Paul was willing to do whatever it took to see people come to faith in Jesus. That meant that when it was time for Timothy to accompany him in his ministry, he made sure he was circumcised. Paul makes it pretty clear in his letters that he didn’t believe we were saved through obedience to Jewish law and particularly the law on circumcision (see the book of Galatians). But he knew that Timothy not being circumcised would be a distraction. His mother was Jewish. He was Jewish. The Jews he would be sharing the Gospel with would expect Timothy to be circumcised. This wasn’t compromise, not in the least. It was compassion. He wanted to see people come to Christ, and he was willing to make accommodations and ask those he was ministering with to make accommodations as well for the sake of spreading the Gospel. Are we willing to make accommodations for the sake of the Gospel? Or are we so hard-headed that we believe it’s all about us?
A former seminary professor of mine was a chaplain at a hospital in Los Angeles. He told us a story one time of being asked by a young Catholic couple to baptize their dying infant before he passed. My professor was a Baptist. He believed that baptism was an ordinance to be bestowed on believers, those who had made a confession of Christ. But in those few hours, as he was ministering to this hurting family, he didn’t get hung up in a doctrinal debate. He baptized that baby. He didn’t believe it did a thing for that baby. But it did do something for the family. He had an opportunity to share Christ later because of that. Did he compromise his beliefs? I don’t think so. He accommodated that young couple. The Gospel was more important than winning a doctrinal debate.
Where do we let doctrinal rigidness become a hindrance for sharing the Gospel?
