1 Corinthians 9:21 KJV
To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
Here is portion of Scripture that has been interpreted and misinterpreted I imagine since the first time it was read. Who knows how many people have used this passage and the context in which it is found to permit unlawful and even ungodly behavior in an effort, they say, to gain souls. This is the excuse used of modernism for using almost every worldly means to identify with sin in their supposed desire to win the sinner.
And it appears to me that the Apostle knew even has he penned the words that they would be misunderstood and misused. He added in parentheses those words, "being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ" knowing that someone would say Paul was lawless in his efforts to win souls.
Communication is a complicated thing. Too many of us don't know how to do it.
We are not careful to hear the words of one speaking to us, choosing rather to plan for our next turn to speak.
We seldom listen to hear what a speaker means by what he says, but rather assign usually a predetermined interpretation to whatever he says (since we didn't really hear him anyway.)
We are too ignorant of disciplined rules of communication, having elected to take shortcuts in our education.
We are poor writers
We are even poorer readers
And the result is an awful lot of miscommunication both in written and verbal form.
What then? Shall we discontinue to communicate just we are so poor at it? Should the preacher quit his efforts to preach the gospel because so many will misunderstand his feeble attempts to declare the truth?
No sir! Paul knew there would be people who misunderstood him and others who would misuse what he had said. He said it anyway because there would be others who would read what he meant rather than making what he said to mean what they wanted. And souls would be gained because of it.
To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
Here is portion of Scripture that has been interpreted and misinterpreted I imagine since the first time it was read. Who knows how many people have used this passage and the context in which it is found to permit unlawful and even ungodly behavior in an effort, they say, to gain souls. This is the excuse used of modernism for using almost every worldly means to identify with sin in their supposed desire to win the sinner.
And it appears to me that the Apostle knew even has he penned the words that they would be misunderstood and misused. He added in parentheses those words, "being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ" knowing that someone would say Paul was lawless in his efforts to win souls.
Communication is a complicated thing. Too many of us don't know how to do it.
We are not careful to hear the words of one speaking to us, choosing rather to plan for our next turn to speak.
We seldom listen to hear what a speaker means by what he says, but rather assign usually a predetermined interpretation to whatever he says (since we didn't really hear him anyway.)
We are too ignorant of disciplined rules of communication, having elected to take shortcuts in our education.
We are poor writers
We are even poorer readers
And the result is an awful lot of miscommunication both in written and verbal form.
What then? Shall we discontinue to communicate just we are so poor at it? Should the preacher quit his efforts to preach the gospel because so many will misunderstand his feeble attempts to declare the truth?
No sir! Paul knew there would be people who misunderstood him and others who would misuse what he had said. He said it anyway because there would be others who would read what he meant rather than making what he said to mean what they wanted. And souls would be gained because of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment