i am under obligation both to greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. so i am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in rome. – [romans 1:14-15]
we are also under obligation
who should we share the gospel with? the answer is – anyone and everyone! wise people. foolish people. people who are like us and people who are not. the gospel is for each and every person and it is for us to share that gospel unashamedly.
paul made clear that the gospel was intended for all people that he came in contact with. however, as we learned in acts, when paul arrived in any city it was his custom to start at the local synagogue. but why?
it was strategic. being a jew, these were the people he could most quickly relate to and share the gospel with. those in the synagogue would recognize him as a well-studied jewish man, and give him opportunity to speak. Jesus himself was a jew who lived among jews and fulfilled jewish messianic prophecy, so this just made sense!
the pattern that generally followed was that after hearing paul, a group of these jews would believe in Jesus, and then this core group would take the message of salvation to the rest of the non-believing community.
yet paul makes clear in this passage that he is not called to simply preach to those who are most like him and stop there. his calling, his obligation, was to all people. this word for ‘obligation’ is the same as ‘indebted’, and paul saw it as his obligation to share the salvation that he had been given.
an important observation from this passage is that in Christ there is no one who is considered ‘other’.
the jews viewed their culture as superior to others, and generally referred to anyone non-jewish as a gentile. gentiles were considered to be impure, uncultured, and unclean.
the greeks (those who spoke greek and considered themselves culturally greek) viewed their culture as superior to others, and generally referred to anyone non-greek as a barbarian. barbarians were considered to be impure, uncultured, and unclean.
and so it goes…
each group viewed everyone else as inferior, and we still suffer from the same type of prejudice.
like paul, we are obligated to share the truth that we know. we can follow his example by sharing with people closest to us, building momentum to share with the larger community. some of us will go, and are going, to the uttermost parts of the earth. regardless, there is no one who cannot hear the truth we know, and no one who cannot have a heart changed by Jesus.
~ jason soroski