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When I read these verses over and over I get different thoughts. The first is how many times I have shared the gospel with others and because they were not Christians it gave me an opportunity to rattle off a lot of christen jargon to sound very knowledgeable. I would walk away thinking I really helped them out by showing them how well I know the bible when in truth, I don’t know it that well , but more important than that they probably just thought I was arrogant. I have also been on the receiving end of this when fellow brothers and sisters get involved in a conversation and instead of truly sharing the gospel they try to out Christian each other. In these verses what does God want from us? I think what he always wants; us to be Christ like, talk to people honestly openly. Show them compassion and don’t make it about us but about him. God doesn’t want us to bring the lost to him with tricks and gimmicks he wants us to share and teach of his love and salvation. God has our rewards in heaven far greater than a few moments of ego will bring us. The last verse is my favorite and also hit me the hardest. When I went thru training for a job years ago one of the critical parts was that as managers we need to be slaves to our employees. I liked and I felt like that was my management style anyway. Although I still use this style today and it works well for me. What kind of slave or servant does God call us to be? I guess it is much easier to be a servant when their success makes you look good. God calls us to serve everyone to win as many as possible. This is where the rubber meets the road. It is easy as Christians to put a question mark where God puts a period. Did He say everyone? He couldn’t mean the strange neighbor or the “will work for beer guy” at the corner? Not the rich they don’t listen to us anyway. Everyone means everyone. What or who are we serving? It is much easier to serve work, cars, our husbands, our wives, our children, sports, money, I often find myself serving in the wrong places. The great thing about God is if you pray and seek his word he will put you right back on the path of serving and the need is always much closer than you think
1 Peter 3:15 “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, ”
Have I been asked about the hope that is in me? Maybe my life doesn’t exemplify hope. I may need to examine my life and line it back up with the Lord’s will. Then my preaching will be genuine, and all about Him.
Do I want to beat someone up with the Bible? How many non-Believers have left my presence battered and bruised by my rude “preaching.”
Am I fearful and reluctant to preach? Maybe my eyes are on me and not on my Lord.
Thanks, Eric.
Eric,
I loved your commentary on the last verse. You were right on point. We usually read “everyone” as “everyone I like” or “everyone I want to…” or “everyone in my circle”, but this is a great verse to take at face value. Paul probably said “everyone” just to have us focus on those who we naturally would not. I connect this with what Alan said Sunday about foot-washing. He said it didn’t matter who you grabbed, in fact, it probably would be more humbling to grab an “everyone” person who you didn’t know and who you could serve just because we’ve been told to do so.
I pray that I will keep my eyes and my heart open to discover the “everyones” that I can be a slave to, that they may KNOW Jesus and His love.
Oh so true how we get caught up in ‘Christian jargon’!!! What are we thinking?! Most of all the people that we want to impress the most with our faith “they just really don’t want to listen anyway”. Thank you for your honesty and your well put words. God must giggle when He watches us do some of the things we do. Praying that I do hit the mark that He has set out there for me.