“Was Paul doing what was contrary to grace?”

September 2015 – Grace & Truth Magazine

QUESTION: Please explain very clearly 1 Corinthians 9:20-22 along with Acts 21:22-27 and Hebrews 10:9. Was Paul again doing that which was taken away and contrary to grace? In order to win some, can we do unscriptural things or that which is against the mind of God?

ANSWER: We must remember that Paul’s actions in Acts 21 were taken before the Epistle to the Hebrews had been written. In Acts we see that God takes His time with the transition from Judaism to Christianity. In Acts 21, God had not yet called on Christians of Jewish background to make the break with Judaism that we read of in Hebrews 13:13. Paul, in his deep love for his Jewish brethren according to the flesh, writes that he would gladly have been a curse for them if somehow they could have been saved thereby (Rom. 9:1-3). Moses had similarly offered himself for his people in Exodus 32:32. This was done by these two godly men in love for their people, seeking in grace to reach them. It is easy for us to condemn them for what we may consider to be inconsistency in principles, but God does not do so. Nowhere does He condemn either of them for their actions taken in love for their people.

Our place is to obey God’s will as revealed in His Word. We are blessed with the whole Word of God and have the Holy Spirit to guide us in our understanding and application of the Bible to our lives. We cannot advocate or defend disobedience. The end will never justify the means. We are not to do unscriptural things, pleading that we do them to win others. “To obey is better than sacrifice,” Saul was told in 1 Samuel 15:22 (NKJV).

But at the same time let’s remember that God is a God of grace and that He has not placed us under law but under grace as our principle of life. We must be careful not to make rules for one another, as the Pharisees did and the Lord Jesus so clearly condemned. Let’s be quick to judge self – not others.

Answered by Eugene P. Vedder, Jr.