The Wisdom of a Master Soul-Winner — David Legge

1 Corinthians chapter 9, beginning to read at verse 15, and we're looking at these verses under the title tonight, The Wisdom of a Master Soul Winner. Verse 15, trying to remember, at least if you were with us the last couple of weeks, what we have studied hitherto.

2 But I have used none of these things, neither have I written these things, that it should be done so unto me. 3 For it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void. 4 For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me.

5 Yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel, for if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward. 6 But if against my will a dispensation or a stewardship of the gospel is committed unto me, what is my reward then?

7 Verily, that when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel. 8 For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain them over.

9 Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. 10 To them that are under the law as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law. 11 To them that are without law as without law, being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without law.

12 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak. 13 I have made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. 14 This I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.

Paul as a Master Soul-Winner

A picture, a portrait, even a self-portrait of the Apostle Paul as a soul winner, and I would go as far to say as a master soul winner. We're going to see this evening as we go down these verses that Paul knew what Solomon said in Proverbs 11 and verse 30, that he that winneth souls is wise.

And that doesn't just mean that it's a wise thing to go after souls who are lost and seek to win them, but I think the inference is in that verse also that you need wisdom, a certain amount of wisdom, in order to win the lost for the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's not just all about the sovereignty of God. We need to be very careful that we don't make this mistake, and although we stand very firm and square on the sovereignty of God, in all things we must remember that God has left with his church and with his disciples the responsibility to go and win the lost, and it is significant that Paul himself said that he longed to save some.

Of course we know that salvation is of the Lord, and the Lord alone can save men and women, but yet Paul uses this phrase because there is a human responsibility on all of us as believers to go after our kith and kin, our brethren in humanity, and seek and save the lost.

We will see tonight the wisdom that Paul had in this regard. But what we also need to see that this wisdom of soul winning is found in the context of the weaker brother and forgoing what is your right and liberty in Christ for the weaker brother who may stumble seeing your liberty.

We are going to see this evening, as we did last week, that Paul forfeited the right to be paid for his gospel ministry in order that that gospel that he was preaching might have greater success. You remember that?

He had forgone any wage, even a meal on the table of Corinthian homes, in order that no one could point the finger and say, Paul's in it for the money. And so he had foregone these things in order that the gospel might be spread without any hindrance whatsoever.

But the point that Paul was making, as he made these Corinthians aware of his own sacrifice, was that they too ought to forfeit their right to eat this meat sacrifice to idol that they talked about in the first few verses of the chapter.

They should avoid it in case they injure the weaker brother, in case they offend a brother for whom Christ has died. And what he's really getting at is this, the testimony of the believer, the testimony of the church, and the testimony of the witness of the gospel is much more important than the liberty that we have in Christ.

And although the Corinthians theological viewpoints were A1, they were absolutely correct. Paul had to point out to them that love was to regulate their liberty, even when their liberty was theologically accurate.

The Reward and Necessity of Forfeiting Rights

Now we're going to see tonight that Paul cites two reasons why it is important to forgo your right, and in his case personally, to forgo his right of payment for his ministry. The two reasons really, if we were to summarize it, can be given like this.

One, you're to forgo your right in the gospel, for the gospel's sake, because of the reward that you will have one day in eternity. The second thing is this, if you are to win souls, it will be called upon you at times to forgo your rights and your liberty for the gospel's sake, in the very medium of winning the loss for the Lord Jesus.

So one, because of your reward, and two, because of the necessity of soul winning, and soul winning with wisdom. Let's look at this tonight, because it's particularly informative to all of us who are believers.

Those involved in so-called, I don't like this phrase, but at times it's hard to get around it, full-time service, and those who are involved in all sorts of service, every individual Christian will get some kind of an application from this study tonight.

The first thing that Paul talks about is the soul winner's motivation. The soul winner's motivation, verse 15 to 18. And really the summary of what he is saying in this is, your serving is not all that matters.

Now if I could get everybody in the iron hall to serve the Lord, I would be really chuffed. But once you get to that point of doing something for the Lord, Paul is saying that's not the be-all and end-all of everything.

