Building Bridges

One of our Bible heroes is a huge-hearted, relational guy called Barnabas, who was a “bridge-builder” in the early years of the Church.  Saul the persecutor of Christians had just become a Christian himself, and it took a man like Barnabas to help his fellow Christians overcome their fear of Saul, newly named Paul, and accept him as a brother.

That same Apostle Paul became a bridge-builder himself, going to great lengths to span intellectual and philosophical and even cultural distances to carry the gospel across to people.  Here is what he wrote years later:

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.  To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews.  To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.  To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.  To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak.  I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.  I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.  – 1 Corinthians 9:19-23  ESV

How about we build some bridges together in Columbia?