Will you please explain 1 Corinthians 9:20, where Paul says that to the Jews he became as a Jew?
This text affords a good illustration of the fact that no scripture can be perfectly understood if torn out of its setting. This one has been misunderstood, and perverted, and very seldom has anyone learned from it that which it was designed to teach.
While studying it together for a few minutes we may not only get the valuable instruction that it contains for us, but may learn something about how to study the Bible for ourselves so as to profit by it.
In the first place, we must banish from our minds, as wholly out of keeping with the character of the Apostle Paul, the idea that he meant that he was a turncoat, holding his principles and habits subject to the various people with whom he associated. The common saying, "When we are in Rome, we must do as the Romans do," which is often quoted to justify conformity to worldly customs when associating with worldly people, does not find any authority in the writings of Paul.
Here as everywhere else, we must go back the beginning if we would understand a difficult saying. We have not time or space now to go back to the beginning of the Epistle, but we can go back far enough to get hold of the subject. In chapter eight we are taught by the apostle's own example to be careful of offending the consciences of the weak.
He is not talking about conforming to customs that others follow, but of abstaining from even lawful things that they may be troubled over. Those who are so fearful of offending people by their religion should make a note of this. It is by self-denial, rather than indulgence, in the things that other people indulge in, that we win them.
Coming into the 9th chapter, we find that although the minister of the Gospel has the right to receive money, and it is ordained that "they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel," (1 Corinthians 9:14) the Apostle Paul did not take anything from the Corinthians, but supported himself while preaching among them. (See also Acts 18:1-4) He says that "they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar. ... But I have used none of those things ... for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void." (1 Corinthians 9:13,15)
He preached the Gospel willingly, yet such necessity was laid on him that he would have been compelled to preach even if he had been unwilling. This is in harmony with his words: "I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also." (Romans 1:14-15)
Paul felt that what he had received from Christ made him a debtor to all men. So he continues: "What, then, is my reward? That, when I preach the Gospel, I may make the Gospel without charge, so as not to use to the full my right in the Gospel. For though I were free from all men, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more. And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, (not being myself under the law), that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law, as without law, not being without law to God but under [in] law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak; I am become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some." (1 Corinthians 9:19-22,RV)
Read further, and you will see that Paul is here speaking of self-denial, and not of conforming to other people's evil habits. He says: "I do all things for the Gospel's sake, that I may be a joint partaker thereof. Know you not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? Even so run that you may attain. And everyone that strives in the games is temperate in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore run, as not uncertainly; so fight I, as not beating the air; But I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage, that by any means after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected." (1 Corinthians 9:23-27,RV)
Read the entire connection carefully, and you cannot fail to see that here we have the illustration of the exhortation, given through the same apostle: "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:9)
Paul was free from all men, free with the liberty that Christ gives, yet he would not be a lord over God's heritage, but chose rather to be the servant of all. In this he was following Christ, who was "made of a woman, born under the law. ... That He might redeem them that were under the law." (Galatians 4:4,6)
Christ puts himself into every man's place, taking upon himself the burden of each one's sin, in order that they may be saved. Even so must His ambassadors do. Although delivered and kept from sin, they must, like their Master, be able to meet every sinner just where he stands, or rather, where he lies, and sympathize with him.
Having learned the plague of our own heart and been delivered from it, having learned the weakness of humanity, and the power of Divinity, we are to know that the sins of all men reside in our flesh, and then we may make them know the power that saves.
Thus we are indeed "all things to all men", not in such a way as to make them think that their ways are all right, but in such a way that some, at least, will be able to forsake their ways, and turn to the Lord.--Present Truth, October 18, 1900.