But what really matters is how you serve the Lord. Specifically the motivation with which you serve him. There are three things I've outlined for you in your notes with regards to the soul winner's motivation that Paul teaches us here from his own personal example.

One, there is a high motive, verse 15. Two, a passionate motive, verse 16. And three, a rewarded motive, verse 17 and 18. Let's look at verse 15 first of all. And of course he's talking about what has already come.

He was talking about how he had a right to be paid for his gospel ministry. And we looked at the various evidences and he made a watertight legal case on this regard. Appealing to the law, appealing to custom, appealing even to our Lord Jesus Christ to show that he was worthy, the labourer of his heart.

You're not to muzzle the ox as it trades out the corn. But Paul's pointing out to them again that he waived that right of wages and reward financially for his labour. And the reason being, and let us not miss this, that he didn't want to give any of his enemies or the enemies of the gospel an occasion to charge him with using the gospel in a mercenary way for their own personal gain.

Now we hadn't time to do this last week but we want to take the time just to show you that this is right. This is a consistent pattern in the life of the apostle throughout the epistles. Look at first Thessalonians for a moment.

First chapter 2 verse 9, Paul says, For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail, for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.

In order to be answerable only to God, he didn't want the people of God in Thessalonica to have any ties financially upon him. If you turn to second Thessalonians 3 verse 8, you see the similar sentiment.

Neither did we eat any man's bread, for not, but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you. Do you see this? That Paul would even go to the extent of refusing a meal in order that none could point the finger at him and say, He's only here in Thessalonica to be fed, to be watered at our expense, to be looked after by the church of God.

He's a sponger. But because Paul wanted the gospel to stand out above everything else in his life, he made sure that there was never once an occasion of finger pointing of blame toward him, that he was in it for the money.

Now, the interesting thing is that Paul received support from the church of Thessalonica after he left them, but he never received any support when he was labouring among them. And I think without doubt that the church of Thessalonica was among those Macedonian churches that helped support the apostle, ironically, when he was in Corinth, labouring among the Corinthians.

Let me show you this. 2 Corinthians chapter 11. It's narrowing it down to see that it was when he was among the people ministering in the gospel that he didn't take this money. But when he was in Corinth, the Thessalonians, being of Macedonia, helped him.

Chapter 11, verse 8 and 9. I robbed other churches, taking wages of them to do you service. And when I was present with you and wanted, I was chargeable to no man. No man among you, that is. For that which was lacking to me, the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied.

And in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself. Why? Why was he so particular and pernickety? And I imagine that some of the brethren in the churches today would have sat down with Paul and said, Now, Paul, you're going against your own teaching.

The labourer is worthy of his hire. Paul would say, No, you're missing my point. That is my right. And if I wanted, I could have it. But what's more important for me is the gospel. I want only the gospel to be seen.

And that's why he says in verse 15,. For it were better for me to die than that any man should make my glorying void. I would rather die. I'm led to believe that this is not a single sentence as it appears to us in the English verse here in our authorised version.

And in the original, the phrase could be read like this. I would rather die than. And then it stops. I would rather die than. It's an incomplete exclamation. I would rather die than. And then it's interrupted by this statement.

No one will deprive me of this boast. Do you see it? I would rather die than. And then he pauses. No one will deprive me of this boast. Now, we haven't got time to look at this, but you can go through the great New Testament and you can find it on occasions.

Paul didn't complete his sentences. He was a bit like me at times. He didn't complete them. He got so worked up in an exclamation of emotions that he was overcome and he stopped dead in the middle of sentences.

He couldn't finish this particular sentence. Because he was overwhelmed by how important the preaching of the gospel was above everything else, even above the very bread that he was eating and the water that he was drinking.

And it didn't matter that he suffered and had to work in the back streets of Corinth with his hands making tents. It didn't matter as long as the gospel was not hindered. This is tremendous stuff and we need to really note this.

He never, I will never let anyone deprive me of the boast that I preached the gospel voluntarily. Not for what I could get out of it. Now, friends, this evening, Paul, when he's boasting, isn't sinning.

Because we see later that his call to preach the gospel was nothing to do with him in one sense. It was of God entirely. But what he's trying to point out to them is I'm not a prophet for hire like the prophet Balaam in the Old Testament that was in it for the money.

