Key Verse 1 Corinthians 8:19 

 

“For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more.” 

 

Many of us are very frightened when it comes to sharing the gospel with people. We are scared that we won’t have the right answer to their questions, or that we won’t know how to initiate the conversation. A lot of this fear comes from us as people being far too stiff and not flexible enough in our conversations with others. Paul understood that to win people to Christ you had to be ‘like’ them. Don’t misunderstand Paul in these verses as saying that we become like the world to win the world. He is not advocating that we live a life of sin to connect with people. Rather he imploring us to know and understand our audience and find a way to connect with them. In V.20, Paul says that in order to reach the Jews for Christ, he becomes like a Jew. The same is true of his conversations with the gentiles. We have to be willing to contextualize our gospel conversations and our way of life to connect with our audience. We have to be able to talk about the things they enjoy, and sometimes even dress a little bit like them in order to connect with them. Paul calls this attitude the attitude of a servant. He says that he has decided to become a servant to all that he might win some. 

 

The reason a lot of us refuse to do this is because of pride and selfishness. We refuse to learn someone else’s worldview and thought process because its different than ours. We don’t have to accept or even like the things they like, but we need to have a way to connect with the people we are trying to win to Christ. If there is someone that God has convicted your heart to share the gospel with, first try and find a way to connect with them. Maybe they like a certain genre of movies, or like to hunt, or shop in the same store as you do. Use this to build a relationship with the person, and once you do this, having that gospel conversation will become easier, because you and this other person have a connection!! Be willing to be a servant of others! Be willing to learn our their mind works, and then you will learn the most effective way to share the gospel with them!