1 Corinthians 9.19-23 records, even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I 
have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!
The purpose of the Christian life, the work we are to do, is to win people to Christ in order for God to accomplish His purpose of not seeing anyone perish but for all to come to eternal life.
While our purpose is to know God our mission is to make God known. How do we accomplish this work? Assuming we engage it! What will God do with us if we don’t engage His mission?
To effectively win an audience for our message we must become like Paul, we must become servants of people, winning influence in their life by meeting needs in their life. People are influenced most by those they are in closest relationship with and those we love best are those who serve us most. Paul sought to serve so he could share about God Who came to earth to serve rather than be served.
Paul could do miracles, but he served because God served men as Man by giving His life in exchange for ours. How did Paul serve people? Not by doing what they did but by going where they were. In being with people of all kinds Paul kept consistent by being like Christ.
What he did for people varied but how he did for people stayed consistent. Paul was patient, humble, joyful and loving even when maligned, ignored and persecuted.
The mission of the Christian is the Great Commission accomplished best when we deny ourselves and serve others for their benefit until they ask us to explain the hope that is within us.
