Free to Win Souls at all Cost

Then Paul went to Derbe and Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman, but his father was a Greek. The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke highly of him. Paul wanted Timothy to go with him, and he circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, since the Jews all knew his father was a Greek. As they travelled through the towns, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem for them to observe ( that being: that you abstain from food offered to idols, from blood, from eating anything that has been strangled, from sexual immorality 15:20-29).so the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in numbers daily. Acts 16:1-5

The message that Paul brought also brought peace in regard the compulsion to be circumcised, yet here Paul was circumcision Timothy. At first glance it seems odd, why did he do it? The scripture tells us that the Jews in the area knew Timothy's dad was a Greek but that his mother was a Jew. Timothy being half Jew needed to respect the practise, ouch! The Jews would have been offended that Timothy a half Jew, was not circumcised, thus Paul removes that issue. The Jews were stumbling over the truth about Jesus, but they needed to hear the good news, Timothy at the gate would cause them to stumble first.

Paul himself says in 1 Cor 9:19-23: Although I am a free man and not anyone's slave, I have made myself a slave to everyone, in order to win more people. To the Jews I became a Jew, to win Jews; to those under the law, like one under the law- though myself am not under the law- to win those under the law. To those without the law, like one without the law- not being without God's law but within Christ's law-to win those without the law. To the weak I became weak, in order to win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I by every possible means I save some. Now I do all this because of the gospel, so I may become a partner in its benefits.

This is a free man, indeed.

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