All new sorts of issues popped up when I moved to a church where the choir and orchestra wore robes during the service. It wouldn’t have been an issue except that I was often called upon to do multiple tasks during the same service – singing in the choir, playing handbells, playing a piano solo, helping with the children’s choir, etc. Some of these activities required wearing the robe, while others required not wearing the robe. While I was happy to be flexible and help out in multiple areas, trying to do a quick change behind the scenes and still get to the right place at the right time could be stressful!
Paul also must have had some stress dealing with all the different cultures he found during his missionary journeys. Yes, it is a bit of an understatement comparing Paul’s difficulties with my challenges in robe-wearing. But Paul valued being adaptable and flexible too. He considered the culture he found himself in before determining how to tell them of Jesus. He gave his testimony in Greece, as described in Acts 17:22-23:
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
Paul drew on his background preparation, allowing himself to adapt to the prevailing culture. God spoke through him, using his preparation, but requiring Paul to be flexible enough to come up with new connections and arguments to reach this different culture. We won’t all find ourselves in cultural situations like Paul, but every person we meet does have their own culture, their own background, and their own needs. For God to use us to reach someone, we must be ready to understand how they see the world before we can help them and lead them closer to God. And that takes listening (chapter 4), patience (chapter 5), and compassion (chapter 6).
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.
1 Corinthians 9:19-23