Moving Someone from Hostility to Sympathy to Humility: How to help friends, family, and acquaintances become sympathetic toward Christianity
Often, people are hostile toward Christianity. It seems that a first step in helping someone come to know Christ personally is to help them change their belief about Christianity from hostility to sympathy. How do we encourage this hostility to turn into sympathy, let alone, humility? It seems that a major key for this is found in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23: Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I ma...