1 Corinthians 9:19-27
“Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it! You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally. I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself.”
Paul was meeting people where they were in their lives. He was taking the Gospel of Jesus out to the people, and not waiting on the people to clean up and come to him.
Serving others will look different in each of our lives; we won’t all serve God or serve others in the same way. God has made us all different and we have been given different gifts, talents, abilities, and passions. However, we must be careful not to use this as an excuse to keep putting off service, or we’ll end up never serving God at all. It’s easy to say that we are just waiting see what our ability is, and then later we will use it to serve God. Basically, it’s super easy to keep putting off serving God with our lives.
But that’s what Jesus has called us to do. It’s not all going to look the same, but Jesus told all of His followers to leave their own lives behind, and live for Him. 2 Corinthians 5:15 says, “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”
Related Text:
Romans 12:9-21
Luke 9:23-24
Hebrews 12:1-3
John 15:12-14
1 John 3:16
