1Cor 10:29-33 - The Main Objective

29-33 I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? 30 If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? 31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 32 Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, 33 just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.


The logic of verse 29 may be difficult to follow. In verse 28 we "asked no questions" for conscience sake about what was about to be eaten under pagan hospitality. If I asked then my conscience might be aroused and then I would have to abstain from what is otherwise no problem for me and my conscience under God. So I don’t ask. By asking unnecessarily I not only run the danger of offending my conscience, but I immediately complicate my own walk. In a way, I put someone else in charge of my conscience because I amend my behaviour to their dictates. I willingly do this in love, but I shouldn’t be the cause myself.

Paul again confirms - to the mature Christian all foods are clean. All he does he does as unto the Lord, receiving with thanks from the Lord what the Lord Himself has declared to be clean. But, he is aware that he should give no offence to unconverted Jews or pagans; nor even to believing Jews or Christian ex-pagans, any of whom might be weaker brothers.

Is Paul a people pleaser and in what sense does he imply that in verse 33? Paul is not really seeking to please people in the sense of compromising or diluting the gospel, or of assuaging pagan beliefs. He says it right in the same sentence - that it is precisely for the gospel’s sake and the objective of the salvation of many that he seeks, not to please by appeasing, but to not be the source or cause of any impediment to getting the main message of the gospel out.