<p>9:23 <i>And I do all things for the gospel's sake, that I may be a joint partaker of it- </i>Here again we may need to read in an ellipsis with regard to &quot;the Gospel's sake&quot;. As explained on :10, Paul's hope was that he would be a &quot;partaker&quot; in the final salvation of his converts, just like the ox who ploughs and threshes in the hope he will get a mouthful of the corn finally produced. As it stands here in :23, the &quot;joint partaker&quot; has no reference- joint with what or whom? The sake of the Gospel therefore refers, I suggest, to &quot;the sake of your response to the Gospel&quot;. The &quot;all things&quot; which he &quot;did&quot; refer in the context to being all things to all men in order to save them. He did these things for the sake of their response to the Gospel, so that he might be a joint partaker with them of the hope of the Gospel.</p>