To Encourage You

1 Corinthians 9:23 “I do it all for the sake of the gospel.”

Why do you do what you do?  Do you really give much thought to it?  Do you just do what seems natural as you go through your day, or do you have specific goals in mind?  Perhaps you’re studying to get a degree so you can make a living doing something you love to do, or maybe you’re working at a project and it’s the end result that keeps you going.  Well, if I call myself a Christian, what should be driving my decisions and choices in life?  Is there an overriding goal?  Why do I do what I do? 

In the verse above, the apostle Paul gives us his focus in life, the thing that was the primary motivation for everything he did.  In Paul’s words, “I do it all for the sake of the gospel.”  In context, Paul is talking about how he carried out his ministry among the people he ministered to.  There were some things that he was perfectly free to do, but which he disciplined himself to refrain from “for the sake of the gospel.”  Paul was talking about how he made a practice of surrendering his “rights” if in any way him taking advantage of those rights would hinder the message of the gospel.  He didn’t live as one who did what he wanted to do just because he was free to do it.  His eye was on the ministry of the gospel.  If anything could hinder the message he preached, he checked himself.  It just wasn’t worth it to him.  As Jesus had laid down his life for Paul, Paul was compelled to lay down his life for others so that the message of Christ’s saving work could reach them. 

Paul lived his life for the sake of the gospel. What about you and what about me?  Does the effect our actions may have on the gospel message enter our thinking from day to day?  First, do we care to even share the message of the gospel?  In a world full of bad news, do we care enough to tell others about the most wonderful message the world has ever heard?  And if we are a person who has the boldness to tell others about the love of Christ, do we in any way hinder that message by a failure to show that same kind of love in the way we live our lives? Are we motivated by defending and announcing our “rights” no matter how that message resonates with our hearers, or are we willing to lay down those rights so that others can perhaps have ears to hear the wonderful message of love that the gospel brought to us at one time?  Do we study God’s word so that we are “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks (us)  for a reason for the hope that is in (us)” (1 Peter 3:15) and at the same time are we striving and asking God to help us to actually live out that message so that when we share the truth, we do it “with gentleness and respect,” i.e., the second part of the command of 1 Peter 3:15? Are we so convinced that we have the truth that we are quick to denigrate the beliefs of anyone who doesn’t think like us, or is our focus on doing nothing or saying nothing that would hinder the truth from being heard by these same people? 

So much of the rhetoric of our day, words spoken by those who are convinced they are “right,” are spoken in some vain hope of winning the argument while losing sight of the goal of winning a heart, “for the sake of the gospel.”  May God help us who are called to share the gospel of His great love do both that and everything else we do “for the sake of the gospel” rather than for our own self-seeking sake.