Give no occasion to stumbling, whether to Jews, or Greeks, or the assembly of God.
Paul ends a long argument about food offered to idols with a rule that reaches far past the dinner table. He weighs a believer's freedom by its effect on others, and one of the three groups he names — the church of God — is new on the earth.
One writer traces Paul's word back to its root, and to the people it covers.
The Greek word first meant "to strike against." The picture is of walking: our foot might strike a stone or some other obstacle, and we stumble. The command here may mean either that we do not stumble ourselves, or that we do not make others stumble. I like to think it has both meanings... Here we are to avoid putting a stumbling block in the way of any of these people, and they take in the whole world.
The command follows the call to do everything to God's glory. One commentator shows how the second grows out of the first.
If you do everything for God's glory, you are not trying to please self; you give self up. Then you put no stumbling block in front of people, whether Jews or Gentiles, and none in front of God's assembly. Love alone walks like this, seeking God's glory and man's good... This was the apostle's constant way. He was the most uncompromising of the apostles, yet no one matched him in giving way graciously, where he could do so consistently with Christ.
The verse sorts everyone alive into three groups, and the third is new. Where the ESV has "Greeks," older translations read "Gentiles" — the word the writers below use.
The Church of God is a completely new thing. When I say "new," I mean new compared with everything that came before it. Before Christ died and rose, and before the Holy Spirit came down, there were only two classes of people in the world — Jews and Gentiles. But since the Holy Spirit came down... we have three things existing together in the world.
The gap between the three is not equal. The sharpest line, one writer argues, is not the ancient one between Jew and Gentile.
Remember this threefold distinction, and act on it. By nature, the Jew is not as far from the Gentile as the Church of God is from both. The first two make up the sum total of mankind, considered as dwellers on earth. The last group holds only those who have passed through death into life, by faith in the crucified and risen Son of God.
Two of the three groups stand outside. The third is home, and a life out of step with it does its damage there.
If we behave in an unfitting way, we are giving offence to the assembly of God... If the Corinthians simply went on living as they always had, they would offend the assembly of God. Their lives would not match the position God had given them. So do not think we are to be on our best behaviour only when the assembly meets. We are always in the house of God, and right behaviour is always asked of us... Paul bases everything he says on this truth: they were the assembly, the called-out ones, of God, and he wants behaviour that matches the blessing.
Paul warns elsewhere against changing the message to please people. One writer shows how that fits with this verse: what may be given up, and what may not.
At first sight, what Paul says in the last verse of 1 Corinthians 10 might look like a contradiction of this. But read the whole chapter, and the chapter before it, and his point becomes clear. Christians should show the greatest possible care and consideration for their weaker brothers, and indeed for all people... Here, on the other hand, it is a question of the truth of the gospel. We must resist at all costs any tendency to change it, or water it down to please people. There cannot be a moment's compromise here.
Removing obstacles is not politeness for its own sake. It aims at the real good of the people around us.
All three groups are God's creatures, and my own comfort and pleasure matter less than the real good of their souls... He would not compromise the truth of God for anyone, but he would give up his own personal advantage for the sake of any, if it might bring them to God.
- Stone. "Offense" pictures a foot striking something in the path. The question is simple: am I leaving a stone where someone else has to walk?
- Glory. The rule grows out of the verse before it. Aim everything at God's glory, and self gets given up — so no stone is laid down at all.
- Three. Jews, Greeks, and the church of God cover everyone alive today. The third company did not exist before the Spirit came, and it stands further from the other two than they stand from each other.
- Home. A life out of step with what God has made us offends the assembly. Conduct outside the meeting counts as much as conduct inside it.
- Limit. Go any length in giving up personal advantage. Give not one inch in altering the gospel. The aim all along is to bring people to God.
Even as *I* also please all in all things; not seeking my own profit, but that of the many, that they may be saved.
Paul ends his long answer about meat offered to idols by pointing to himself: he gave up his own gain so that others might be saved. So how can he please everyone, and still refuse to seek human approval?
The word "please" here does not mean bending to what people want. One writer points to Galatians 1:10 and finds no contradiction:
Paul was the example in this self-sacrificing attitude of pleasing all men in all things. This does not mean pleasing men by submitting to their control, or by simply seeking human approval — Galatians 1:10 fully refutes that. It means seeking the purest good of their souls, so that they may be saved. He would not compromise the truth of God for anyone. But he would give up his own personal advantage for anyone, if it might bring them to God.
So how did he please them?
And how did he seek to "please all"? Not, we may be sure, by associating with their evils, but by following Christ in all His lowly grace.
The verse names what Paul refused to chase: his own profit. Giving up self is what links God's glory to the good of others.
So, if a person does everything for God's glory, he does not seek to gratify self but gives it up. In this way he puts no stumbling-block before people, whether Jews or Gentiles, and none before God's assembly. Love alone walks like this, seeking God's glory and man's good... This was the apostle's habit. He was the most uncompromising of all the apostles, yet no one matched him in gracious concession, wherever he could make it in a way consistent with Christ.
"Many" in this verse is not vague. The previous verse sorts the whole human race into three groups, and Paul keeps all three in mind at once:
Verse 32 classifies mankind under three heads. Notice how distinctly "the church of God" stands out from both Jew and Gentile. The Old Testament classified men under two heads, Israel and the Gentiles. The Church, a body called out from both Jews and Gentiles, only appears in the New Testament. We have been called out from the mass of mankind in this way. Even so, we are to consider people, seeking their highest good — even their salvation. This was Paul's way, just as it was the way of Christ. And we are to be imitators of Paul. Treat verse 1 of chapter 11 as the last verse of chapter 10.
Everything in the verse runs toward a single goal, and that goal decides what "profit" means:
The apostle used his freedom to seek not his own profit, but that of others, that "they may be saved" (v. 33). He pleased all in all things to that end. Salvation and not stumbling was his object.
How do you know if a course of action is God's will? One writer draws five tests out of this passage:
Taking this passage as a whole, we may notice five valuable points. They guide us as to whether a course of action is according to the will of God or not. What is according to His will (1) is lawful, (2) is expedient or profitable, (3) builds up oneself or others, (4) is to the glory of God, (5) gives no occasion of stumbling to any. People often ask, How can I get guidance? Well, here is guidance of a very sure and definite sort. Are we always so willing to be guided when we get the guidance?
- Motive — Paul seeks the purest good of people's souls. He never seeks their approval or bows to their control.
- Method — he pleases them not by joining their evils but by following Christ in His lowly grace.
- Cost — he gives up self instead of gratifying it. Personal advantage goes; the truth of God does not.
- Reach — Jew, Gentile and the church of God are all in view; no group falls outside this care.
- Result — the goal is salvation, not just avoiding friction. And the pattern passes to us: imitate Paul, whose way was the way of Christ.