Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? (ESV)

I have two dogs that I absolutely love, but they can be little brats sometimes. They are Shih Tzus, so they are very stubborn, as many little dogs are. Sometimes, when I call one of them over, they just sit down and stare at me like I’m an idiot. To get the desired one to come to me, I just have to start calling or loving on the other one, and like magic, here comes the little stinker I was calling in the first place. I never thought I would have to use psychology on a dog, but here we are…

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I giggled when I first read this passage because the above image is what immediately popped into my mind. I’m picturing Paul all chummy with the Gentiles so that the Jews would notice and get jealous – thus running over to be included.  

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Of course, this is a complete oversimplification of this passage, but you get a good picture of what Paul might have been doing to draw the Jews into the life-saving presence of Jesus. Here’s what he says in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”

So, here’s my question: “What will you do to bring the Good News of Jesus to those around you?”

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See, Paul was willing to do anything short of sin to reach his people with the gospel. He endured rejection, abandonment, ridicule, and even prison. We live in a day and place where the worst we might experience by preaching the gospel is rejection or ridicule – but that is often enough to stop us from sharing. “What if they think I’m a freak?” “What if they stop hanging out with me?” “What if they tell others I’m weird?”

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Please hear me – I’m not judging you – these are all thoughts I have struggled with, too. I feared rejection and ridicule. I feared people telling others that I was some sort of Jesus freak. And then…

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God broke my heart for what breaks his: the lost. He has given me courage and resolve where I didn’t have it before. He has given me a picture of what it looks like to be separated from him for eternity. And he’s given me a charge and a purpose: Be a freak, be ridiculed, be rejected! And as you continue to go hard after those who don’t know Me, maybe some of those closest to you might get a little jealous and want to know more of what is going on in your life.

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How about you? Will you ask God to break your heart for what breaks his?  

Dear God, continue to break my heart for the lost. Please give me courage, resolve, and a soft heart to go after those from whom others would turn away. Show me how your Son loved the ones whom others rejected – and then stir up the jealousy in those closest to me to know more – to know YOU!  God, you never give up on people, so don’t let us either. In the powerful name of Jesus we pray ~ AMEN!!