All things to all people
Day 594, Saturday, Mar. 28
1 Corinthians 9:19-27
Paul presents for us what seems like an impossibility: “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” Or, as he phrases it in the first sentence we read today, “Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.”
This meant living as a Jew for the Jews; as being under the law and not being under the law; becomeing weak to win the weak.
This is a challenging teaching.
We say we value authenticity. We ridicule the dishonesty of people who present different faces in different rooms. We tire of politicians who say whatever seems most convenient at the moment.
How, then, do we live by the example Paul sets here? How can we be all things to all people and still maintain integrity?
We know that Paul himself did not bend with every wind. He often stood up to his opponents, both in his letters and in person. His repeated beatings and imprisonments are evidence that he did not submit to every proposition set before him.
The last few chapters give us guidance. For Paul, the Christian does not act out of pride or stubbornness, but out of sacrificial love. This may sometimes mean standing up for our beliefs, but it also often means yielding on our preferences. It means sacrificing our comfort, but not our commitment.
The final verses of today’s reading give us some guidance. We are to discipline our selves—there are no participation trophies in the race for the prize of eternal life.

-Rev. Mark Fleming

Saturday meditation

Psalms 104:1-9
Praise the Lord, my soul.
Lord my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty.
The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants.
He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved. You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight; they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, to the place you assigned for them. You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth.

Prayer focus
Shape us into who we need to be to reach who you would have us reach.