(19) For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. (20) And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; (21) To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ), that I might gain them that are without law. (22) To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. (23) And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.
It must not be supposed, from these expressions of the Apostle that he was a time-serving man, for he had before declared, that it was the Gospel which he preached, and that a woe would be unto him, if he preached not the Gospel. But the sense is, that he explained the Gospel to the Jew upon Jewish principles, and to them that were without law as without law, the Gospel superseding the law by the finished salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ; meaning, that in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availed anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. Paul preached wholly Christ, knowing, that if righteousness came by the law, then Christ was dead in vain, Galatians 2:21. So that this kind, accommodating spirit, never relinquished a single point of importance in the Gospel, but only enabled the Apostle to address himself to his several hearers, as might best come up to their apprehension of divine things, and to gain and gather out the Lord's people in every place, and among every class, wheresoever he found them. Sweet pattern for ministers, while studying to shew themselves approved of God!