Dearly loved by God in Christ Jesus,
The Apostle Paul continued in the action of Jesus’ first apostles when it came to preaching Christ. After our Savior’s Ascension, enemies of the gospel attempted to prohibit Peter and John from telling the story of Jesus and his love. The two old friends and brothers in Christ boldly told the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, “As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Acts 4:20
Paul, who also received the gospel by revelation from Christ Jesus, put it this way, “I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.” Isn’t this our privilege as well? This is not only our privilege but dare I say our compulsion.We love to tell the story of Jesus and his love for the salvation of sinners like us.
We Cannot Help Ourselves When It Comes to the Gospel. God has endowed us with this sacred trust. We offer a gracious reward for a desperate need.
The apostle God had called to serve the Gentiles was not carrying out his call for material gain. It is true that those who preach the gospel are worthy of support in their work, but that is not why Paul was doing it. He had made that point quite directly with the Corinthians. It was not even that he did not want to be indebted to them for his needs. He may very well have taken some support.
He wrote, “If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me.” Without support, he still had the great reward of seeing people come to faith so the kingdom of God grew. He had the reward “that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge.” If he received support, that did not take away from his calling of sharing the gospel freely. He had the right as a preacher of the gospel for support but did not make “full use of my rights.”
Paul preached Jesus Christ, crucified and risen again for our sins, because of this trust. God’s mercy to him with this treasure compelled him to preach. Paul was not the Corinthians’ servant but God’s servant. His motivation came from his heart, not from what he received from others.
There is some practical application for those who share the gospel today. Those who believe they are the servants of the people and indebted to them for their livelihood can be tempted to preach and teach what the people want and demand. These preachers are worried about their support. They want to be pleasers of those for whom they labor, like hired hands. They might lay aside the truths of God’s Word and instead preach what the people want to hear instead of what God wants the people to hear.
Paul’s example is a model for faithfulness in preaching. I do not preach for what I might gain. I do not preach to satisfy your views and demands. Like Paul, I am compelled to preach the gospel. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.
Woe to you if you do not preach the gospel to your friends and neighbors. Doesn’t the love of God in Christ compel you to tell the story, to point others to Jesus’ cross and to Jesus’ empty tomb? This is true of us collectively as a congregation.
We are compelled to preach the gospel. Woe to us if we do not. God has endowed us with this sacred trust. We do not preachbeliefs and satisfy desires contrary to God’s Word even if following those would make us popular with other Christians, or with the world. We do not preach the gospel for what we might gain. We preach only because of what we have received as a trust.
We cannot help ourselves when it comes to the gospel. We offer a gracious reward for a desperate need.
Paul was free to preach the gospel while at the same time considered himself “a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.” Paul felt a deep concern for the souls of the lost; both among his own people and among the Gentiles. He calls those of his nationality, the Jews. He refers to those who still followed the old covenant of Moses “those under the law.” He refers to the Gentiles as “those not having the law” because they did not have the revealed Law but had only the natural law.
When the apostle dealt with anyone in these groups, he would relate to them. He too was a Jew, a descendant of Abraham. He understood the Old Covenant had been preparatory and still was the only guide or rule for godliness. He lived among the Gentiles and understood their culture. He would consider all those things on an individual basis as he approached them with the gospel.
This approach did not make the gospel more attractive, nor them more receptive. It did tell them about his concern for them personally. He did not approach them as different or better. He could relate to their life circumstances. He knew how to apply God’s Word to their situation.
He did this also with the weak. This was both believers who had times of weakness in their faith, and unbelievers who had no power of themselves to believe or change. He “became weak to win the weak.” He came to them in understanding and humility in the realization of his own sins and their condemnation. He came to them to share the strength in Christ that he now had and God offered to them in Christ. “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings.”
We can’t help ourselves when it comes to sharing the gospel. For all people we meet, no matter who they are spiritually or culturally, we have a gracious reward for a desperate need. We all have the need for forgiveness and faith. We all have the need for strength in Christ. We have the gospel that provides those needs. In humility and repentance, we approach others with an understanding of their situations so we have the opportunity to share law and gospel with them.
Join me in following the examples of Peter, John and Paul. When opposition confronts us, or seeing an opportunity, share the gospel to all. What else could we do? We cannot help but sharing what we have seen and heard and will be caring about others so the Holy Spirit through us might save some. Amen. <SDG>