Our goal in reading the Bible is to hear what God is actually saying to us, and to understand what He means by what He is saying. That requires us not only to look closely at the words, but also to read them in their context, which determines their meaning.
Context, as we have seen, includes:
(a) to whom the words were first spoken,
(b) their particular circumstances and place in history,
(c) the flow of thought in the Bible passage as a whole (ignoring chapter breaks),
(d) how this teaching is used by Jesus and his apostles, and
(e) the way in which our understanding of a passage fits with the message of the Bible as a whole.
To illustrate how context can shed light upon meaning, we will consider Paul’s writings to the Corinthian believers. Familiar, but not always well-understood, words of the Apostle Paul illustrate the importance of following the flow of his thought. Sometimes we read, “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1) as if it was an introduction to Paul’s reproofs and instructions about their communal meals in remembrance of their Lord’s sacrifice. These familiar words are, instead, a continuation of the difficult words of 10:33, “even as I try to please everybody in every way”. Paul is actually saying that we must imitate him “in trying to please everybody in every way”, just as his doing so is an imitation of Christ.
Human wisdom rejects or mocks the idea of trying to please everybody, and even among disciples of the Lord the words of Paul are often misunderstood. What did he really mean? The context gives us the answer. Paul’s words (10:31-11:1) sum up powerfully his answer to the question “about food sacrificed to idols” (1 Cor. 8:1). Chapters 8, 9, 10, and 11:1 are Paul’s inspired answer.
The letter was written from Ephesus to the Corinthian believers a year or two after Paul had left Corinth, where he had resided more than 18 months (1 Cor. 16:8,9; Acts 18:11,18; 19:1). Many people, mostly Gentiles and some Jews, had been baptized in Corinth during the stay of Paul, Silas, and Timothy.
Thus the believers in Corinth had been converted to faith and discipleship in Christ during the previous three years before Paul wrote this letter. They were wonderfully enthusiastic, and many were blessed with gifts of the Spirit. However, they were short on experience of life in Christ. Many had left lives of gross idolatry and immorality (1 Cor. 6:9-11) to begin a new life in the Lord, but were surrounded by idolatrous and immoral practices. It was, all in all, an extremely inhospitable environment for new believers.
A particular problem in Corinth was the selling in the market of meat that came from sacrifices to idols. To eat meat that had been dedicated to idols seemed to many disciples like a return to idolatry. Their sensitive (“weak”) consciences forbade it. However, other disciples, knowing now that an idol was nothing, felt no inhibitions about eating such meat, and did so. Self-confidence in their knowledge was thus weakening the resolution and wounding the consciences of the “weak”, thus causing them to sin against Christ (1 Cor. 8:4-12).
Paul is so concerned for the “weak” brothers and sisters that, if what he ate caused his brother to fall into sin, he would never eat meat again so that he would not cause him to fall (8:13). This unselfish concern for the spiritual welfare of fellow disciples is what Paul means by saying in 10:33 that he tried to please everybody in every way. “Please” is not used here in the sense of currying favor, but as acting for the spiritual benefit of every disciple.
In parallel instruction in Romans 14 and 15, the Apostle writes (15:1-3), “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself…” — an understatement that should humble us who think we are strong.
Those self-confident in their knowledge that idols were nothing felt that they had a right to act according to their own clear conscience and not to be judged by another’s conscience (1 Cor. 10:29,30). However, Paul relates in chapter 9 how he had “rights” as an apostle. He had a right to have a wife as did Cephas (Peter). He had a right to receive support, his living, from those to whom he preached the gospel — as the Lord had said (Matt. 10). Yet he had not claimed or used his rights — an example he is urging upon the self-confident Corinthians.
Paul was free from all (in the sense that no man could give him orders), yet he made himself a slave to everyone to win as many for Christ as possible. To the Jews he became like a Jew to win the Jews (e.g., circumcising Timothy, not to save him, but to make it possible for him to speak in synagogues). To those not under the law of Moses he became like them (e.g., eating with Gentile brothers in Antioch; refusing to circumcise Titus) in order to win Gentiles for Christ. He had become all things to all men so that he might save some (1 Cor. 9:19-23; Acts 21:17-26; Gal. 2:3,11-16).
In chapter 10, Paul attacks the pride in their knowledge that idols were nothing; this pride led some believers to attend feasts in idol temples, where prostitutes served worshippers. Using the example of Israel coming out of Egypt, led by the cloud and baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, Paul shows how they failed. He is warning self-confident disciples: “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (v. 12).
In 10:14-22, Paul urges these brothers to flee from idolatry, and he bluntly shows how wrong it is to partake of the Lord’s Table while also eating at the table of demons, or idols. Paul is quoting (and actually agreeing with) these self-confident brethren when he says, “All things are lawful for me” (v. 23) — meaning that, in Christ there is no law against what they were doing. “But”, he adds, “all things are not helpful; ‘all things are lawful for me’, but all things do not edify [build up spiritually].”
In our age, there are many wicked practices and pastimes that are not identified and forbidden in the Bible. We must test everything we do by asking, “Is it helpful?” “Does it edify?” “Is it enslaving me?” “Am I doing it for the Lord?” (1 Cor. 6:12,13).
Paul concludes with practical instructions in 10:24-28, beginning with the principle, “Let no one seek his own, but each the other’s well-being.” He makes the same point in verse 33, “just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.” Some objected to having their liberty of conscience judged by the conscience of others; to them Paul answered (vv. 31,32): all that we do must be done to the glory of God and must not give offense (i.e., must not cause others to stumble or sin).
Like Paul and the Lord Jesus we must seek to please all. This is a first principle of life in Christ Jesus. We are to seek the spiritual welfare of others, that they may be saved. In this we must be imitators of Paul as he was of Christ.
Let us, therefore, remember the connection between 1 Corinthians 11:1 and the apostle’s words in the previous chapters. Let’s not glibly say or agree with someone else saying, “You can’t please everybody.” Our aim, as imitators of Paul, must be to “please” all men, in the Biblical sense.
In this exercise of searching for the meaning of the inspired words, we have seen the importance of the context. We have attempted to learn a little about Corinth (perhaps from a Bible dictionary), and about Paul’s preaching there from the Acts of the Apostles. We have bypassed the artificial chapter breaks to appreciate how 1 Corinthians 11:1 sums up the apostle’s instruction in chapters 8, 9, and 10. Thus we have followed the flow of Paul’s reasoning through these chapters. In this we have been aided by comparing similar teaching in Romans, and recalling practical examples from Paul’s life.
Of course, we have only begun to see what these chapters can teach us. In our day, there are many idols around us — particularly those in the many forms of worldly entertainment that press in on our lives. How Paul’s words here, particularly chapter 10, apply to our attitude to these idols is very relevant to us. That, however, is another subject.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One