Working Title: Moral Guidelines in Sharing the Gospel
Where is the line between, “Meeting
people where they are at” and “having itching ears, people will accumulate for
themselves teachers who suit their own passions?" It is interesting that Paul
said, in a roundabout way, both of these statements. In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23,
Paul clues us in to what he finds as the secret to witnessing… “To the Jews I
become as a Jew...” How far should we become in order to reach people with
the gospel? On the other hand, Paul also tells us that in the end times,
Christians will listen to only what they want to hear. Is there a danger for
our own spiritual health in “becoming all things to all men that we might by
all means win some?”
The Bible tells us to meet people
where they are at, but what does this look like? How far do we go, morally speaking, to meet
people where they are at? After all, God became a man and came to earth, so it
seems that 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 is a picture of the gospel. But depending on
how far we go with meeting people where they are at, some people might call us heretics
and sinners. They might think that we are but one of those accumulated teachers
for someone. How do we avoid shaping a culture into people who have itching
ears who want what they want? We have to reach them, but how far do we go to do
so?
 |
It is like these things became my friends I spent so much
time with them. |
While working as a bulldozer and
excavator operator for a site development contractor, I once had an interesting
evangelism experience. I worked at this place for a total of eight years, and
the first 6 years I worked there, I got little respect from my co-workers or my
superiors. I was a Christian living in the world. I was trying to bring God
Glory on my own power, literally. I was powerlifting after putting long days in
for 3 hours a day, 6 days a week. It was insane. I am still blown away by what
the human body is capable of doing. I basically hulked out in those early
years, and working with heavy equipment, I was often referred to as a torque
wrench, Thor, or because I have red hair, “the Viking” was popular. I was
basically comedic relief for quite some time. I would rip big phonebooks in
half and pick really heavy things up like logs, etc. I would tell people about
Jesus and I stuck out like a sore thumb in a world of worldly men. I used to describe
my experience to people by telling them that every stereotype that they have
heard about construction workers are generally true, and that I could verify the
facts. In any event, I quit working there without burning bridges after about 6
years to work in bi-vocational ministry as a solo pastor.
 |
Full-on beastmode (about 12 years ago).
This metabolism would still be nice to have. |
After two years of inner-city
ministry, I learned that I was too much of a country boy to do something like
this. I liked chainsaws probably a bit too much, and had a side business of
trimming and felling trees, and no one in my congregation even knew how to use
one, let alone probably point at one in a hardware store. They were just
foreign to them. I won a 30-.06 rifle in a raffle once and was praising God for
it behind the pulpit and a woman from the congregation gasped in sheer horror because she learned that her pastor was a gun owner. I explained that this
was a good thing, but she didn’t see it that way. I am extremely grateful for
their patience with me and humoring me in all of my jokes and mishaps, for taking care
of me, and I am thankful to God for the experience and what I learned about
myself in that season. It was just not a good long-term fit, however.
After I resigned, my former site development
boss called me back and offered me a job. I put two more years in there,
working in site development (what heave equipment operators sometimes refer to
as “dirt farming”), before moving to full time ministry.
 |
| Photo of me courtesy of one of the men I still pray for. |
While wearing a hard hat (brain
bucket), I wanted to really work for God and bring Him the most honor and glory
possible. I stopped powerlifting but it’s not like I turned into a skinny kid
or anything. The jokes were still there, but they were different this time
around. I was in nicer machines and such and there was a job where we were
developing a site for a warehouse, which was to be almost 1,000,000 square feet
of surface floor area. We were there for a considerable time. I got to know the
guys I was working with quite well. We would often work 10 hour days or even
more than that. Six days a week was normal. I wanted to witness to these guys
so badly and I prayed for them daily, often through tears. I prayed for my
interaction with them, I prayed that God would soften their hearts, and I
prayed for opportunity on a daily basis. I was ready to explode with the Good
News of Jesus, and I couldn’t contain it any longer. I grew to love them (I
still pray for them frequently). They all knew who I was, thoroughly, and this was kind of
getting in my way. I thought that I needed this image of me that they had in their minds to be changed, and one night I had an idea… I went to the grocery store and bought
about 30 cans of snuff (tobacco) and went to the Dunkin Donuts and bought
coffee boxes and piles of donuts early the next morning. By the time they got to
work, there was a buffet of coffee, donuts and chewing tobacco.
In operating heavy equipment, I
would say that more than half of people have some kind of tobacco habit; smoking,
chewing, etc. I used to chew tobacco myself when I was younger. Now in regard
to sin, the question is, where do we draw the line? It seems that nearly every
churchgoer today thinks that tobacco in any form is a sin.
Romans 14:14 explains that nothing
in and of itself is evil. The easy way to understand this is through the Sermon
on the Mount. Jesus says that hating someone is like murdering them, and that
looking at a woman in lust is like committing adultery with her in your heart…
So we are measured by what is in our heart. Nothing can be evil in itself. It is
what our hearts do with something that makes it evil. The idols destroyed in
the Old Testament were not evil, but it was good to get the temptation away
from the hearts of the people. So is
chewing tobacco a sin? Is it an idol? It seems that if we let these things
weigh us down, we will never get anywhere, culturally speaking. So before we
get bogged down with too many questions, let me continue.
The thing is, I knew that the
presupposition even in the eyes of construction workers, was that chewing
tobacco was a sin. They likely viewed it as morally wrong, or at least that is
what they thought that I thought about it. Smoking seems definitely different
in my mind, so we will stick with the issue of chewing tobacco. This is why I didn’t
get a carton of cigarettes for the breakfast buffet.
