Matthew 22:37-40 And he [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Pastor Obie continues that the next and second step to be all for all for the sake of the Gospel is to be a servant who genuinely cares about others’ needs and interests. “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.” The Apostle’s attitude of servitude came from following the teaching of the Lord Jesus. In Mark 10:43-45 Jesus tells us, “But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Follow the Apostle Paul as he followed Christ with a servant spirit. Paul goes on to say in 2 Corinthians 4:5 “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.”
The Great Commission of Christ is to reach the lost Sinner for salvation through the good news of the Gospel. They were created in God’s image, but dead in their trespasses, inequity and sin. To reach them well requires genuine care them. In order to care for the needs and interests of others are, you need to know what their needs and interests are. And in order to know what other’s needs and interest are, you have to genuinely care about them. People do not care what you know until they know that you care. This means that you put out the effort and go to them and meet them where they are, physically, intellectually and spiritually, showing that you have a genuine interest in them, with a servant attitude towards the relationships that God has placed in your lives, coming alongside and getting to know unbelievers, valuing them as God’s creation, created in His image; not just as an object of conversion.
This means that we become familiar with each person’s unique hopes and fears so that we can contextualize the Gospel in such a way as to speak most directly to those concerns while still communicating the Gospel truth that leads to repentance of sin at the foot of the Cross. At the root of being a servant to all is love. Galatians 5:13 tells us, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” No matter how small the problem is in your eyes, genuinely care about the little things because it is often caring for the perceived small issues that we make the biggest impact in people’s lives. Feel both their pains and their joys when they open up to you. Everyone is unique and being on common ground opens a segue into the Gospel message for the salvation of their soul, but it takes being all for all in the process.
Let's continue Pastor Obie's message on "being all for all" in order to reach the lost Sinner for salvation through the good news of the Gospel in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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