Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

witness among the Gentiles, by using his freedom in Christ. This meant he could
participate in Jewish religious customs, or not, because these practices were not want
made him one with Christ and right with God. Paul in no way endorses, or even implies
that immoral and unethical living is permitted in order to effectively witness to those
distant from God. It is very unfortunate this passage has so often been misused in our
ultra-modern context, to give permission to Christians for ungodly, unethical and
immoral living. Charles C. Ryrie writes:
Paul is not demonstrating two-facedness or
multi-facedness, but rather he is testifying of
a constant, restrictive self-discipline in order
to be able to serve all sorts of men. Just as a
narrowly channeled stream is more powerful
than an unbounded marshy swamp, so
restricted liberty results in more powerful
testimony for Christ (Charles C. Ryrie, in
MacDonald, 1997).
The section of Scripture addresses the issue of contextualization without moral
compromise. The Apostle describes how he disciplined himself like an athlete to keep
from dishonouring Christ, yet providing an effective witness to the Gentiles. “But I
discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I
myself should become disqualified” (1Co. 9:27). William Arnot says:
God’s method of binding souls to obedience is
similar to His method of keeping the planets in
their orbits -- that is, by flinging them out free.
You see no chain keeping back these shining
worlds to prevent them from bursting away
from their center. They are held in the grip of
an invisible principle. ... And it is by the
invisible bond of love -- love to the Lord who
bought them -- that ransomed men are
constrained to live soberly and righteously and
Godly (Arnot, in MacDonald, 1997).
Dr. Isaac Zokoue affirms, with so many others, the uniqueness and superiority of
Christ among all other contenders, and that the evidences in support of Christ’s claims are
sufficient. Thus, Christ alone is the “hope and judgment of the entire world” (Zokoue, in
Nichols, 1994:242).
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University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa