Contrary to our Declaration of
Independence, we are not all created equal. God gifted us
differently and gave us different personalities. For this
reason there are some people who are easier for us to reach
than others. This doesn’t mean that we are exempt from
trying to reach those who are different from us but we
should have the understanding that some people are easier
than others to deal with.
Not only will we be able to reach some people better than
others but we are better able to reach people at certain
points in the planting process. Even the apostle Paul needed
help to reach some people.
Paul was successful in reach a number
of people in Corinth but despite a stay of a couple of years
he didn’t reach everyone. When Apollos came along, he built
upon what Paul had started and saw more results. This
doesn’t mean that Paul had failed nor does it mean that
Apollos was a better evangelist than Paul.
Instead, there are two things that we
should learn from this. First, we may not be the one to see
the results of our work but are only the one who plants the
seed. As mentioned before, it can take a long time to see
results and several times to hear the gospel and understand.
Apollos undoubtedly spoke to some people who had heard Paul
but never made a decision while he was with them. For these
people he was responsible for breaking hard ground, digging
out rocks, or pulling weeds in order to sow the seed on good
soil.
Second, there were probably people who
couldn’t relate to Paul that Apollos was able to relate to.
Corinth was one of the roughest towns in the ancient world
and certainly what went on went against Paul’s Jewish
background. Apollos was a God fearing Greek and although he
wouldn’t have condoned the sinfulness of Corinth any more
than Paul did, he likely looked upon it differently and the
people looked at him differently as well.
The Big Picture
We as Christians are called to
evangelism. At times we have been too narrow in our focus
thinking that we must go away from home in order to reach
people. Other times we have equated handing out tracts and
going door to door as evangelism.
Instead, evangelism is a way of life.
Our biggest witness is how we live in front of
non-Christians. Just like we are not the same,
non-Christians are not the same. We shouldn’t expect one
evangelism technique to work with everyone. As Jesus tells
us in the parable of the soils, people can be hard soil,
shallow soil, weedy soil, or good soil. We must consider who
we are speaking to in order to decide what is the best way
to approach that person with the gospel.
We will likely be better at reaching
one type of person over another. God made us different from
one another. This doesn’t exclude us from being witnesses
wherever we go however.