I am in it for the gospel and the glory of the gospel. And this is what we need in our hearts today. Although if a church like this church is able to keep a man like me, that's tremendous and commendable and I'm very thankful for it.

But if there ever came a day when you couldn't support me or when I wasn't here for whatever reason, I would have to preach the gospel no matter what was on the table or no matter what I could drink or where I could live.

We'll see this. Because Paul says it's a necessity. But let's look at one more passage to show you how this was ingrained within Paul. Acts 18, when he's talking to the Ephesian elders, this was the commitment that he declared to these Ephesian men of God.

Verse 33, Acts 20, I've written down the wrong text. I have showed you all things, verse 35, that so leeringly ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

It's more blessed. Verse 33, I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that were with me. Do you see it?

It is more blessed. This is his thesis of ministry, if you like, his motto. It's more blessed to give than to receive. And if I'm called upon to give the gospel and get nothing back in return but suffering and grief from the people of God and the enemies of Christ, so be it.

I'll tell you, this is what we need today. And if we could sum it up, we could sum it up in this statement. Paul's purpose and motive in ministry was men, not money. And what a refreshing statement that is in the light of all the television evangelism that goes on and goes over the satellite.

Isn't it amazing? It's remarkable that the elect of God are deceived, sure the world can even see through it all. My friends, as one man said, if Paul was more concerned about money than he was, his stature would have shriveled and we would not have heard of him except for a passing mention.

And I believe he's right. Paul stands out because he was different in this regard. He had a high motive, not for money, not for his welfare, but for the gospel. Secondly, he had a passionate motive, a passionate motive, which was a soul winning motivation.

Passionate Preaching as a Divine Compulsion

Verse 16, for though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for of necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. Now that seems quite complicated. But what he's really saying is the driving force of my ministry is a compelling conviction.

In other words, I have been sent of God. Now we know that he was an apostle, and we looked at this last week, that there was a uniqueness in how an apostle was sent of God. But in one sense, we can understand this generally, that all of us who go to preach the gospel are sent to preach the gospel on the great commission of the Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 28.

So we are all sent. And it's not as if I'm just going of my own free will, Paul's saying, but there's a compelling conviction in me. He actually uses this statement, for me it is a necessity. And it's not a necessity that's my doing.

Look at the wording, for necessity is laid upon me. I didn't ask for this. He's not complaining, but what he's doing is retorting back to his Damascus Road experience, when the Lord laid his hand upon him, when he saved him.

And Paul said, what wouldst thou have me to do? And there the Lord Jesus ordained him. He was ordained in his mother's womb. But there the Lord put his hand upon him and called him to be an apostle to the Gentiles and do the work he's actually doing here.

And for him, it is a necessity to do this. It's a necessity to go, and then we read on, but woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. So it's a necessity to go, and it's a woe if he didn't. That's why Paul says, though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory on.

I'm running all around the Mediterranean world, but you know what he's saying, colloquial terms, I have no choice. I have no choice. This wasn't something that I sat down by the fire one day and thought, well, I better make a new religion, or I better go around and preach this gospel of Jesus, because I think it's right.

A necessity was laid upon him. He had a compelling conviction, a compulsion on him, so much so that he was cursing himself if he didn't fulfill it. Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. Now, don't misunderstand me.

We know that he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, and there was a choice that he had to make. I'm not saying that he could have refused to obey God, but what Paul wants you to see is he was compelled.

And if he had not fulfilled his ministry that God was calling him to, there would be the woe of chastisement. I believe that word woe means the severest of judgments promised on unfaithful ministers. James 3 verse 1, James says, seek not to be many masters, for you bring yourself under greater condemnation.

And that really means teachers. Don't seek to be a preacher unless you're prepared to go and preach the gospel, unless you're prepared for necessity to be laid upon you, unless you're prepared to be judged if you do not do it.

For Paul, preaching was not a profession. There is no such a thing as the preaching profession. For Paul, preaching was not a pastime that he did at nights and got a brown envelope for it. But preaching was a passion.

It drove his whole being and existence. He's saying you can't just choose to be a preacher the way people choose an everyday profession, for it's not really a matter of your choosing. It's a matter of God's choosing.

I think we would do well, perhaps, if there were fewer men in pulpits who were not called of God. Men trying to fill the place, and I do not stand on a high horse when I say this, and I have a lot to learn and a lot of ground to cover in my life yet.

But surely we have to acknowledge in this day of apostasy that men ought to stand up and open their mouths when they're called of God and when they've got a message from God. The old preacher said to a young man contemplating service, don't enter the ministry if you can help it some.

That's what it's like. Don't enter the ministry if you can help it. And I can testify in my own life that I was compelled. There was nothing else open for me. Men told me, why not do a degree in teaching?

If you, if you, excuse the personal illustration for one moment, but I know that this is true. Do a degree in teaching and if it doesn't work out, you can fall back upon it. That's not a call from God.

Paul had this compelling issue of necessity upon him. One writer put it, if the modern ministry is to be adequate to the tremendous days ahead, it needs to be the ministry of a master passion. You know what's wrong a lot of the time?

There's too little passion in our pulpits. And you know what that communicates? That man doesn't believe what he's saying. I hope I can remember this illustration right, but it was a very famous actor who was asked the question, what is the difference between you and a preacher?

And he answered something like this. A preacher is a man who preaches truth as if it was fiction. I am a man who acts fiction as if it was true. God forgive us as if this is the case with us. Sometimes when you get, and I know I get excited and I know I go overboard at times, but I can't help it because necessity is laid upon me.

Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. I can't talk about the blood of Christ and the cross of Christ and the nails of Golgotha like an icicle. And this is what Paul was saying. The great preacher, St. Spurgeon said, the man who says God has chosen me can afford to let others think and speak after their own nature.

It is in his business to take his stand separately and deliberately and distinctly to do what he believes to be right and let the many or the few do as they will. But he's to preach the gospel even if he doesn't get saved for it.

It's a passionate motive. Speaking about modern ministers, a Christian editor said, a man who is forced to preach in order to save himself always makes a fervent preacher. You see, to save yourself from judgment, woe is unto me.

The Watchman's Warning and the Preacher's Responsibility

The philosophy of the watchman, that when he cries and when he puts the trumpet to his mouth and blows the warning in the city and the people don't heed it, the blood's off his hands. But if he falls asleep and doesn't put the trumpet to his mouth, the blood's on his hands.

And Paul could say in Acts, I am not guilty of the blood of any of you. Because he preached unto them the gospel. He was driven to preach and he preached with passion. God give us more passionate preachers and passionate evangelists and passionate Christians as they seek to win the loss.

Reward for Gospel Ministry Without Personal Gain

Thirdly, a rewarded motive. Verse 17 and 18. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward. This is remarkable. If I do this willingly, I have a reward. But if against my will, a dispensation or a stewardship of the gospel is committed unto me, what is my reward then?

Verily, that when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel. Paul's saying, I can't get reward for something I'm compelled to do. See what he's saying here?

Necessity is laid upon me. I've been called to be a preacher of the gospel and I can't get rewarded for something that I have to do. I don't think Paul's saying that he he'll not be rewarded at any way for his preaching of the gospel.

But the main point that he's making here is it's not the actual preaching of the gospel that I will be rewarded for. That's a dispensation. That's a stewardship. And if I don't do it, I'll not be rewarded.

I'll be, I'll be punished. Not in the sense of wrath or hell or judgment, but in less reward when I get to the judgment seat. So I'm not being rewarded for doing something. This is my responsibility. But what I will be rewarded for is preaching the gospel without charge.

Preaching it when there was nothing in it for me, but suffering and hell and anguish and torment and tears and fastings day after day. There's a night in the deep when you're getting nothing out of it, only glorifying Christ.

Paul says, when it's not motivation, you'll be rewarded. It will be a rewarded motive to do it. Not for your own gain, but for the gain of the glory of Christ. Paul's reward was not just preaching the message, but for taking no payment and continuing to preach it anyway.

Oh, we can learn so many lessons from the soul winner's motivation, a high motive, a passionate motive, a rewarded motive. But let's move on because we need to get to this. The soul winner's adaptation, not just his motivation, but his adaptation.

