Become like those you reach

Paul took the incarnation and turned it into a working discipline — something he did on purpose, every time, and could describe.

For though I am free from all people, I have made myself a servant to all, so that I may gain more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might gain Jews… To those who are without the Law, as without the Law… To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak; I have become all things to all people, so that I may by all means save some. — 1 Corinthians 9:19-22 (OTB)

Who bends

This is the sentence to hold on to, because it is what keeps the practice from becoming compromise.

The messenger bends. The message never does.

Paul laid down his rights, his preferences, his cultural background, and his comfort. He did not lay down one thing about Jesus crucified and risen. He preached the same Christ in a synagogue and on a hill full of idols, and the only thing that changed was the door he came in through.

Watch him work

In a synagogue in Thessalonica, he reasons from the Scriptures — because that is what the room already holds as authoritative.

In Athens, in front of philosophers who have never read those Scriptures, he does not open with a chapter reference. He starts from an altar they built to an unknown god, and quotes their own poets back to them.

Same man. Same message. Completely different starting point, chosen by looking at who was actually in front of him.

And it was not just Paul. The early church adapted fast and constantly — houses, marketplaces, a riverside outside the city gate, a jailer’s kitchen at midnight. Whatever language and setting the hearer needed.

Become a student of the people God sent you to

That is the practical shape of this. Not a technique — attention.

What do the people around you actually read, watch, worry about? What words do they use for the things you would call sin, or grace, or prayer? Where do they gather, and at what hour are they actually free? What has to be true before they would say something honest?

Most of us cannot answer those questions about our own neighbors, and it is not because we are unloving. It is because we have never treated them as a place we were sent, only as a place we live.

Recite this

All things to all people. The messenger bends — never the message.

Try it this week

Pick one person and become a student of them for seven days. Learn where they gather, what they are worried about, and what words they use. Write down three things you did not know.

I will study ________________ this week and write down what I learn by ________________.