This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to day four together of looking at 1st Corinthians chapter 9. We're
going to focus on verses 19 to 22 today. We're looking at these reasons for
giving up a right of freedom so that someone else can find the love of Christ.

We've looked at the fact I give it up so as not to hinder the gospel of Christ.
I give it up because it's a privilege, because it's a reward. Reason number
three echoes in some ways the first reason.

And then Paul talks about a third way that we give up our freedoms. Reason
number three is I give up a freedom in order to win as many as possible. Not
just not to hinder the gospel, but number three in order to win as many as
possible.

It's a positive way of saying the first one. So in verse 19, Paul says, "Though
I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone to win as many
as possible. " Paul is reminding us here that no one has the right to hold
another person at arm's length from salvation.

Yet we can do that in the name of rights. Now in one sense, Paul says, "I make
myself a slave to everyone. " He's later going to say, "I listen to the needs of
other people and I respond to their needs.

I become like those I'm trying to reach. " It can make you feel like, if you
don't understand what's going on here, that Paul is some kind of jellyfish
Christian, unwilling to make a stand. The real truth is this.

He was confident enough of Christ's love in his life that he didn't have to be
self-impressive or self-impressed. He could be conscious of the need of others.
He could see their need and he could meet their need.

And how did he do that? I don't like this one. It challenges me.

In order to win as many as possible, Paul says, "The third way that I give up my
rights is I make myself a slave to all. " Literally, he was acting as if others
are more important than himself. How did he do that?

In practical ways, in verses 20 to 22, he says, "Here's how I do it. To the
Jews, I become 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 men, so that by all means possible, I might save some.

" Paul says, "I've become a slave to all. " And then he begins to give his list
to the Jews, to those under the law, to those not having the law, to the weak. I
have given myself to them so that they can come to know Christ.

I have made sure that I, in any way, could meet their needs so that their
greatest need could be met. I make myself a slave to all. Now Paul's list was
Jews and those under the law and those not having the law, the weak.

How about your list? How about my list? In the end, in verse 22, Paul says, "My
list includes everyone.

I've become all things to all men, so that by all means possible, I might save
some. " So the truth of the scripture is, as followers of Christ in this world
were like Jesus. And Jesus said, "I did not come into this world to be served,
but to serve.

" So if I think I'm in this world to be served by other people, or, and I think
more Christians might fall into this category, if I think I'm in this world just
to be served by God, he's going to meet my needs, he's going to do these good
things for me, I've missed the point of my life on this planet before I get to
heaven. I make myself a servant of all so that all can come to know Christ. Paul
very clearly says here, "Here's my list, and it includes all.

So who's on your list? " And then even more importantly, "Can I get to a place
by the strength and power of Christ that includes all? I have the freedom to
serve.

" If you try to serve apart from freedom, that's slavery. But Paul says, "I have
the freedom to serve, even as Jesus had the freedom to serve, to go to a cross.
I have the freedom to serve.

" As you look through these verses, there are some questions that float around
these verses. One of the questions is, "Is Paul advocating compromising our
convictions in order to attract people to Christ? " In verse 19, "I become all
things to all people in order to save some.

" He's not talking about compromising your convictions here. He's not saying if
somebody's a drunkard, you go and get drunk with them. That's very clear.

That's a total misreading of the scripture to say something like that. What he's
saying is, "If somebody is focused on the law, I don't mind talking to them
about the law. I don't mind doing something that the law might require in my
freedom in Christ, knowing that I'm not doing it because I am gaining salvation
from it.

I'm doing it. You don't have a conversation with them. " This very truth is very
confusing to very many people.

The safe place to live here, and a lot of people live in the safe place, is the
legalistic place, the place apart from freedom, the place where we get in our
little Christian group and we all do the same thing, we all do it in the same
way, we all do it together, we all feel very safe. The unsafe place is when I
reach out to a Muslim group, or I reach out to a group of gays in my community,
or I reach out to a group of people who in their business practices have clearly
been cheating other people, or I reach out to a group of people who have in some
way ostracized by the entire community because of a decision that they made
about schooling or about morality. The minute I reach out to that group of
people that that little tiny Christian group doesn't agree with, and I go out of
that group, I'm going to get criticized and I'm going to get attacked by that
group.

Paul certainly did. That's why he's writing here, because he's facing criticism
and attack. The question is, it's not about compromising your convictions.

The question is, do you have the strength of your convictions? Do you have the
solid security of your faith of the love of God in Christ, to be able to reach
beyond where you are to people that are in need, and even to sit down and eat a
meal with them, their kind of meal, to sit down and have a conversation with
them in their office and not your office? As long as it does not violate a clear
calling of scripture, as long as it does not call you to sin, can you choose to
do that?

This is where the legalists would keep us from being a witness, where your
freedom in Christ can cause us to make a difference in the world. So Paul's not
advocating compromise here, he's advocating standing on your convictions in a
way that you're going to need more strength for than anything else in your life.
God give us that strength.

Another question around these verses is what in the world Paul means in verse
21. He's talking about the law, and he says, "Though I am not free from God's
law, but I am under Christ's law. " What is he talking about?

He's told us many places, the whole book of Galatians is about how he's free
from God's law. It is for freedom that Christ set us free, Galatians chapter 5.
So how can he say I am not free from God's law, but under Christ's law?

What principle does this have to teach us about balancing freedom and rights?
When you understand this, it unlocks some things for you. In 1 Timothy chapter 1
verse 8, the Bible says the law is good if you use it properly.

James 1. 25 says there's a perfect law that gives freedom. In John 13, Jesus
says I'm giving you a new commandment to love one another, in a sense a new law.

Matthew 5, Jesus said, "I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. "
So for Paul, when he talks about God's law, God's law in the Old Testament had
not been abolished, it had been fulfilled. It had been fulfilled in Jesus
Christ.

It hadn't been just erased, it had been made new, it had been fulfilled. So he
says I'm not free from God's law, but something new has happened. I am under
Christ's law.

So for Paul to be a believer didn't mean he ignored the Old Testament, it meant
he saw the fulfillment of the Old Testament in Jesus Christ. It hadn't been
abolished, it had been fulfilled. Christ's law, when Paul talks about that here,
Christ's law means that the Old Testament law is no longer your standard for
your salvation.

But it doesn't mean that God's standard in the Old Testament isn't still your
standard for morality. It's just fulfilled in Christ. Now you have the power to
live it out because of Jesus Christ.

That's what it means to live under Christ's law. What's the law of Christ? How
is that law fulfilled?

Very clearly, Paul talks about this again to the Galatians where he talks about
this same issue a lot. That law is fulfilled in love. He tells the Galatians
that the law that we have, you really need to only know one thing, that we're to
love God and we're to love our neighbor as ourselves.

It's the law of love. The law is fulfilled in love. The love of Christ on the
cross and out of that, pouring out of that love of Christ on the cross, your
love for others in your daily life.

That's how you live out what we're talking about here. That's how you decide to
become a servant to others. It's through this law of love.

If I do it based on some deep sense of I have to do this because God told me I
have to do this, you're not going to last very long in ministry or in service.
But if you do it out of some wonderful sense of I'm privileged to do this
because the God who loves me has called me to love others, you can live that out
for a lifetime. The law is fulfilled in Christ.

The law is fulfilled in love. Jesus, we ask you today to help us to see how to
serve, how to serve in love, and we ask you today to give us the strength to
serve, to serve in love. We need your love in order to love others.

Give it to us today, we pray. Thank you for giving it to us. Thank you for
giving us your love.

In your name, amen.