Become Like........What??

In 1 Corinthians 9:22 the apostle Paul said: "I have become all things to all [people] so that by all possible means I might save some."

I love the verses of 1 Corinthians 9:19-23.  If we take them seriously in our churches they will greatly challenge the status quo.  This is foreign thinking for most churches, especially traditional ones.  Our thinking in terms of outreach is not "to become all things to all people"; but rather, to make people become like us.  We expect people to believe that choosing the way we live is better than the lives they are living now.  There is something dishonest about giving people that impression.

Most Christians I know have the same kind of struggles as people who are not Christians; and those who give the impression that they don't are not authentic.  Being authentic is allowing others to see who you really are with all the warts and wrinkles.

Last night my Bible Study group had a wonderful discussion on what it meant to "become like?"  Paul said, "To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews."  What does it mean to become like?

My own personal thoughts on this is to embrace every aspect of somebody's life - from joys to sufferings, and everything in between.  It is to be unconditional in our relationship with that person.  Even though we may be ridiculed and taken advantage of, we stick with that person because that is what Jesus did for us.  Just because Jesus was rejected by His whole world, He didn't give up on it.  He went to the cross anyway so that some might be saved.

I think it means to become vulnerable as well.  Authenticity is about vulnerability.  Be real!  If you're not real then you stop short of becoming all things to the person you are ministering to.  It's vulnerability that speaks louder than your spiritual elitism.  So often we portray a spiritual machoism to the people we are witnessing to.  But if scripture speaks truth than nothing of ourselves, our own strength or otherwise, has any value to God or to others.  It is when people see our vulnerability through our complete dependence upon God that will show them the way to the cross.

For the most part we are all walking contradictions as Christians, because we are both saints and sinners at the same time.  So allow yourself to be completely vulnerable unto others that some might be saved.

Blessings,

-Leo