“Don’t we have the right to live in your homes and share your meals?….What soldier has to pay his own expenses? What farmer plants a vineyard and doesn’t have the right to eat some of its fruit? What shepherd cares for a flock of sheep and isn’t allowed to drink some of the milk? ……. For the law of Moses says, “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.” Was God thinking only about oxen when he said this? Wasn’t he actually speaking to us? Yes, it was written for us, so that the one who plows and the one who threshes the grain might both expect a share of the harvest.” 1 Corinthians 9:4, 7-10
This social venture called soul winning, is a networking enterprise. This means soul winning flourishes with a team better than with individuals. However, whether it is with individuals or with a team, there is a peculiar challenge that saddles the enterprise.
Paul introduces the canker of ingratitude and inappreaciation when writing to the church at Corinth. He decried their attitude of not showing gratitude for his labour. “l ought to have been commended of you”- 2Corinthians 12:11.
Corinthian souls seemed to have forgotten that it was Paul who won them to Christ. So Paul had to remind them. “For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have you not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel” – 1 Corinthians 4:15.
They were not hospitable to Paul to commensurate his labour for them. So, Paul ask this unaffectionate question: “If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?” – 1Corinthians 9:11.
Finally, Paul told them that he would ever love them for souls even though they may never return love for his sacrifice for them. “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved” – 2 Corinthians 12:15.
Such are the challenges in this soul winning business. You would rejoice if your souls show gratitude for your sacrifice. But on the contrary, some return heartbreaking responses for a reward. Some disappointments call for long time cardiodepressive treatment.
Despite all these odds, Paul was ready to die for his mission of preaching Jesus. “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God”- Acts 20:24.
Don’t give up the fight even though the devil may cause the souls to discourage us. There’s no battle without scars. When we armed ourselves against persecutions, insults and vilification, darkness will reserve no reason than to surrender the souls to us. Let’s snatch the souls from the fire!
LET’S PRAY
Heavenly Father, give me grace enough to know that, dangers feared to stop evil, is evil allowed in perpetuity.
Fountain to your life.
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