In his book Separate No More Norman Peart points out that in early Colonial society (the 1600s) English law, which then governed Virginia, required any slave, African or white, to be freed upon conversion to Christianity on the rationale that “infidels could be enslaved as a means of communicating the gospel to them.”
This disgraceful approach to “evangelism” – but what evangel or gospel did this communicate anyway? - is at complete odds with the teaching and model established by Jesus:
Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25-28).
Paul expresses the same sentiment as follows:
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:5-8).
Early Colonial society had turned things completely upside down and back-to-front! It is Christians who should be prepared to be enslaved in order to communicate the gospel to those who don’t know the Lord. Indeed, Christians are expected to make themselves the slaves of others in this cause.
Paul models this for us:
Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 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. 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. 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. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
As we approach the whole matter of communicating the gospel to those who don’t know our Lord we must ask that very basic question: Who is serving who? Too often our contemporary approaches assume that unbelievers have to come to us and have to learn to accommodate themselves to the way we do church. Too often we are unwilling to launch fresh initiatives or effect any major changes to church life and ministry that may be necessary if we are to reach the lost. Of course, to serve people effectively we have to know them so that like Paul, who was consciously imitating Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1), we might accommodate ourselves to them for the sake of the gospel. One reason we don’t launch fresh initiatives or effect any major changes is because our very disengagement from unbelievers means we have little to no idea of what needs to change or be done.
Posted September 27, 2010
www.facetofaceintercultural.com.au
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