In any case, after my co-workers
realized what was going on, not a few of them laughed hysterically at what was
before them for a few seconds and then, in bewilderment, stopped laughing
mid-laugh, and stared into space for a few seconds with their mouths hanging
open. They could not work through what was happening in their head in the
moment… It was like they were trying to solve the world’s hardest puzzle for a
few minutes.
Time to start work. I was praying
up a storm inside a giant bulldozer. Some of them came over to me after break
time and said that I shouldn’t be feeding their habits, after taking a can of
snuff themselves. Some of them thanked me and thought it was the coolest thing
ever. “A preacher bought me a can of snuff!” It didn’t compute in their minds.
The thing is, that after this event took place, I had more theological discussion than I have ever had. Frequently, we would
talk about Jesus in the lunch room, where there were 15-20 guys every day. They
would ask me questions which opened the door for them to hear the gospel more than once. I gave several
of them Bibles, and they deeply respected me for it. Some of them even took me
out to lunch.
This cultural boundary was
destroyed through a tobacco buffet with coffee and donuts. I was trusted and
respected and things were flipped upside down. I think the ultimate question is
not pragmatic in nature, but the question should be: what is more important,
that someone spends eternity in hell, or that they come to know Jesus through
breaking barriers of legalism and presuppositions that will
hinder opportunity, growth and trust.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not
condoning tobacco use. But I also think this is different than white and black moral
failures, such as abortion or homosexuality. I wouldn’t, for instance, condone women getting abortions at Planned Parenthood in order to reach them for
Jesus.
I think this now brings us to a question of
judgment. The world often tells us that it is wrong to judge, but that itself is a judgment. I have heard it said that Matthew 7:1 is the most popular
Bible verse in the world, but nothing beyond the first few words. The problem with this is that Jesus tells us
How to Make Judgments in the
beginning of Matthew chapter seven:
“Judge not, that
you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and
with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck
that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own
eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your
eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log
out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of
your brother's eye. “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your
pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.
First of all, “Judge not” is a
judgment. Granted it is coming from the Judge of the world, but this command is
not all there is to this passage. Jesus tells us to take things that block our
vision out of our eyes to make correct judgments. In other words, He is telling
us to judge correctly. There are
several other places in the Bible where we are taught to make good judgments,
even about other people. For instance, in order to keep it easy to remember, we
will go from Matthew chapter 7 to John chapter 7. Jesus says to those trying to
kill him that they should not judge by mere appearances, but that they should
make correct judgments (John 7:24). Jesus is telling us to make judgments, even
about other people.
Let’s also quickly look at Galatians
6:1-2: “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by
the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also
may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill
the law of Christ.”
So our judgments are to be mature,
with good motives as we can see. In order to know that someone is caught in a
sin, we have to make a judgment about them. In any event, I think that we are
now able to turn to the initial problem proposed: that we need to know where
the line is in witnessing to people.
2 Timothy 4:3-4
says, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine.
Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number
of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their
ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
With this passage, we might wonder
about celebrity pastors who are called heretical on a daily basis, and how some
of them are just saying things that aren’t the gospel but are tickling people’s
ears, in order to accumulate followers. But the problem is, how do we reach
people without gaining their trust somehow, first? The culture is definitely
different than what it was when Paul was on earth. Therefore, different
measures must be taken. This is what preachers do! They bridge the gap between
culture and time. The Bible was written 2000 years ago in a completely
different culture, even to the culture that is now in the biblical lands. A
good preacher will help modern ears understand the message that the original
hearers heard, and in order to do this, he must speak through their modern experiences.
Let’s get to the
heart of the issue:
1 Corinthians
9:20-23. “Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to
everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win
the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I
myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not
having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from
God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To
the weak I became weak, to win the weak. 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.”
The principle of
Paul’s Method will stand forever:
“I become all things to all men. So that I might win some…” When a celebrity
pastor becomes all things to all men, does that mean that he is gathering around
him people because he is tickling their ears? Definitely not! It is not the amount
of people that follow a leader that makes him a heretic. Paul said while he was
in prison to the Philippians (1:15-18),
“It is true that
some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The
latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the
gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely,
supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what
does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false
motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
Paul uses the extreme situation
here, where someone is preaching the gospel in order to get him even more into
trouble. Their hearts were full of selfish ambition and were not sincere. Yet
Paul rejoiced because the gospel was being preached. It didn’t matter who was
preaching it, as long as the gospel was being preached! This is why we can find
room in our hearts to love people who might be very different from us, yet
still preach the gospel accurately. Sincere, truth seeking, and willing hearts go a long way for the kingdom of God.
Granted, we probably don’t agree with
everything one man says, but he would say the same about us. No one has everything right, but we keep seeking the truth. This is why we have the
Bible. So we can measure up what someone says to see if it lines up with the
Word of God (1 John 4:1; see also Acts 17:11-12). The Bible is the standard.
How far do we become like a people
in order to reach them with the gospel and win them to Jesus? We go as far as necessary,
without becoming that which people want to hear to suit their own desires.We are called to make good and right judgments. It is interesting to note that Paul doesn't pray for the Ephesians to stop chewing tobacco or being drunkards etc., but he prays that they will be strengthened "with power through his Spirit in [their] inner being" (Ephesians 3:16).
What are you doing to radically share the good news of Jesus?
Written by Nace Howell through the
grace of the Lord Jesus
Many of us are able to diffuse arguments against Christianity,
such as from atheism, etc., and having a degree in apologetics, I have seen how
it really helps with confidence in sharing the faith and how it organized my
thoughts when discussing religion and spirituality with people, but what about
when it comes to me? Do I have the right answers? The right heart? 
