what does all things to all people mean?

Today on Giving an Answer: What does it mean to be all things to all people? 

The apostle Paul speaks of what it means to become “all things to all people” in this passage. This is a well-known mantra within Christianity, but a brief survey of the text is in order. The context of this passage comes in the preceding chapter of 1st Corinthians in which Paul establishes what it means to live within the ebb and flow of Christian freedom and Christian responsibility. Paul sets up his rationale of verses 19-23 of chapter 9 in the twelfth verse: “Nevertheless we have not made is of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the Gospel of Christ” (English Standard Version, 1 Cor. 9:12b). This verse parallels that of verse 19 where the apostle says, “I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some”.

The historical context of writing such a rationale of ministry comes in the wake of the Corinthian's struggle with partiality. This is evidenced throughout the epistle, where Paul repeatedly touches on aspects of the Corinthian’s problem with partiality, related to leadership (1:10-12), wisdom (3:1-4), and celibacy (7:1-2) to name a few. This resurfaces in our text in chapter 9 specifically in readdressing their partiality of leadership. Paul provides to the Corinthian’s his own ministry model, unimpressive as it may have been to them, in order to demonstrate that all freedoms taken as entitlements become obstacles in the way of the Gospel of Christ.

From a contemporary standpoint, this sets Christianity as an antithesis to the secular structure, where the highest positions experience the highest privileges. There are no white collars in Christianity, but only servant’s bonds, and Paul means to stress to our culture that Christians must never be willing to compromise the glory of Christ for comforts. Being “a servant to all” (i.e. enduring whatever trials necessary cf. 9:12) is not found in the contemporary prosperity gospel, where the message is to follow Jesus- so that the health wealth and prosperous privilege becomes the goal of the hearers and the model of the heralds. This is out of touch with the Paul who became all things to all people- even the weak, the Jew, and the Greek. Rather, authentic servanthood is the authentic standard of Christian leadership, with the end goal of winning all peoples and all varieties of persons to Christ.

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