For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.
Though free from all people and bound to none, he willingly made himself a servant to all, to people of every kind and background, in order to gain and save the more. Being free from all means taking orders from God alone and not being led by those he served, while at the same time serving all in self-controlled, self-sacrificing labor that accepts hard places to help others. His aim was the good and salvation of many rather than his own advantage, and this self-denying service is the honor of the Christian life. The verse teaches adapting the way of working to the hearers, their needs, customs and circumstances, setting aside personal preference and fixed rules rather than laboring in one narrow way. This bending to others never surrenders truth or wavers in faith, but sets aside personal feelings and nonessentials that would block the gospel, meeting prejudice with patience in order to win souls.
Free Yet Servant
Though free from all people and under obligation to none, Paul willingly made himself servant to all in order to gain and save the more. That servanthood reached people of every kind, nation and background, including Jews, those outside the law, and the weak. His willingness to adapt his manner of labor to different hearers was aimed at their salvation, not a surrender of truth or deception. He set aside dignity and personal preference and exact rules, adapting his work to varied needs, conditions, customs and circumstances rather than insisting on his own way. With Jews he avoided needlessly provoking prejudice, beginning with teachings they accepted and with Old Testament prophecies and promises before presenting Jesus, while with Gentiles he exalted Christ before showing the claims of the law. He remained firmly grounded and did not waver in faith, identifying with those he sought to reach as far as possible.
Being free from all men means being servant to none but God. It means not taking orders from men nor taking a place to be led by those labored for, but leading under God's guidance. It means looking to God for wisdom, keeping in touch with God and following His leading and listening to words from the council of heaven as servant of the living God. Yet at the same time it means being servant to all men as laborer together with God in self-controlled, self-sacrificing service. Such service places self in any uncomfortable position to relieve others.
His aim in becoming servant was the good of many and their salvation rather than his own advantage. This self-denying service for others is the dignity and honor of the Christian life. It gives Christ's followers their pattern.
His accommodation did not make him without law. He remained under God's law and under Christ's law while adapting to different audiences.
Tactful Soul-Winning Methods
Though free from all, Paul made himself servant to all in order to gain the more, and this calls Christ's servants to set aside dignity and personal preference and to fit their manner of labor to the people and circumstances before them, adapting to varied needs, conditions, customs, and circumstances rather than insisting on exact rules or a fixed method. God's workers need breadth of character and must not be one-idea workers, serving for the good of others rather than their own advantage. This adaptability opens access to hearts that another approach would close, because it does not needlessly arouse prejudice or combativeness.
Such adaptation is not surrender of truth, compromise of essential gospel truths, or deception, but a seeking of salvation by removing needless hindrances. Paul set aside personal feelings and nonessential customs and ceremonies so they would not obstruct the truth, bore with prejudices, approached people on their own ground without misleading them, and observed Jewish rules when doing so was consistent with his mission, waiving his own preferences for the sake of truth and winning souls. With Jews he avoided needlessly provoking prejudice, began with teachings they accepted, taught from Old Testament prophecies and promises, and used Scripture to show that the Messiah had come before presenting Jesus, while with Gentiles he exalted Christ before showing the claims of the law, all while remaining under God's law and Christ's law rather than being without law.
In entering new fields unacquainted with the faith, this serpent-like wisdom with dove-like harmlessness means not presenting the Sabbath first and not running down churches or giving the idea that the work is to tear down. It means coming close to hearts by personal labor, dwelling on subjects that arouse the conscience, practical godliness, devotion, piety, and the self-denial and self-sacrificing life of Jesus as example until people see the contrast with their self-indulgent unchristian lives and become dissatisfied. Then the prophecies are to be presented and the purity and binding claims of the law of God shown, not one jot or tittle losing its force but holding upon every soul to the end of time, defended by God's chosen people when the law is made void and the Christian world joins with the Catholic and the worldly in making of none effect the commandments of God. Where a community is already acquainted with the faith this cautious order need not be pursued, but in every case the work is to build up and present the truth as it is in Jesus, dwelling much on the necessity of vital godliness.
In missionary work this same service means accommodating local customs and circumstances as far as possible when they do not conflict with God's law, so as not to hinder the mission or place stumbling blocks before acceptance of truth. In the Southern field this includes using Sunday as an opportunity to meet people and teach them rather than urging them to work that day. Becoming servant to all means approaching people with care and wisdom, meeting them where they are with their prejudices, agreeing with them and finding common ground in principles and in the lessons of Christ wherever conscience and truth allow, giving them fair credit, and avoiding combativeness, since few will fight over those holy principles. Those entrusted with truth must gain a sacred and thorough knowledge of how to meet men where they are and minister to them the light, comfort, and peace found in accepting truth, keeping a calm, hallowed peace and cherishing broad plans of action.
The verse also calls for practical, Christlike usefulness: anticipating the needs of those needing help, making oneself useful in saving souls, and accepting responsibilities and burdens rather than choosing only when and where to work, which itself teaches trust in God for help. Those entrusted with truth must take the inspiring, authoritative, and social life of Christ as example, cultivate His beneficent spirit, and not shun the society of fellow men but encourage it for the purpose of bestowing heavenly benefits, with a kind, generous spirit toward the poor, feeling in a special sense that they are God's stewards holding all they have not as their own but as lent in trust to advance Christ's cause. A converted ministry bears fruit by not shutting itself within four walls where light cannot reach others, but by finding common ground with those not of the faith in a manner worthy of professed truth and revealing Christ's wisdom and mercy. As fellow workers following Christ's example, the free willingly become servants of all.
