“We have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men” (1 Cor. 4:9 NKJ).
Paul’s use of the word spectacle in this verse has a special message to all of us. In the original Greek text it is theatron (theh’-at-ron) from which we derive our English words theater and theatrics.
Grammarians define theatron as “a place for public show” or “a general audience-room.” One writer defined it as “the place where a man is exhibited and gazed at.”
In his play. As You Like It, William Shakespeare has one of his characters speak these lines: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts.”
Paul states that there are three audiences to this universal drama called life:
1) The angels
2) The unbelieving world, and
3) The Christian Church (Eph. 3:10).
All three groups are watching as we believers play our role. Each audience judges our performance by its own set of criteria.
The ancient dramatists only had two types of plays from which to choose: comedy or tragedy. As Christians, we have a third type: godly fear and holy living. The world may want to categorize our performance as comedic relief or personal tragedy, but the Lord has called us to set an example of normality in an abnormal world.
We are to be sober in an intoxicated society, pure in a world of sin and degradation. We are the theatron, the spectacle, living epistles. Our performance speaks louder than our script. We preach more with our lives than we do with our lips. May our actions speak well of us and our Lord!
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers