A free man who voluntarily make himself a slave (1 September 2013)

A free man who voluntarily make himself a slave

1 Cor 9:19-23
[audio:http://www.euroluxchurch.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130901.mp3]

Brothers and sisters, what do you think is an advantage of believing in Jesus? Salvation? Alright, then are you happy for that? Let me ask another question. Have you become free after meeting Jesus? Well, you might find it hard to answer these questions because you must sometimes feel bound up with many things in the world. Then what apostle Paul is saying would sound very strange to you.

Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. (9:19)

He is proclaiming that he is a free man. I am envious of his confidence, because I live like being tied up with many things in reality even though I always yearn for freedom. Being free is not easy, considering all the social networks we maintain. The German philosopher Heidegger defines human as ‘in-der-Welt-Sein (in-the-world Being)’ and as ‘mit-einander-Sein’ (with-one-another Being). Man can’t live by himself, but must live in relationships with other human beings. The philosopher suggests, therefore, that a good living/life is to make the various relationships beautiful and nice, rather than to fulfill as many materialistic conditions as possible.

However, it is very hard to take care of every relationship we have. Even within our family, we often get exhausted and frustrated in dealing with our family members, and come to feel like giving up our role as a parent or a child. In today’s scripture reading, however, Paul announces that he is free from all those relationships, and from all the things that he used to stick to. I think he really was, looking back on his past. Then, how did he become entirely free, while we have so many experiences of being filled with concerns and worries again after we pray to cast all our concerns upon the Lord. How did he become entirely free from those relationships while still caring for them?

Paul’s answer is very simple: only when the Lord comes to his heart. You can be completely free once the Lord comes to and resides in your heart, whereas to be free can’t be done with your strong will and conviction. Thus, you need to practice two things. First, you need to put endeavor to have Jesus in your heart and make your relationships beautiful with his love. Second, you don’t get nervous about things that don’t work in the way you want, but trust in Jesus completely and stay in peace.

In fact, what makes you not be free comes from the idea that you do everything on your own. The Bible says parents get obsessed with children and get frustrated and worried because they don’t have trust in God. They should be able to give their love to children and then put them in trust of God. Only if they do so, their children can grow without a problem. They tend to ignore very easily that their children are the children of God way before they became children of their parents. The parents love their children, but God loves them even more. Any parents who believe in God should remember this.

Paul became a free man when he met the resurrected Jesus on his way to Damascus. The real freedom takes place in him when he got bound with God. Then anything like poverty, sufferings, or hatred and mock from his people can’t shake his soul. He became a really free man, from everyone and every matter.

● Making himself a slave to everyone.

But then Paul announces that he is a slave to everyone. Why did he voluntarily turn to a slave to everyone, even though he was free? Because he wanted to share his freedom with others. These days I walk with my wife for 3-4 hours every Monday since my surgery. I feel peaceful and refreshed after walking, and I often talk to my wife, “I’d like to come here again with our church members!”. I wanted to share the joy and pleasure of taking fresh air with you.

Paul, who already experienced the vast land of freedom, doesn’t find meaningful to be swamped in the daily activities of life. So he chooses to be a slave “to win as many as possible”, that is, in order for others to taste the true freedom of meeting Jesus as he did. He does so in resemblance of Jesus who emptied himself and became a slave in this world. Jesus was the one who maintained human dignity in the middle of the extreme pain on a cross, the one who prayed for God to forgive those people making fun of him on the cross, and the one who kept his absolute trust in God in the midst of God’s silence. This led the centurion who was standing under the cross to confess, “This man is the son of God.”

It is important to note that to be a slave to everyone is not a metaphorical idea or a conceptual rhetoric, but is something to be shown by serving others in reality. Paul says,

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.

To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.

To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.

Then should we say that Paul has lost his identity? No. What Paul gives up is his ‘ego’ that has been formed in him through his old habits. This ego has a clear shape like a solid; just as a solid cannot be contained in a bowl with a different shape, our ego makes it difficult for us to fit into many containers. Paul has turned himself from a solid-like man into a fluid-like man, so that he can fit in any container, any relationship. Paul discarded his ego in order to keep his true identity that he was created in the resemblance of God and lived in the truth of God. What is important in our life is not to hold on to our possession, but to try to maintain our true self of God’s creation.

Paul chooses to become a slave for one purpose: to win people, i.e. to make them experience the freedom that the gospel provides. Paul doesn’t invite people from above. He comes down to the level where his people were standing and proceeds forward together with them, as Jesus showed his example. This is, I think, the attitude a saved man must show.

To a certain degree, you also have tasted the freedom that Paul has, as a saved man. As long as you want to have the Lord in your heart, we are already a free man. We just need to practice more, as Paul says in 1 Timothy, “physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things” (4:8).

The best practice for godliness would be to practice discarding what we have been obsessed with, for instance, our too much appetite. I heard that TV programs showing people eat various food is getting popular in Korea, and they are very many. This illustrates how strong a human’s desire for eating is. We should not let such worldly desire control our mind and thoughts. If we think more deeply, we can realize that in fact it is the sinful desires that hold us, not that we are holding such desires. Therefore we should practice to be free from such things. Once we make them not control ourselves, we will be able to fully enjoy the food we eat and be thankful for that.

Brothers and sisters, the best way to be away from our obsessions and desires is in fact to become a server, as written in “I am among you as one who serves (Luke 22:27)”. A truly free person has this self-identity, a man who serves. Please practice to yield something good to others. Then you begin to be free. Definitely there are times you fail, but as you practice to live like that, you will be able to experience the joy and freedom of God without noticing.

I pray that every one of you makes a life of serving in the freedom that the gospel gives to you. Amen.