Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Corinthians · About this commentary
All Things to All Men
1 Corinthians 9:19-23
19 For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more. · WEB
A free man makes himself everyone's slave, adapting everything except his obedience — and the repeated purpose clause shows what the flexibility is for.
For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more 1 Corinthians 9:19.
The paradox that governs the paragraph, and it is the pattern set out earlier in the chapter: freedom is real, and its proper use is to be surrendered. Brought myself under bondage is voluntary — nobody enslaved him — and the reason is not humility for its own sake but a purpose stated five times in four verses.
To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law 1 Corinthians 9:20.
The adaptations were concrete and cost him something in both directions. He had Timothy circumcised for the sake of Jewish opinion and refused it flatly for Titus when a principle was at stake Acts 16:3 Galatians 2:3; he took a vow and paid for others in the temple Acts 21:23–26. To his critics this looked like inconsistency, and the verse explains it: the practices were negotiable because they were never the point.
To those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law 1 Corinthians 9:21.
And here is the limit, placed in a parenthesis so it cannot be missed. Becoming as a lawless man to reach lawless men does not make him one — he remains under law toward Christ. That clause is what separates this from mere accommodation. What flexes is custom, idiom, diet and manner; what does not flex is obedience. A man without that parenthesis becomes whatever the room requires and has nothing left to bring into it.
To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some 1 Corinthians 9:22.
The weak connects the chapter back to its occasion — the brother with the fragile conscience over idol food 1 Corinthians 8:9–11. The strong at Corinth had asked why they should restrict themselves for such people; Paul's answer is that he restricted himself for everybody.
The final clause is measured in a way that is easy to miss. Not save all but save some, and by all means — a man exhausting every legitimate method for a limited result, which is a realistic account of the work and a check on treating adaptability as a technique that guarantees outcomes. Now I do this for the sake of the Good News, that I may be a joint partaker of it 1 Corinthians 9:23: even the one carrying the message is a fellow-recipient of it, not its proprietor.
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