“Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.” (1 Corinthians 9:22-23 NLT).
The apostle Paul described his approach to sharing the gospel as becoming “a slave to everyone, in order to win more people” (1 Cor. 9:19). In other words, he sought to find common ground with his hearers when sharing the good news.
When Paul was in Athens, he used their monument to the “unknown god” to help illustrate the gospel to them. When talking to a Jewish audience he quoted the Mosaic Law. When speaking to the Greeks he quoted their Greek philosophers. Paul shared the gospel in the language and culture of his hearer, rather than expecting the hearer to adapt to his culture and language. However, in doing so, he never changed the truth of the gospel. He adapted his methods, but not the gospel message. Paul was a servant both to the hearer and to the Lord Jesus, whose gospel he preached.
Paul’s mindset was the same as the servant mindset of Christ Jesus. For it was the Spirit of Christ that motivated him. In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he encouraged believers to have the “same mindset as Christ Jesus.” He said that those who had this mindset would “value others above themselves, not looking to their own interests but each to the interests of others” (Phil 2:3-4).
When we put others interests ahead of our own, really listening to them and caring for them, they are more apt to hear us when we share the gospel with them. And when we listen to them with spiritual ears, asking for the Holy Spirit’s help, we will often hear them express a need that we can meet in the name of Jesus.
PRAYER: Dear Father, it was Your great love that moved You to send Jesus to us. He came not to be served, but to serve and to offer His life as a ransom for us. Fill us afresh with Your Spirit that we might have the mindset of Christ. For we want to live as the body of Christ in this world until You call us home. In Jesus’ name, amen.