Adapting Ministry Methods to Win More Souls

Verse 19 to 23. And really this is, Paul is saying, the primary reason for not taking money. What is it? To win the more. I love that. To win the more. Sometimes people take pity on me because we see so many people getting saved in these days and it's a real burden upon my heart.

And I hope it's on yours too. And some people mean well, and I know where they're coming from because I have to remind myself of this too, that you have to be faithful. We learned this in this book. You have to be faithful and you have to sow the seed.

And to a certain extent, I have to leave the results with God. But please do not miss the point that it wasn't just this issue with Paul. You just preach and leave the rest with God. No, he had a greater hand in it than that.

He desired that he might win more. Win the more. And I don't think it's wrong to want many people saved. Do you? We're not in the numbers games. Bums on pews, if you excuse the expression. That's not what we're into, or how many's on their own.

But I tell you this, I would rather go to the judgment seat with more souls under my preaching saved than less. Would you not rather lead more than less to the Lord Jesus Christ? And Paul, this was his desire.

This was the reason why he adapted his whole lifestyle to see more won for him. So he speaks of the need for this worker's willingness to adapt himself. Adapt himself to what? Adapt himself to the conditions of the men, the needs of the men and the women who need the gospel in order to come into this flexibility towards them that he might see of some.

This isn't universalism now. All are not going to be saved. And there's people preach this because Jesus died and shed his blood that the world will be saved. That's not what that means. The world will be saved.

And although he's the savior of the world, that is not talking about the whole world. Every single sinner that's in it is saved without repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It can be seen clearly here because Paul wanted to save some because only some would be seen.

How did he do it? Well, he definitely believed that he that wins souls is wise. And he shows this. He illustrates it in three types of people who he witnessed to and worked among. And there's two of them.

The first is the Jew and the second is the Gentile. Look at this verse, verse 20. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew. Now, then in verse 21, to them that were without the law, that's a Gentile as without the law.

Now you, I would say, couldn't get two more diverse groups of people in the ancient world than these two groups, Jews and Gentiles. They detested one another. Yet Paul was able as a soul winner to adapt himself to both of them and defend neither of them, but reach and win and save them.

Both of them. They're different in all sorts of ways and clothing and their holy days, holidays and their eating habits and their family practices and their religious rites and ceremonies and all the rest and sacrifices.

And it required, it must have required tremendous flexibility, but Paul was able to drive himself to it. And incidentally, remember how we applied the area of eating meat that's sacrificed to idols a couple of weeks ago.

And we applied it to gray areas that are in believers lives even today. Things that the Bible doesn't speak about. There's no revelation on whether we don't know whether to do them or not to do them, whether it's sinful or not sinful.

Well, we can apply this here that if there's anything that is doubtful, as someone said to me after that evening, if in doubt, cast it out. But certainly in this regard, if in doubt that it will affect the gospel in detrimental ways, cast it out.

It's Paul's point. Paul, even when he had a right to be practicing as a Jew, for when that in order that he might witness to the Gentiles, when he had a right to be let go of all the ritualistic ceremony of Judaism, he had forgone that right in order to win those among the Jews.

Isn't it tremendous to see this? He didn't want to offend the one who he was witnessing to. And the reason why was that his love for the lost regulated his liberty in Christ. Do you see that? I have made myself a slave.

That's what first 19 really means. For though I'd be free from all men, I'm liberated like the rest of you. Yet I have made myself a servant. The word is slave unto all that I might gain the more. Now, there's only two words in the Greek use for that statement.

I have made myself a slave. And it's the Greek word, a Julissa. I enslave and emote on myself. I enslave myself. And the word enslavement as an extremely strong Greek word. It's actually used to describe the next seven, the 400 years of enslavement of the children of Israel in Egypt.

And Paul says in that way, I enslave myself. In chapter 7 and verse 15 of this book, he talks about the bond of marriage. But if the unbelieving depart, let them depart. A brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases.

It's talking about they're not required in such cases to try and keep a marriage relationship, not a marriage, but a marriage relationship going in such circumstances that to let them go. They're not bound.