Though free from all people and bound to none, he willingly made himself a servant to all, to people of every kind and background, in order to gain and save the more. Being free from all means taking orders from God alone and not being led by those he served, while at the same time serving all in self-controlled, self-sacrificing labor that accepts hard places to help others. His aim was the good and salvation of many rather than his own advantage, and this self-denying service is the honor of the Christian life. The verse teaches adapting the way of working to the hearers, their needs, customs and circumstances, setting aside personal preference and fixed rules rather than laboring in one narrow way. This bending to others never surrenders truth or wavers in faith, but sets aside personal feelings and nonessentials that would block the gospel, meeting prejudice with patience in order to win souls.
Free Yet Servant
Though free from all people and under obligation to none, Paul willingly made himself servant to all in order to gain and save the more. That servanthood reached people of every kind, nation and background, including Jews, those outside the law, and the weak. His willingness to adapt his manner of labor to different hearers was aimed at their salvation, not a surrender of truth or deception. He set aside dignity and personal preference and exact rules, adapting his work to varied needs, conditions, customs and circumstances rather than insisting on his own way. With Jews he avoided needlessly provoking prejudice, beginning with teachings they accepted and with Old Testament prophecies and promises before presenting Jesus, while with Gentiles he exalted Christ before showing the claims of the law. He remained firmly grounded and did not waver in faith, identifying with those he sought to reach as far as possible.
Being free from all men means being servant to none but God. It means not taking orders from men nor taking a place to be led by those labored for, but leading under God's guidance. It means looking to God for wisdom, keeping in touch with God and following His leading and listening to words from the council of heaven as servant of the living God. Yet at the same time it means being servant to all men as laborer together with God in self-controlled, self-sacrificing service. Such service places self in any uncomfortable position to relieve others.
His aim in becoming servant was the good of many and their salvation rather than his own advantage. This self-denying service for others is the dignity and honor of the Christian life. It gives Christ's followers their pattern.
His accommodation did not make him without law. He remained under God's law and under Christ's law while adapting to different audiences.
Tactful Soul-Winning Methods
Though free from all, Paul made himself servant to all in order to gain the more, and this calls Christ's servants to set aside dignity and personal preference and to fit their manner of labor to the people and circumstances before them, adapting to varied needs, conditions, customs, and circumstances rather than insisting on exact rules or a fixed method. God's workers need breadth of character and must not be one-idea workers, serving for the good of others rather than their own advantage. This adaptability opens access to hearts that another approach would close, because it does not needlessly arouse prejudice or combativeness.
Such adaptation is not surrender of truth, compromise of essential gospel truths, or deception, but a seeking of salvation by removing needless hindrances. Paul set aside personal feelings and nonessential customs and ceremonies so they would not obstruct the truth, bore with prejudices, approached people on their own ground without misleading them, and observed Jewish rules when doing so was consistent with his mission, waiving his own preferences for the sake of truth and winning souls. With Jews he avoided needlessly provoking prejudice, began with teachings they accepted, taught from Old Testament prophecies and promises, and used Scripture to show that the Messiah had come before presenting Jesus, while with Gentiles he exalted Christ before showing the claims of the law, all while remaining under God's law and Christ's law rather than being without law.
In entering new fields unacquainted with the faith, this serpent-like wisdom with dove-like harmlessness means not presenting the Sabbath first and not running down churches or giving the idea that the work is to tear down. It means coming close to hearts by personal labor, dwelling on subjects that arouse the conscience, practical godliness, devotion, piety, and the self-denial and self-sacrificing life of Jesus as example until people see the contrast with their self-indulgent unchristian lives and become dissatisfied. Then the prophecies are to be presented and the purity and binding claims of the law of God shown, not one jot or tittle losing its force but holding upon every soul to the end of time, defended by God's chosen people when the law is made void and the Christian world joins with the Catholic and the worldly in making of none effect the commandments of God. Where a community is already acquainted with the faith this cautious order need not be pursued, but in every case the work is to build up and present the truth as it is in Jesus, dwelling much on the necessity of vital godliness.
In missionary work this same service means accommodating local customs and circumstances as far as possible when they do not conflict with God's law, so as not to hinder the mission or place stumbling blocks before acceptance of truth. In the Southern field this includes using Sunday as an opportunity to meet people and teach them rather than urging them to work that day. Becoming servant to all means approaching people with care and wisdom, meeting them where they are with their prejudices, agreeing with them and finding common ground in principles and in the lessons of Christ wherever conscience and truth allow, giving them fair credit, and avoiding combativeness, since few will fight over those holy principles. Those entrusted with truth must gain a sacred and thorough knowledge of how to meet men where they are and minister to them the light, comfort, and peace found in accepting truth, keeping a calm, hallowed peace and cherishing broad plans of action.
The verse also calls for practical, Christlike usefulness: anticipating the needs of those needing help, making oneself useful in saving souls, and accepting responsibilities and burdens rather than choosing only when and where to work, which itself teaches trust in God for help. Those entrusted with truth must take the inspiring, authoritative, and social life of Christ as example, cultivate His beneficent spirit, and not shun the society of fellow men but encourage it for the purpose of bestowing heavenly benefits, with a kind, generous spirit toward the poor, feeling in a special sense that they are God's stewards holding all they have not as their own but as lent in trust to advance Christ's cause. A converted ministry bears fruit by not shutting itself within four walls where light cannot reach others, but by finding common ground with those not of the faith in a manner worthy of professed truth and revealing Christ's wisdom and mercy. As fellow workers following Christ's example, the free willingly become servants of all.