Last week I watched Lance Armstrong’s interview with Oprah. One thing he said really stood out to me. He said, “I was trying to win at all costs.” Winning was the most important thing and he was willing to do anything for it, even cheat, dope, and lie.
As believers God wants us to win. He wants us to win the lost to relationship with him. This was Paul’s chief ambition. He writes in 1 Corinthians 9:22, “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.”
But, how far should we go? How far is too far in our quest to win the lost?
We go too far when we sin. Jesus was accused of being a glutton, a drunkard, and a friend of sinners. Only one of those accusations was true. He was a friend of sinners. He befriended them not to join in their sin, but to point them to a better way of living.
We can’t win the prodigal by sitting down in the mud with him. You don’t rescue a drowning person by jumping in and drowning with them. You throw them a life line and pull them to safety. While we become all things to all people so that we might win them, let’s also take with us the law of Christ living in our hearts.
