What Paul Teaches Us About Reaching People

I've spent a lot of years on airplanes headed to places where nobody looked like me, ate like me, or thought like me. Every time, the same question showed up before I ever landed: am I going to be a visitor here, or am I going to become one of them?

Paul answered that question a long time before I ever asked it. If you want to know what it looks like to actually reach people instead of just visiting them, watch how he lived among the folks God sent him to.

He Became One of Them

Paul didn't just preach to people. He became them.

For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. I Corinthians 9:19-23

Read that again slowly. I made myself. I became. Paul wasn't play-acting. He was laying down his preferences, his comfort, his "this is just how I do things" so that the gospel had a way in. He wasn't seeking his own profit. He was seeking theirs.

Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. I Corinthians 10:33

That's not weakness. That's love that knows how to bend without breaking.

He Ate What They Set Before Him

This one sounds small until you've sat at someone's table.

If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake. I Corinthians 10:27

There's almost nothing more insulting to a family than turning up your nose at what they cooked. Think about what it does to your own mother's heart when someone pushes her plate away. Now imagine that happening in a culture where a shared meal is how trust gets built.

Jesus told His disciples the same thing before He ever sent them out.

And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. Luke 10:7

Sit down. Eat what's in front of you. Stay. That's not a small courtesy. That's half the sermon before you ever open your mouth.

He Gave Himself Away, Even Knowing the Cost

Paul didn't go into ministry expecting to be treated well. He went in expecting to be spent, and loved anyway.

And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. II Corinthians 12:15

Read that last part again. The more he loved them, the less he got back. He said it gladly. If you're headed to the field, settle this now: you're going to give more than you receive, you may get mistreated, misunderstood, or laughed at, and none of that changes whether you love the people God sent you to. That decision needs to be made before you land, not after you've been hurt.

He Called Out Peter for Playing Favorites

Here's the part of Paul's story we don't talk about enough.

Peter had been eating with the Gentiles, mixing with them, loving them like family. Then some men from Jerusalem showed up, and Peter pulled back. He started acting like the nationals weren't good enough for his table anymore.

But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. Galatians 2:11-14

Even Barnabas got swept up in it. That should sober all of us.

I've had Peruvian believers tell me the exact same story in modern clothes. A new missionary lands, loving the people, eating their food, learning their language, genuinely happy to be there. Then the veteran missionaries get hold of them, and something shifts. Suddenly there's an unspoken hierarchy. The new missionary starts spending all their free time with other missionaries instead of the nationals. The warmth cools off.

Watch for this. Don't let a discouraged, unbonded missionary talk you out of loving the people God sent you to. Peter needed someone willing to say something to his face. Sometimes you'll be the one who has to say it. Sometimes you'll be the one who needs to hear it.

What Love Actually Looks Like on the Field

Paul didn't leave us guessing about the goal.

Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. Romans 15:2

Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. II Timothy 2:10

And then he wrote the words that ought to hang over every missionary's door:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. I Corinthians 13:1-3

You can have the language down cold, the doctrine airtight, the sacrifice enormous. Without love for the actual people in front of you, Paul says it amounts to nothing. Noise. A door slamming shut instead of opening.

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth. I Corinthians 13:4-8

That's the whole plan. Not a strategy. Not a program. Love that stays, that eats what's set in front of it, that gives itself away, and that never lets a discouraged voice talk it out of loving people well.

Paul didn't become like the people he reached because he lost himself. He became like them because he'd found something bigger than his own comfort: a Father who'd already crossed every distance to reach him. That's what made it possible to cross every distance to reach someone else.