1 Corinthians 10:33, commentary and pictures

The verse calls for setting aside one's own profit to seek the profit of many, so that they may be saved. Pleasing all men means adapting conduct and labor to varied needs and circumstances, meeting people where they are and varying the approach to help them. It means not imposing exact rules or personal preferences when doing so would hinder their good. Such pleasing never compromises serving God, never neglects personal piety, and never sets aside God's glory.

This selfless service is the true dignity and honor of the Christian life and the ruling principle of Christ's kingdom. That kingdom is opposite to worldly kingdoms built on authority and self-aggrandizement, for there the strong bear the infirmities of the weak, and power, position, talent, and education place their possessor under greater obligation to serve others. The verse follows the example of Christ, who came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom. He shared poverty, practiced self-denial, smoothed difficult places, and laid down His life, and this principle of love is the plan and ground of salvation. The same principle is to control the church as His body, where those are greatest who act as shepherds of His flock by making themselves servants to all.

The verse requires weighing every word and deed by its influence on others for their salvation, so that all eating, drinking, and doing aims at the honor of God and puts no stumbling block before Jews, Gentiles, or the church. Even what is innocent in itself must be left undone if it seems to approve idolatry or wounds those weak in faith. In this light, idolatry includes not only bowing to idols but self-serving, love of ease, and gratifying appetite and passion. Mere profession of faith in Christ and boastful knowledge of truth do not make a Christian, nor is a religion that only pleases eye, ear, and taste or allows self-indulgence the religion of Christ. This warning holds for all time and with special force now.

In eating, the verse means acting for the good of others rather than insisting on one's own way. This calls for real common sense in diet reform, studying the subject broadly and deeply, and refusing to criticize others because their practice is not in harmony in all things with one's own. No unvarying rule can regulate everyone's habits, and no one is to make himself the criterion for all. Different bodies need different foods, for what is palatable and wholesome to one may be distasteful and even harmful to another. Some cannot use milk while others thrive on it, some cannot digest peas and beans while others find them wholesome, and some thrive on coarser grain preparations while others cannot use them.