It's the same word used. But I do bind myself to these lost people, to the way they are. It's used in Titus 2, 3 of addiction to wine. A binding like that, an addiction to wine. To be enslaved. And it's also used in Romans 6, 18 of the relationship that Christians have now through Christ of righteousness, of righteousness to God.

And it's so binding that we'll never be lost. Once we're saved, we're always saved. And it's the same word to be enslaved to that relationship where he talks. I have made myself a slave that I might win some.

It's not remarkable. And you can talk all you like about just so the seed and let God do the rest. But that's not what Paul did. Paul did more than sow the seed in Mark 10, verse 44. We find the reason from the Savior's lips.

Whosoever wishes to be first shall be the slave of all. You might want to call it in the modern term, pre-evangelism. In other words, things that we can do that are apart, nothing to do with the gospel, but help unbelievers to listen to the gospel.

A sort of methodology in how we present it, that we adapt ourselves to their needs and even their way of life up to a point of sinning. Let's show you how this bears out in the moments that remain. Let's look at the first example.

Reaching Jews Through Cultural Flexibility

Verse 19 and 20, the Jew. For though I be free from all men, I make myself a slave unto them, unto all that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews, I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews to them that are under the law as under the law that I might gain them which are under the law.

Now this is real adaptability. He's flexible to the Jewish conscience within. And this is important to know within scriptural limits. Paul would be as Jewish as was necessary to win the Jew. Did you see that?

Was he not a Jew? Of course he was a Jew, but when he got to see him, he let go of all the ritualistic ceremonial rites and so on and all the rest. And as far as is scripturally possible in the gospel, within the limits of the Bible, he worked as a Jew among the Jews.

And if they had a feast day, a fast day, if they had a religious ceremony or a rite, if they insisted on him being cleansed, whatever it was, even to the extent of traditions of Judaism, he followed them in order that it would create an open door for the gospel, witnessing Jews.

He gladly accommodated these things and was flexible to them to win them. What had once been, and this is the point I want you to see, legal restraints in his life when he was a Jew now had become love restraints.

See the difference? He didn't have to do it. He would have been right not doing it, but because he loved them so much and there was nothing wrong in doing it. In fact, it opened the gospel to them and gave an opportunity to win them.

He did it. He did it because if he had brazenly blasted the Jews and the way of the Jews, both their custom and conscience, he would lose all hope of winning them, wouldn't he? Some wisdom here about soul winning, soul winning.

Reaching Gentiles and the Weak Without Compromising Truth

You're trying to win people, win people. You see it in the Gentiles to the Gentile outside the law. He did the same to them that verse 21 that are without law as without law being not without law to God.

He doesn't want you to make a mistake of thinking that he's talking about sinning here. He's not talking about sin. He's under the law to Christ. Incidentally, that means the moral law. He's under the law to Christ.

He has to obey the decalogue and so on, apart from the Sabbath, which isn't reciprocated in the New Testament that I might gain them that are without law. What does that mean? He doesn't want to be misunderstood saying that you go and you sin with the sinners to get them saved.

He's not violating God's law, but he becomes conventionally correct to those around him in their ways and in their ideas, perhaps even in their practices that are neutral. And he did not expect these Gentiles to be regulated by Jewish customs and ceremonies and rules.

He sought to understand their background, where they were coming from, even respect their opinions to an extent and be sympathetic with their convictions. And as Warren Wiersbe put it, well, it took tack to have come tack.

That's his point. To the Jew, he became a Jew, to the Gentile, he became a Gentile because these things aren't important anymore. To the weak, he says, verse 22, 23, he became weak to those who are weak without understanding.

And I think he's talking about those within the church. Verse 22, to the weak became I as weak that I might gain the wake. I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some. It doesn't mean when in Rome do as the Romans and so many people, even Christians today, have taken this verse and made it so flexible that believers are actually sinning, trying to win those that are lost, which is absolutely ridiculous.

But what he's saying is Paul, where things were without moral significance, was flexible. He was rigid when there was a moral conscience about a thing, when it would have violated Christian morality and truth.

But when a thing was cultural, Paul was flexible. He let his love overrule his liberty in order that he might win some. As one scholar put it, it was not looseness of life that Paul advocates. It was rather liberty of action with a lofty object.