In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, the Apostle Paul describes his approach to evangelism. In doing so, he demonstrates his awareness of psychology:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
To the Jews I became like a Jew \u2013 to win the Jews<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n
To those under the law I became like one under the law \u2013 so as\nto win those under the law<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n
(Though\nI myself am not under the law.) <\/i><\/p>\n\n\n
To those not having the law I became like one not having the\nlaw \u2013 so as to win those not having the law<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n
(Though\nI am not free from God\u2019s law but am under Christ\u2019s law)<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n
To the weak I became weak \u2013 to win the weak<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n
Paul seems to know inherently the tendency of humans to be more receptive to those who are like them in some way – big or small.<\/p>\n\n\n
In his famous book, Influence<\/i>, Robert Cialdini describes “liking” as being one of the central factors of persuasion. In short: if we like someone, his or her opinion means more to us. And we tend to like those who are like us <\/i>in some significant way.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Cialdini tells of a social experiment in the 1970s. It was the hippie era, and the researchers hit a college campus to track the responses of random students asked for a dime to make a phone call.<\/p>\n\n\n
The researcher would dress as a “square” or as a hippie before making the ask. If the researcher’s outfit matched the student’s, the dime was given more than two-thirds of the time. If the researcher was dressed opposite of the student, the dime was given less than half the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
When it comes to something as important as sharing the gospel, every little advantage matters.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Paul explains his motivation for identifying with his various audiences as much as possible in this way: “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.” (1 Cor 9:22)<\/p>\n\n\n
What would this look like in our own lives today?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, the Apostle Paul describes his approach to evangelism. In doing so, he demonstrates his awareness of psychology:\u00a0 To the Jews I became like a Jew \u2013 to win the Jews To those under the law I became like one under the law \u2013 so as to win those under the law […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6015,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6014\/revisions\/6015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}