To Win As Many As Possible

TO WIN AS MANY AS POSSIBLE

a prayer to open

Holy Spirit, come. Center my heart.

Fill my mind. Guide my steps.

When we arrived, the brothers and sisters in Jerusalem welcomed us warmly.

The next day Paul went with us to meet with James, and all the elders of the Jerusalem church were present. After greeting them, Paul gave a detailed account of the things God had accomplished among the Gentiles through his ministry.

After hearing this, they praised God. And then they said, “You know, dear brother, how many thousands of Jews have also believed, and they all follow the law of Moses very seriously. But the Jewish believers here in Jerusalem have been told that you are teaching all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn their backs on the laws of Moses. They’ve heard that you teach them not to circumcise their children or follow other Jewish customs. What should we do? They will certainly hear that you have come.

“Here’s what we want you to do. We have four men here who have completed their vow. Go with them to the Temple and join them in the purification ceremony, paying for them to have their heads ritually shaved. Then everyone will know that the rumors are all false and that you yourself observe the Jewish laws.

“As for the Gentile believers, they should do what we already told them in a letter: They should abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality.”

So Paul went to the Temple the next day with the other men. They had already started the purification ritual, so he publicly announced the date when their vows would end and sacrifices would be offered for each of them.

The seven days were almost ended when some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul in the Temple and roused a mob against him. They grabbed him, yelling, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who preaches against our people everywhere and tells everybody to disobey the Jewish laws. He speaks against the Temple—and even defiles this holy place by bringing in Gentiles.” (For earlier that day they had seen him in the city with Trophimus, a Gentile from Ephesus, and they assumed Paul had taken him into the Temple.)

The whole city was rocked by these accusations, and a great riot followed. Paul was grabbed and dragged out of the Temple, and immediately the gates were closed behind him. As they were trying to kill him, word reached the commander of the Roman regiment that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. He immediately called out his soldiers and officers and ran down among the crowd. When the mob saw the commander and the troops coming, they stopped beating Paul.

Then the commander arrested him and ordered him bound with two chains. He asked the crowd who he was and what he had done. Some shouted one thing and some another. Since he couldn’t find out the truth in all the uproar and confusion, he ordered that Paul be taken to the fortress. As Paul reached the stairs, the mob grew so violent the soldiers had to lift him to their shoulders to protect him. And the crowd followed behind, shouting, “Kill him, kill him!”

In his first letter to the church he planted in Corinth, Paul wrote, “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” (1 Corinthians 9:19-20, NIV). We see these words played out in Acts 21: Paul submitted to certain Jewish purification rituals even though he did not consider himself bound by them anymore. The church elders wanted him to do this to save his life, and Paul presumably agreed in order to “win” those who accused him of speaking against the law and the Temple. How far out of your comfort zone are you really willing to go to tell people about the love and grace of Jesus?

• Read this passage again. What word or phrase stands out to you? Sit quietly, reminding yourself that you are in God’s loving presence, and ask him to show you how that word or phrase connects to your life.
• Are there people you refuse to engage with because they hold different beliefs or act in ways that disturb you? Who are those people? What are you afraid might happen if you engaged with them?
• How might God be inviting you to engage with those who are different from you in order to share his love and grace? What resistance do you feel to that invitation?

Father, thank you for the people in my life who took a step toward me to share your love. Thank you for those who took a risk on me and introduced me to the life and redemption you offer. Help me to be someone who reaches across divides of all kinds and engages with people who look, behave, and believe differently from me. Remind me of who I am in you, and then send me out to be whatever I need to be to spread your love and to share the gospel with words and actions. Dispel my fear and embolden my spirit. Amen.