I do all this for the sake of the gospel.

Devotion based on1 Corinthians 9:23

His name was William Charles Macready. In the 1800s, William Macready was one of the most respected actors in Great Britain and the United States. In each stage performance, Macready poured his heart and soul into the character he was portraying. People loved him for it. They packed the theaters to see him at work.

It’s said that there once was a preacher who approached Macready with a simple question. The question was: “What is the reason for the difference between you and me? You are appearing before crowds night after night with fiction, and the crowds come wherever you go. I am preaching the essential and unchangeable truth, and I am not getting any crowd at all.”

Macready’s answer was this: “I can tell you the difference between us. I present my fiction as though it were truth; you present your truth as though it were fiction.”

Ouch.

Don’t misunderstand. The Bible is clear that the power to bring hearts to faith in Jesus lies in the power of the gospel—the good news of what Jesus has done on our behalf. Nevertheless, how many times have Christians put a roadblock in front of the gospel by acting as if it’s fiction?

The beauty is that, despite our lack of passion and our bouts of apathy, the gospel remains the most true and real thing there is. After all, whenever the reality of our wrongs crushes us, and we cry out in repentance, there is the gospel. There is the living, breathing Savior who promises that his blood has washed us clean, that we are his, and that he will never leave our side.

Macready did all he could for the sake of fiction. In Jesus, you and I can do all we can for the sake of the truth—the truth of sins forgiven in Christ.

Prayer: