‘to win’ is found five times in these verses, plus ‘to save’ in verse 22. Proverbs 11:30 tells us that ‘whoever captures souls is wise’.
- Be a free servant to all.
- 9:19-23. Gaius (Roman jurist): ‘all human beings are either free or slaves.’ Paul says that he is both. Martin Luther: ‘A Christian man is a most free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian man is a most dutiful servant of all, subject to all.’
- Paul is inflexible on content – Gal.1:8-10. But he is flexible on approach. Calvin: ‘we must accommodate ourselves to the weak, not to the obstinate.’ Martyn Lloyd-Jones: ‘A church can be perfectly orthodox and at the same time perfectly dead and perfectly useless.’
- How to evangelise the Jews.
- 9:20. Reconcile Gal.5:2-4 and Acts 16:3. See also Paul’s flexibility in Acts 18:18; 21:20-26.
- to the Jews, show from the OT that Jesus is the Messiah (Acts 13).
- How to evangelise those without the law.
- 9:21. See Acts 17:24, 26, 28, 30-31 (no Old Testament quotes).
- to the sports-obsessed, see 1 Tim.4:8. To a Jehovah’s Witness? No. Rudyard Kipling once questioned General Booth of the Salvation Army about playing the tambourine at gospel talks. Booth told Kipling: ‘Young man, if I could win one soul to God by – by playing the tambourine with my toes, I’d do it.’ Think in a way that is totally biblical and totally appropriate, to be faithful and to win souls.