Bottom line up front: Not Just Flexibility, but Wise Flexibility

The Issue: Who sets the parameters when it comes to spiritual, moral, and ethical decision-making? For soldiers, we have sundry resources: 1) AR 165-1; 2) FM 1-05; 3) the (7) Army Values: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage; and 4) FM 7-22, among others. As a chaplain, I’m tasked by regulation with moral and spiritual leadership. One’s integrity cannot be in question as a chaplain. The soldiers must see and know that you’re the real deal; otherwise, you’re done for in terms of effectiveness in spiritual warfare.

When I was coming up, I discerned early on the men I desired to emulate.—men who loved the Lord and loved soldiering. I also learned from many what not to do. I remember one time when I was preaching from the book of Jonah and I looked out and noticed that I had so-called Christian chaplains who could not even locate that book in their Bibles, and inside, my heart broke. Why? Because I was seeing men charged with inculcating spiritual wisdom that were themselves immature and possibly worse.

Scripture: Paul was uber-educated, but he did not boast in that. He viewed himself as the chief of sinners, and understood that his redemption, too, was 100% of God’s effectual grace towards him. Listen to his words about wise flexibility:

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 Cor 9:19-23, ESV)

Questions for Reflection: Did Paul change God’s message to tickle ears or to ingratiate himself with pagans? No. Did he pervert his own testimony to fit in? No. But what he did do was labor to reach men and women with redemptive truth. He flexed to them insofar as he understood their worldviews. He walked those bridges of connection. He shared his own testimony. He showed the universality of man’s sinfulness and need of redemption through Christ. He didn’t throw the book of Jonah overboard as if it were some antiquated allegory of God’s will, but he knew the Scriptures through and through to reach the mission field onto which Christ had commissioned him.

There’s flexibility and there’s wise flexibility, and God’s people should know and live the difference.