1 Corinthians 9

I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

This passage is frequented by many to teach the rights of a pastor to receive financial benefit from the people whom he is pastoring. At the same time, it is also used to teach a principle behind missionary support in order that the Gospel can be preached seemingly without strings attached. But these are both merely examples to a larger theme.  Paul wants to see souls saved, and he is willing to go without to do so.

For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.

So Paul is willing to become a servant without compensation for his work so that others would listen to the gospel without suspicion of Paul’s motives of why he is preaching it.  In all the examples Paul gives, including the one of him forgoing compensation, Paul is sacrificing one of his rights for so that people might be saved.

Again we see in Scripture how the conversion of a soul is not brought about by simply speaking words of the Gospel, but the Gospel wrapped in the outer coverings of sacrifice and affliction.

Consider yourself in one of Paul’s converts shoes.  He has come to you at great cost to himself.  He is willing to spend hours with you so that you might understand a certain truth about the resurrection of Jesus, a name you’ve not heard of before.  Paul has not asked you for money, though he is obviously a foreigner, he makes an attempt to level with you in terms you understand.  As he spends time with you, he learns a certain amount of your home customs to which he gladly takes on as his own (v20-23), perhaps even learning a great deal of your language you learned from your mother.  What’s in it for Paul?  Not money (v15), which is what everyone else is laboring for.  The only other motive that makes sense is that he truly believes his own message, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he does not want his preaching of it to be distracted by suspicion for material things (v27).

If we desire to see souls saved, it will come at a cost similar to the costs Jesus made on the cross for us.  We will give up rights and comfort.  We will give up compensation for work that otherwise would be paid.  We will learn languages, customs, and styles of living other than our own.  Because the Gospel comes to people, not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost.  The spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ whose rhetoric was not merely words, but life to all that heard and believed.