Ep 284: All Things to All People? | 1 Corinthians 9:19-23

Preorder my new book Politics, Economics and New Testament Interpretation here: https://libertarianchristians.com/store/politics-economics-and-new-testament-interpretation/

In this Theology Thursday episode, I explore what Paul’s comments in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 about becoming “all things to all men” and doing “all things for the sake of the gospel”. Paul is not claiming that Christians should ever compromise the gospel, which he believes is God’s power for salvation, or our moral values, but that we must wisely tailor our presentation of the gospel to meet the needs of our audience. Embedded within a larger conversation about the eating of meat sacrificed to idols, Paul presents himself as a model of sacrifice, renouncing his rights for the edification of others. We also see throughout Acts and Paul’s own letters how he is always aware of the needs of his audience and can contextualize his presentation of the gospel to best meet their needs without compromising the truth. I then discuss how believers can implement this insight today. 

Media Referenced:

Bennema imitation interview: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-206-imitation-in-early-christianity-with-cornelis-bennema/

Chris Chen Interview: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-252-government-officials-advancing-the-gospel-with-christopher-chen/

Paul and the Corinthians: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-276-paul-and-the-corinthians-with-paul-duff/

1 Corinthians 2:6-8: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-257-the-rulers-of-this-age-are-passing-away-1-corinthians-26-8/

Sign up for LCI’s 2026 Conference in Cincinnati, OH on Saturday, October 17! Many LCI content creators, including myself, will be speaking at the event, and it will be an excellent opportunity to connect with likeminded, liberty-loving Christians. Check out the event and sign up here: https://libertarianchristians.com/conference/

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at theprotestantlibertarian@gmail.com.  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and YouTube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the show’s profile! Thanks!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

All right, everybody. I want to take a quick break from the show to let you all know that my brand new book, Politics, Economics, and New Testament Interpretation, where I argue definitively that the New Testament does not endorse modern authoritarian socialism, is now available for pre-order. The release date is going to be Tuesday, September 15th, 2026. And you can go to libertarianchristians.com, click on the book tab at the top of the page, and then select my book. You can pre-order the physical copy through LibertarianChristians.com and you can go to Amazon and pre-order the ebook version, the Kindle version of that book over there. And of course, on September 15th, you'll be able to find the physical copy on Amazon and in many other places where books are sold. I'm extremely excited about this book. This is a culmination of my life's work. I know that many of you guys have asked me about it over the last several months, and I am so ready to get into your hands. Let's go ahead and make this a big hit, get these ideas out there. Again, go and pre-order the book at libertarianchristians.com or at Amazon.com. You can search my name or the title of the book. Thank you guys very much. This is the Protestant Libertarian Podcast, a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and part of the Christians for Liberty Network. I really hope that you guys enjoy today's show. All right, guys. Welcome to another episode of the Protestant Libertarian Podcast. This is another Theology Thursday episode where I take a look at a theological or a biblical issue from the scriptures and break it down and try to explain it in a much shorter fashion. And again, the rules of engagement with Theology Thursday is that all what we're talking about in these episodes are just kind of general biblical studies and theology ideas, not necessarily specifically related to the political and economic themes in the Bible that we explore on the show. But I mean something that contributes to your overall understanding of the scripture. But again, as I have said repeatedly, I am interested in the Bible through a number of different avenues. And sometimes it's nice to just be able to talk about an issue that doesn't directly relate to some of the main themes of the show. Of course, this is the Protestant Libertarian podcast, or the Bible is what we do on this show. So it does obviously relate to it in that sense. But we love Theology Thursday. Before we get started, um, I want to remind you guys that you can go ahead and pre-order a brand new copy of my book, Politics, Economics, and New Testament Interpretation, over at libertarianchristians.com. There is a tab for books at the top of the page. Click on that, pre-order the hard copy through LCI's website or pre-order the Kindle E version through Amazon. And then on September 15th, when this book comes out, uh, it will be available in both physical and electronic forms all over the place. So you'll be able to get your hands on it. Then, but go ahead and pre-order a copy of the book. We would love to get this to number one on the Biblical Studies charts on Amazon, which, like I've said before, I think only takes a couple of people buying the book. So go pre-order a copy of it. I'm very excited about it. Um, but let's go ahead and get into the topic of the show today. And like I said, Theology Thursday, it's not going to be a long one, but uh, I've been reading a lot and very extensively in Paul this summer. We're working through, or we're gonna start working through Romans in my small group, and that'll take us probably several months in the fall to get through. And so I've been reading kind of widely in Paul and reading scholarship on Paul. And the more that I have conversations about Paul and his implication for Christian ethics today, the more I've kind of been reflecting on what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verses 19 through 23. So I'm gonna read what Paul says there, and then we're gonna talk about what that might mean historically and for us as Christians today. So here's what Paul says For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. To the Jews I become as a Jew, so that I might win Jews, to those who are under the law as under the law, though not being myself under the law, so that I might win those who are under the law, to those who are without the law as without law, though not being without the law of God, but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I become weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it. So Paul says, and this is a very famous phrase, Paul says that he has become all things to all men. Now the question is, what does Paul actually mean by that? Is Paul saying that Christians should be shapeshifters and that whenever we are in the presence of people that are slightly different than us, we should accommodate our values, we should accommodate our message, we should uh accommodate our way of life to their needs? Well, yes and no. It all depends on what we mean by the word accommodate. Now, we learn from Romans 1, 16 and 17 that Paul believes very fervently that the gospel, the proclamation that Jesus is Lord, is God's power for salvation. So, in other words, the way that God saves people, the mechanism through which God saves people is the gospel. The gospel is preached, people put their faith in the gospel, and then they are justified on the basis of that faith and incorporated into the family of Abraham. And this is one of the uh intrinsic logic, or this is a part of the intrinsic logic that we see running throughout many of Paul's letters. So the gospel must be preached so that people can believe in the gospel. And what Paul is saying here is that, as in verse 923 of 1 Corinthians 9, I do all things for the sake of the gospel so that I may become a fellow partaker of it. So Paul is saying that everything he does, his entire strategy, his entire approach to life, the way that he relates to other people is all done for the sake of the gospel. This is his animating goal. And for Paul, he believes that the gospel is God's power for salvation. Now, it could appear on a superficial reading of this text that Paul is saying that the gospel needs to be changed when you are talking to different groups of people. But we know that that's not true because of the evidence that Paul amounts in Galatians. In Galatians, uh, whatever you make of the background of the Galatian church, there are people who are trying to pressure Gentiles into embracing the works of the law, in particular circumcision, Sabbath, and other dietary restrictions. And Paul says that to do that is to create a false gospel, is to substitute the real gospel of the crucified Messiah for a false gospel. And he says at the very beginning of Galatians chapter three that the church had was begun by faith and the spirit, not by the works of the law. So, and what what exactly is the faith that his followers or that his audience is like what is his audience putting their faith in? They're putting their faith in the gospel and the message that Paul proclaimed, and that message cannot be changed or modified, right? Like the fundamental like premises, the fundamental tenets of the gospel cannot be changed. But Paul says he has become all things to all people so that he can proclaim the gospel. He wants to save as many as possible. And I think that what Paul means by that, what Paul means in this passage is not that we compromise our message or compromise our values or water down our faith, but we have to adjust our preaching of the gospel to meet the needs of various people, right? The people are different. And so when you're in one context, it might make sense for you to present the gospel in one way. And when you're in a different context or talking to a different person, it might make sense to present the gospel in another way without changing the fundamental message of the gospel, without changing the theology of the gospel. We can find ways of appropriately trying to communicate this gospel to people in a way that they would understand. I think a great example of this is if you are going to be talking about Jesus to a Sunday school class full of second graders, your presentation will hopefully be a lot different than if you're talking about the gospel to a group of people in their 40s and 50s who have been reading the Bible for decades and decades. Obviously, the way that you're going to present the message of the gospel will differ depending on your audience without watering down or compromising the message or the values that attend from this. Now, it is important to try to contextualize Paul's statement here when he talks about becoming all things to all people. We have to look at the wider context in which this passage was written, which is a part of a larger argument that Paul makes that runs from 1 Corinthians 8 through 1 Corinthians 10. Now, the proximate problem that Paul is dealing with is the issue of people eating meat sacrificed to idols. In the ancient world, most meat that people consumed in Greco-Roman cities would have been sacrificed to a pagan god at the temple before being sold in the market. And oftentimes, meat markets and even restaurants were ran out of the temple because they would sacrifice the animals and then they would sell the animals for meat. Now, there are plenty of Christians, plenty of believers in Christ that have no problem eating meat sacrificed to idols. But there are some who feel that that is a form of idolatry. And so there's a legitimate disagreement between people in the church. And Paul has to address that particular issue. Now, what Paul is going to do is he's going to come out very strong at the beginning of chapter eight and say that those who he designates the strong, those who will eat meat sacrificed to idols, he says that they are theologically correct because there is only one God, um, the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ. So we know that idols are not real, therefore, meat sacrificed to idols are nothing. Therefore, eating this meat that has been sacrificed to idols is not really a problem. All right, so Paul acknowledges that the strong in this case are theologically correct. They have the right theology. But Paul also recognizes that there are people in the Corinthian community that are scandalized by this practice. They believe that when they eat meat sacrificed to idols, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8, that they've been accustomed to doing so as an offering to idols. And by eating that meat, they might be tempted to eat the meat as an offering to idols. He calls these people the weak because they're they're weak in their knowledge of what this meat sacrifice to idols actually means theologically, right? So Paul is dealing with this problem. And the way that he does this is he says that yes, the the strong, the people that think that eating meat sacrifice to idols is fine based on theology, they're they're right. They're true. Like that, like they have the correct position, but you don't want to tempt a brother into idolatry. And so Paul's solution is that those who are strong need to make sacrifices for those who are weak, following the example of the crucified Messiah, which Paul has been saying all throughout 1 Corinthians is the foundation of our knowledge about God, right? Like all of this, including the gospel, goes back to the idea that we worship a crucified Messiah. And so the strong need to follow not just the theology of the crucified Messiah, but his example by sacrificing themselves for the sake of those who are weak so as not to offend their faith. So in 1 Corinthians 9, then immediately following that, Paul is going to set himself up as an example for the Corinthians to emulate. And he says that in sp in particular, that apostles like him have the right to make money from proclaiming the gospel, that you are going to go and share these great spiritual insights for the church. There's nothing wrong with apostles receiving payment for that service. However, Paul says that he did not avail himself of that right because he wanted to not be a burden to the Corinthians. So Paul is putting himself up as a model of somebody who has a right, in this case, it's the right to get paid for proclaiming the gospel, but forfeits that right for the sake of other people. And by virtue of uh acknowledging himself as an example for the Corinthians, he can then address that problem of eating meat sacrificed to idols and say to the strong, hey, be like me. I know that I have a right, but I don't use that right for the benefit of other people. And then Paul will go on to say that he is, this is where we get right into the passage that I read earlier, 1 Corinthians uh 9, 19 through 23, where Paul says, I become all things to all men in order that I may save some, and I do all things for the sake of the gospel.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Our first conference in almost 10 years will be held in the Cincinnati area on October 17th, 2026, and we want you to be there. The Christians for Liberty 2026 conference will be held at the Village Vineyard Church in South Lebanon, Ohio, which is in the greater Cincinnati area. This conference will feature guest speakers, interviews, and a panel with authors from our upcoming book, Four Views Reconciling Faith and Freedom. While all of these sessions will be recorded, and that means you'll be participating in live Christians for Liberty Network podcasts. There's stuff at this conference that you simply won't get on a podcast. You'll get to meet some of your favorite thinkers in the Liberty Movement and build relationships with other advocates for faith and freedom. And the earlier you order, the better the deal you'll get on your pass. Get yours now at libertarian Christians.com slash conference. See you there.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

So what Paul is clearly saying here is that he is willing to come alongside the weaknesses of other people in order to proclaim the gospel to them and in a manner that is very effective. And Paul offers himself up as a model to be imitated by the Corinthian Christians. And he does this throughout his letters. And in fact, I talked to Cornelius Benema last year on my show about his book about mimetic ethics in the New Testament. I'll put a link to that show in the show notes. But you can see this phenomenon at work in for like the passage that immediately follows 1 Corinthians 10, 1 Corinthians 11, 1, where Paul says, be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. And again, big picture. If the church is imitating Paul, who is imitating the sacrificial disposition of Christ, who is willing to accommodate for those who are weak, then those who are strong in the Corinthian church will make the proper accommodations for the weak. They won't eat meat sacrificed to idols in their presence, so as not to give offense to those who are worried about the idols that are that the meat was supposedly sacrificed to. So this is what's going on in this passage. Paul is not saying here that he is going to change the content of his gospel. He is not saying that he's going to lower his moral standards. That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is that he will try his best to accommodate his message and his preaching to meet the needs of those to whom he is preaching, to those whom he is ministering to, right? This is what Paul means when he says he's become all things to all people. He's not for he's not uh at all compromising his standards or compromising the content of the gospel. How could he? He believes the gospel is the power of God for salvation and that the gospel is true. But the way that he presents that message and his willingness to make sacrifices on behalf of other people that don't quite get it is a model or an example that the Corinthians need to emulate. And I think by extension, this should be the attitude that we as modern Christians have towards other people. And I think that there's a really huge modern application of this principle for us in the 21st century. And this is one of these areas where Christians have a lot of disagreements, but you will oftentimes hear Christians talk about how they're not gonna water down the truth, they're not gonna compromise their values, they know the right thing to do, and then they go out into the public square, be it on uh, you know, a podcast or on social media or in a blog post, and they'll say, Everyone who doesn't believe in me is or everyone who doesn't believe the same things as me is somehow compromising the gospel or they're watering down their faith, they're not doing a good job, or they will go out and condemn people for their sins. You are living in a lie and you need to know that. Now, there is a, there is a a certain, I think there is a certain type, I think there's a certain time and place for that kind of certitude. And I do think that there are issues uh about which we should not compromise and that we should make sure we are articulating as forcefully as possible. But we also have to understand that that approach to sharing our faith does not work for most people. There are a lot of people that have been burned, or at least they think that they've been burned by church, who don't know anything about Christianity or the basics of our faith. There are a lot of people in church that have just always kind of viewed church as a social club or a community and not as the institution of God's kingdom here on earth. And so there are many people that have their theological and presuppositional baggage. And I want to ask the question of whether it is really effective to go up to people and say, if you don't believe everything that I believe and say everything that I want you to say in exactly the way that I want you to say it, that you're wrong in an error, that you're somehow a false Christian or a failure. That's just not a good way or an effective way of doing evangelism. And that is twofold. Number one, it doesn't recognize our own sinfulness and our own limitations. Paul says in Romans chapter three that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, right? As Romans 3.23 is a very, very important part of Paul's logic there. Every single person who has ever lived is a sinner and in need of the grace of God and the regeneration that can only occur through the Holy Spirit. And as a result of that, we also need to have a little bit of intellectual humility and realize that we do not have all of the answers to all of the questions. And one of the things that I've known or I've seen in my experience as a Christian is the believers that are the most forceful and antagonistic in making sure that other people know exactly where they stand and exactly what they believe on every single issue are often the ones that have the most pride and are guilty of falling into the sin of pride. And a lot of the times they actually don't know what they're talking about either. Or they're wrong, or they're taking a hard stand on an issue that's widely debated within Christianity. And so a lot of the times, these people that are, well, we need to give them the whole truth all the time, no matter what, these people don't have the whole truth. And I think for a lot of Christians, they believe that once they latch onto a particular theological tradition or a particular set of doctrines, then they no longer have to grow intellectually and they no longer have space for conversation or debate. I don't think that's very Pauline, number one. I don't think it's very Christ-like, number two, and I just think it's a bad way to approach other people. I really, I really do. I think that we need to have a lot of intellectual humility as Christians. And even when we forcefully disagree with other Christians, there should be space for us to say, well, we're all on this process of learning together. We all have airy, like intellectual shortcomings. Let's see if we can work together and try to talk through some of these issues. And when it comes to missions and evangelism, when it comes to presenting the gospel to people who don't know the gospel, we should try to be aware of the most effective ways of presenting the gospel to them. Sometimes this means just building a relationship with someone, an authentic, genuine relationship without broaching spiritual issues at all until they're ready to do so. Sometimes this means that if it's someone at church who has been in church for a long time, you might be able to be a little bit more forthright with them and a little more honest. Or if it's someone who hates Christianity and thinks that Christianity is awful, sometimes the best thing we can do is just be a good example for them. And I think this is what Paul is really getting at here. Paul ultimately wants everyone to accept the gospel, and Paul wants to create space for him to proclaim the gospel, which is why Paul is willing to accommodate himself to the needs of other people in order to ensure that he can proclaim the gospel to them in an effective way because it doesn't. Here's the reality. If you are proclaiming the gospel and you're being a jerk and no one listens to you because you're such an arrogant jerk, then you're never going to change anyone's heart. All right. And we have to remember that it's not your ability to articulate the gospel that is the power of God for salvation or the conviction with which you articulate the gospel. It is the gospel itself, right? This is how God works in order to rescue and save people. And so we have to have enough humility to say, well, maybe God is calling me to work with these people in a way that they can understand, acknowledging that you yourself, me, myself, all of us, we're all broken people whom God is in the process of, in whom God is in the process of restoring, right? That has to be the starting point for this. And I think that's a lot of what Paul is getting at here. He's not a shapeshifter, uh, he's not doing anything that compromises the core content or the message of the gospel. In fact, he will very forcefully articulate that core message of the gospel to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15, 3 through 5, right? So we're gonna see that later on in this same epistle. But what Paul is saying is regardless of someone's theology, we should take the path of Christ and try to find ways to uh present our beliefs to other people in a way that is understandable for them, try to meet people on their level in the same way that Jesus dined with the tax collectors, the prostitutes, and the sinners. We have to learn to present the gospel to other people in a way that makes sense to them. And I think that's what Paul is getting at here. We're not compromising truth, we're finding a way to package truth in such a way that those who have intellectual hangups or concerns or whatever will understand that truth. And I think that we can do this much more effectively through dialogue and debate and not through yelling at each other and name-calling. And, you know, I think one of the really good examples of this, and this is the last example I'm going to give before uh I sound off on this, one of the really good examples of this from Acts is that when Paul goes to Athens in Acts 17 and he gives a speech in the Areopagus, what triggers that speech? Well, Paul goes into a temple where they have all of these inscriptions to various gods, and Paul sees an inscription that says to an unknown God. And so Paul is going to use that as his basis for proclaiming the gospel. And he doesn't go out and say you guys are stupid for believing all of these other gods. What he says is, I see that you were that you guys are very devout and very religious, and you worship, uh, you worship, you know, devoutly. You have an inscription to an unknown God. Let me tell you about that unknown God. And so he's able to present the gospel in a way that they can understand. Now he does eventually get to, and you should go read Acts 17 after this. He does eventually get to the point in his conversation where he says, this is the only true God, like this is the only real God. So he doesn't compromise that truth, but he's willing to adapt his style of presenting the gospel to accommodate the needs of the people that are listening to him in the Areopagus. And we can also see this throughout Paul's 13 letters, too. Each of the letters of Paul are written to different churches. Uh, not all of them, I mean, some of them are written to the same churches, obviously first and 2 Corinthians and first and 2nd Thessalonians, right? But Paul writes letters to different churches dealing with different questions and problems. And in every single one Of Paul's letters, he adapts and adjusts his rhetoric to match the needs of the congregation that he is addressing because he understands that every congregation is dealing with a different set of problems and a different set of questions and therefore might need a different approach. So this is exactly what Paul does in his own letters. He's willing to tailor or adjust his instructions to meet the needs of each individual congregation in the way that he does in Acts 17 and really all throughout the the gospel or all throughout the uh the work of Acts. And I when I had, and I'll put this in the show notes too, but I had Chris Chen on my podcast, I guess it was earlier this year, to talk about his book, Evil Empire, and he has this very tantalizing and plausible thesis that Luke and Acts were both written to some sort of government official, some government official in the Roman Empire, which would explain why in the book of Acts, Paul is always kind of friendly towards the Roman imperial authorities. But we can see that even though Paul thinks that the Roman imperial authorities are being done away with, that the Eschat the Eschaton has dawned and that the end has already arrived. This is what his instructions in 1 Corinthians 2, 8 through 10 are all about. Uh, the rulers of this age are passing away, and they're the rulers of the age to crucify Jesus, which clearly mean the Roman imperial authorities, at least in part. But Paul is willing to get along with them because he wants to proclaim the gospel. He uses that as an opportunity to spread his gospel. He could say, well, you guys are part of the evil establishment that God is going to destroy. And in fact, that would be true. But what Paul does instead is he tries to proclaim the gospel to his, he tries to proclaim the gospel to these Roman officials in a way that they would understand. And I think we can learn a lot from that. So to summarize this, what does it mean to become all things to all people? It does not mean we water down the message of the gospel. It does not mean that we change the truth. It does not mean that we compromise our moral values and our moral principles. What it means is that we find ways of sharing our faith with people that enable them to actually understand it. Ultimately, we want all people to come to the knowledge of the truth. We want everyone to submit themselves to the gospels, become followers of Jesus Christ, and participate in the church and the kingdom of God. We want that to happen. And we can only do that if we follow Paul's example of cruciform self-sacrifice by making sure that we are putting the needs of others before ourselves and finding ways to edify them, to build them up, to encourage them and to present the gospel to them in ways that they can understand. All right. Well, guys, this has been a really fun Theology Thursday episode. Again, I'll put links to some of those other shows in the show notes. Uh, pre-order my book. You're gonna see the links down below in the show notes as well. Also, we have our Libertarian Christians conference that Cody is gonna talk about at some point in the show. Maybe he already has, maybe he's gonna do it afterwards. I don't know where I'm gonna put it in there, but we have an ad for that. So October 17th, 2026, Saturday, October 17th, uh, we are having Christians for Liberty Conference right outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. I'm gonna be speaking. We're gonna have Cody Cook speaking, Jacob Wintigrad, Greg, Greg Bauss, Jeremy Todd. There's gonna be a ton of people there. So please check out this conference. Go and register for it. We'd love to see you in person. All right. Thank you guys for everything you do. Uh, really enjoyed this conversation today, and we will see you on Tuesday. Have a great weekend. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Protestant Libertarian Podcast. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at theprotestantlibertarian at gmail.com. You can also find me on Twitter. You can follow me at the handle at Pro Liberty Pod. Again, that is at Pro Liberty Pod. And you can also visit me at the Protestant Libertarian Podcast.com. At the Protestant Libertarian Podcast.com, you can also support the Christians for Liberty Network and the Libertarian Christian Institute. Thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and we will see you next Tuesday.