word stewardship in verse 17? Notice the lack of choice here. Paul chooses
to give up his rights, and he accepts his calling as if there were no choice.
As we are moving into a more controversial section about being “all things to all people,” please
remember this starting point. For Paul, for us, the advance of the True Gospel
is not optional. There are a few core points upon which there is no negotiation
– no matter the context or the culture. This “gospel choiceless-ness” must be the first step before we can begin
heading out into representing Jesus in our culture.
And so we move on to the “For…” introducing us to the rest of
chapter 9.
All Things to All People
Read 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, and note I’ve linked it in 4 versions.
Take a few minutes to read
each of them. Note in your journal the phrases from each translation that
really stick out to you.
Here are mine:
- slave to everyone to win as many as possible…
- by all possible means I might save some…
- I am free in every way from anyone’s control…
- I am especially keeping within and committed to the law of Christ…
- by all means (at all costs and in any and everyway)…
- share blessing alongside you…
- try to find common ground with everyone…
- religious, non-religious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralist, the defeated, the demoralized – whoever…
- I kept my bearings in Christ – but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view…
- I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!
As I consider these verses,
I see Paul’s willingness to re-enter his old life, confront his former
prejudices, and patiently endure those who by their nature challenge his convictions
and pride. I see two questions for application for us:
- Are we willing to do this?
- How far is too far?
“But in the morally gray area of life…Paul bends over
backwards to be sensitive to the non-Christian mores of society around him so
as not to hinder people from accepting the gospel. He does not assume that all
aspects of culture are inherently evil but practices what has come to be called
the contextualization of the gospel – changing the forms of the message precisely in order to preserve its content. Then Christianity stands the best chance of
being understood and even accepted. Sadly, Christians of many eras have instead
tended to be more sensitive to the legalism of fellow church members and have
too quickly censured contemporary social customs, alienating themselves from
the very people they should have been trying to win to Christ.” (Blomberg, 186)
Contextualization can be a
polarizing concept. It’s biblical as we see in this passage, but it can become
a catchphrase describing a place of such cultural understanding that there is
no spiritual distinctiveness. For example, I have a friend serving in another
culture. This friend and her family wear the clothes, eat the food, speak the
language, and generally adapt to the cultural norms of those around them…but
even in that respect for culture, they always look for every opportunity to
share the Gospel. When I visited them a few years ago our trip overlapped with
a Muslim holiday. The holiday celebration included the sacrifice of a ram or
goat. We spent some very special time in a home there, hearing the customs and
stories and eating the food these people had sacrificed greatly to have for us
on this day of celebration. And when the door opened up for my believing friend
to share – she did so, in their language while I nodded and smiled and gave her
Story and presence there credibility as she lives among people who often only
see the Gospel as an obstacle and stumbling block. Had my friend only cared to
be accepted by and accepting of another culture she would just blend in.
Although it isn’t easy to minister there, we can sometimes see the boundary
lines in an example like this more clearly. What about in our own culture?
I found an article by Tullian Tchividjian on the Gospel
Coalition’s website {here} that helped me understand this better, especially as we are
drawing the boundary line between contextualization and compromise. Here’s part
of it:
“Becoming “all things to all people”, therefore, does
not mean fitting in with the fallen patterns of this world so that there is no
distinguishable difference between Christians and non-Christians. While rightly
living “in the world,” we must avoid the extreme of accommodation—being “of the
world.” It happens when Christians, in their attempt to make proper contact
with the world, go out of their way to adopt worldly styles, standards, and
strategies.
When Christians try to eliminate the
counter-cultural, unfashionable features of the biblical message because those
features are unpopular in the wider culture—for example, when we reduce sin to
a lack of self-esteem, deny the exclusivity of Christ, or downplay the reality
of knowable absolute truth—we’ve moved from contextualization to compromise.
When we accommodate our culture by jettisoning key themes of the gospel, such
as suffering, humility, persecution, service, and self-sacrifice, we actually
do our world more harm than good. For love’s sake, compromise is to be avoided
at all costs.”
Last year at a retreat I
taught on Esther and Daniel and the need for us to be counter-cultural not
anti-cultural. I set up four chairs on the stage. They were set up in pairs two
of them side-by-side facing the other two, which were also side-by-side. I
asked a volunteer to come sit in one of the chairs. To illustrate being anti-cultural I stood on a chair
opposite her and talked down to her while she sat. I believe this to be the most damaging interaction with culture. To illustrate being overly cultural (compromise) I sat in the chair next
to her with my arm around her and our attention both being drawn to what was in
front of and around us. We had the same cultural viewpoint in every way. While in this example I've lost my goal of engaging in order to further her faith journey toward the gospel, at least I haven't burned any bridges. But still, I'm wasting time here. To illustrate
being counter-cultural I sat in the
chair directly opposite her. Knee to knee, eye-to-eye, engaging and asking and
answering and caring.
I did the same illustration in my Sunday School class yesterday, here are the pics.
 |
| Anti-Cultural (but add a meaner face) |
 |
| Overly-Cultural (Compromise) |
 |
| Counter-Cultural |
 |
| Awkwardly Counter-Cultural |
Journal
Prompt: Where are some places in your life where you need to become all things
to all people? In the example above, are you anti-cultural, overly cultural, or
counter-cultural?
Run
“Corinth was the center of the Isthmian Games, which
took place very two years. The streets of the city and the hillsides of the
Acrocorinth would have been full of athletes in training for these prestigious
events.” (Prior, 163)
Practicing what he’s just
preached, Paul uses a culturally relevant example to make a spiritual point. Point
is: don’t waste your life demanding your rights and missing opportunities to do
what matters most, serving Jesus with great effectiveness.
“Paul is not like a runner who does not know where
the finishing-line is, or a boxer who hits nothing but air (either shadow
punching or missing his opponent). Paul’s Christianity is purposeful. He puts
everything into direct and forceful Christian endeavor.” (Morris, 137-138).
A life lived to be right (lesson from chapter 8 last week)
or to
demand your rights (lesson from chapter 9
this week)
is as dumb as shadow punching.
Disqualified in verse 27
means “has not stood the test” (Morris, 138). And while this is not in
the context of salvation, it’s still important. I don’t want the hours and days
and weeks and years and decades I spend on this earth to be seen as a failure
in the eyes of the One who matters most to me. I don’t want to waste my life. I
don’t want my faith to be random or dumb or useless. I don’t want to be
shackled by paranoia and fear of what people think of me.
And so this chapter ends with
a warning to be serious about self-control. Which irked me at first. It irked
me until I realized how difficult a life of voluntarily giving up earned rights
for the growth of God’s Kingdom and the good of others really is. It doesn’t come naturally.
At all. It takes discipline of thought and intention and a constant tucking up
under Jesus.
This is one of those
lessons that leaves us feeling a little bit beat up. If you’ve made it this far
with me, I want to leave you with this encouragement.
“I have fought the good (worthy, honorable, and
noble) fight, I have finished the race, I have kept (firmly held) the faith.
[As to what remains] henceforth there is laid up for me the [victor’s] crown of
righteousness [for being right with God and doing right], which the Lord, the
righteous Judge, will award to me and
recompense me on that [great] day—and not to me only, but also to all those who
have loved and yearned for and welcomed His appearing (His
return).”
2
Timothy 4:7-8 (AMP)
Journal
Prompt: How purposeful is your faith?
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