1 Corinthians
9:19-27 (my translation, modified literal)
“Because, being
free from everything I enslaved myself to everyone, so that I might
gain more; and I became to the Judeans as a Judean, so that I would
gain Judeans; to those under a rule as under a rule, not being myself
under a rule, so that I would gain those under a rule; to those
without a rule as without a rule, not being without a rule of God
but within the rule of Christ, so that I might gain those without a
rule; I became weak to those weak, so that I would gain those weak;
to everyone I have become everything, so that I would rescue any of
them at all. Yet I do everything because of the Gospel, so that I
would become one who holds in common together with it.
Don’t you see
that, on the one hand, everyone running in a stadium runs, yet on the
other hand one receives the award? Run such so that you seize it. And
every person who competes abstains from everything, those on the one
hand then so that they would receive a decaying crown, but we an
undecaying one. I then run such as not uncertainly, I box such as not
hitting air; but I wear out my body and and lead it into slavery,
lest I myself become somehow unqualified after preaching to others.”
This is St. Paul
living out what Jesus taught in every Gospel,
“If anyone wants
to follow behind Me, let him disown himself and pick up his cross and
let him follow Me. Because whoever would wish to rescue his soul will
destroy it; yet whoever would destroy his soul because of Me and the
Gospel will rescue it.” (Matthew 8:34b-35, my translation, modified
literal)
St. Paul removed
from himself everything that he had once held an attachment to,
everything with which he once identified himself with, in order that
he might gain Jesus Christ:
“But those things
which were a gain to me, I have held these things to be damages
because of Christ. But on the contrary I am also holding everything
to be damages because of the superiority of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus my owner, because of whom I lost everything, and I have held it
garbage, so that I would gain Christ...” (Philippians 3:7-8, my
translation, modified literal)
St. Paul just let go
of everything which got in the way of Jesus Christ, whether it was a
personal possession, a heritage, a doctrine, or a religious rule
which might have been dear to him. Like Christ, he emptied himself
even as he told the Philippians:
“Be mindful of
this thing among you which is also in Christ Jesus, who existing in
the shape of God didn’t treasure being equal with God, but emptied
Himself taking a form of a slave, becoming in the appearance of a
human being;” (Philippians 2:5-7, my translation, modified literal)
St. Paul emptied
himself becoming everything to everyone because Jesus Christ emptied
Himself becoming everything to everyone. He recognized that those
rules, cultural, societal, or religious with which we make to bind
ourselves and to which we cling are arbitrary and must give way to
Jesus Christ living His life through us. What good is a Gospel
preached with which we ourselves are not participants? What good are
we if we disqualify ourselves by holding on to other things and not
sacrificing ourselves, disciplining our own minds and bodies to
adhere to Christ instead of everything else?
Pardon my French,
but St. Paul wasn’t screwing around. His adherence to Jesus Christ
was no joke. Because of this, he wrote:
“Become mimics of
me just as I also am of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1, my
translation, modified literal)
And this is the
heart of what it actually means to be a Christian. Listening to,
following, and imitating Jesus Christ and giving up everything which
gets in the way of Jesus Christ regardless of what it may be. The
heart of what it means to be a Christian is Jesus Christ.
