Paul was a hypocrite...or was he? Acts 16:3

Original picture by Wikimedia user Rémi Jouan and obtained from Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

The rest of this passage in 1 Corinthians may be a little more familiar to you. It goes on to say:

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. ²¹ 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. ²² To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. ²³ I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. (emph. mine)                  - 1 Corinthians 9:20-23

You may be wondering why I'm posting a passage from 1 Corinthians instead of from Acts this week. And there's a very simple answer for that. The passage I am scheduled to write about today is Acts 16:3 which says, "Paul wanted to take him [Timothy] along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek."

And let's be honest...that's just not a typical verse we think about to memorize! But I do believe the principles and the decisions represented in the passage are extremely important and worthy of looking at and thinking about. Let me give the background information and I think you will understand what I'm talking about and you will see the relevance for today as well.

We learn from the first few verses of Acts 16 that Timothy was the son of a Jewish mother and a Greek father. We also learn that he had a great reputation among the believers. We've discussed the last couple of weeks the broader context. In Acts 15, there was a vigorous debate about whether or not Gentile converts had to be circumcised and keep the ceremonial Old Testament law in order to really join the church. In fact, Paul was preparing Timothy to travel around with him to the infant gentile churches delivering the good news reached at Jerusalem. That news was that they were not obligated to keep the Old Testament law. Paul had been vehement in his arguments against requiring anyone to be circumcised as a condition of salvation. Together with Peter's account of Cornelius' conversion and James's recount of the prophecies, the Jerusalem council made the wise and correct decision not to burden new converts with laws that never had the power to save anyone anyway. The question, then, when you get to chapter 16 and Paul's having Timothy circumcised, is what in the world happened to change Paul's mind!?


And the answer is nothing at all. In fact, Luke records in the verse after telling of Timothy's circumcision that he and Paul traveled around to the churches telling of the decision in Jerusalem! (Acts 16:4) How could Paul joyfully tell others they were not required to be circumcised while standing next to Timothy whom he had asked to be circumcised!? Were they being hypocritical? Were they being wishy-washy? Were they being politically correct and trying to please everyone?

Absolutely not! They were being all things to all people so that by all means they might save some!

Here's the deal as far as I can see it. They were very different circumstances. By no means would Paul stand by quietly and let someone add requirements to salvation. He would not keep quiet while Judaizers tried to pervert the gospel of God with man-made requirements and restrictions for younger believers or new converts. But in the case of Timothy, he did not ask Timothy to be circumcised as a requirement for salvation. He asked Timothy to be circumcised in order to remove a stumbling block for Jews who did not already believe! Paul knew that Timothy's effectiveness as a missionary would be severely dampened any time they went into a city. Think about it. The first place they usually went was to a synagogue. Why? Because God-fearing Jews met there. It was a great place to start preaching. But if they had to fight a battle about Timothy's heritage and lack of circumcision every time they walked into a city, when would they have time to talk about Christ!


I think this passage and context that it comes in is an incredibly illuminating example of what it means to be all things to all people and to not lay stumbling blocks in front of others. Let's be honest when we are talking about stumbling block issues. Stumbling blocks are things that keep young Christians or those who have not converted yet from being able to see Christ. They are never issues that are about placating mature Christians in order to keep the peace. They never involve adding requirements to those who come from a different background before we can grant them salvation or consider them a brother. Paul and Jesus both fought tooth an nail against those types of things.


On the other hand, let's be honest about how far we are willing to go to bring others to the God who loves us infinitely. What barriers exist between you and your unsaved neighbors, co-workers, friends, and family? Is it a style of dress? Is it a matter of comfort? Is it a political stance? Is there anything that is worth maintaining comfort and self over accommodating someone's limited perception of me so they can quit seeing the differences between us and start seeing Christ?


I'm not saying that we fake who we are. I'm not saying we are disingenuous. I'm saying we seek out and remain vigilant about any non-Biblical barriers that stand between us and anyone else that hinders them from seeing and hearing the message of Christ in us...and we destroy them.


Let's become all things to all people so that by all means we may save some. May God give us the wisdom and discernment of Paul so we may know when to fight the slavery of extra-biblical religious requirements and when to accommodate the sensitivities of non-believers.

When did the Golden Rule become silver? Matthew 7:12

The Golden Rule.

I would venture to say that there are more people in the world who could quote at least some form of this rule than there are who could not. As I was reading Barclay's commentary on this passage, he pointed out that the negative form of the rule is stated in countless places throughout many different religions, cultures, government figures. The negative form of course says basically that if there is something you would rather someone not do to you...then don't do it to them! Pretty simple and pretty basic to human existence. That rule is what governs every law on the books. Don't steal, you don't want to be stolen from. Don't abuse; you don't want to be abused. Don't slander; you don't want to be slandered about.

Here's the problem: too many times we, as followers of Christ, attempt to make the "Golden Rule" of Christ something less...we are content to live by what I will call the "silver rule" of not doing others harm. But living that way does nothing but make us sterile and basically moral people. It does not give us purpose; it does not fill us with passion; and it does not inspire the world to look for the God they have been missing!

What if we have taken what some call the climax of the sermon on the mount- the Golden Rule- and we have stripped it of its power? Could that be why we focus on teaching our children what not to do more than we focus on what to do? Could that be why we spend so much time in front of the television and our teenagers spend so much time in front of their game systems? Could it be that Christianity has become just another voice calling for people to do nothing to others that you wouldn't want done to you, when our message is supposed to be "Do unto the others what you would have them do to you!?"

Christianity is a religion of action, not of restrictions!

I love this paragraph in Barclay's commentary. Read it slowly and let the end of it especially sink in.

"It is perfectly possible for a man of the world to observe the negative form of this golden rule. He could without very serious difficulty so discipline his life that he would not do to other what he did not wish them to do to him; but the only man who can even begin to satisfy the positive form of the rule is the man who has the love of Christ within his heart. He will try to forgive as he would wish to be forgiven, to help as he would wish to be helped, to praise as he would wish to be praised, to understand as he would wish to be understood. He will never seek to avoid doing things; he will always look for things to do. Clearly this will make life much more complicated; clearly he will have much less time to spend on his own desires and his own activities, for time and time again he will have to stop what he is doing to help someone else. It will be a principle which will dominate his life at home, in the factory, in the bus, in the office, in the street, in the train, at his games, everywhere. He can never do it until self withers and dies within his heart. To obey this commandment a man must become a new man with a new centre to his life; and if the world was composed of people who sought to obey this rule, it would be a new world."

May we strive to live up to the Golden Rule and never be satisfied to simply follow its "silver" form.