<p>9:19- see on Mt. 20:27 and 1 Cor. 9:16<i> Woe to me.</i></p><p><i>For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more- </i>Far from seeking personal financial gain from preaching, Paul had as it were sold himself into slavery so that he might save others. But he &quot;was free from all&quot; in that he did not take money for preaching. The idea of gaining or winning <i>people</i> rather than money as he was falsely accused of alludes to the Lord's words about winning men (Mt. 18:15). When Paul speaks of how he has &quot;made myself a slave unto all&quot; in his preaching (1 Cor. 9:19), there is an evident connection with his reasoning in Phil. 2:7 about how on the cross, the Lord Jesus likewise <i>made</i> Himself a servant to all. For Paul, preaching was and is to be a sharing in the cross of Christ. In his preaching of the Gospel, Paul could say that &quot;I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more&quot; (1 Cor. 9:19). Yet elsewhere, Paul uses the idea of the &quot;servant unto all&quot; as descriptive of Christ's attitude upon the cross (Phil. 2:7). The connection of thought reflects how Paul understood that in seeking to gain others for Christ, we make ourselves their servants, and in this sense our witness to them is a living out of the principles of the cross. Being such a &quot;servant unto all&quot; hardly squares well with the image of arrogant platform preachers dazzling their audiences. That isn't the preaching which truly 'gains' people for Christ.</p><p>If we can at least grasp the spirit of taking up Christ's cross, there will be a deep sense of fellowship with others who have reached the same realization; and a deep joy and calmness in confidence of sharing His resurrection. <i>The cross is attainable</i>. It&rsquo;s not just an awful thing that happened in a few hours of history so long ago, the details of which we flinch from, excusing ourselves that it&rsquo;s just too terrible. Look how Paul alludes to it, and arose to the point where he could truly claim to us that he was living the crucified life. The Lord predicted in Mk. 10.44,45: &quot;and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be <i>slave of all</i>. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and<i>to give His life a ransom for many</i>&quot;. And Paul alludes to this in 1 Cor. 9.19: &quot;I have made myself <i>a slave to all</i>...&quot;; and later in 1 Cor. 10.33: &quot;Just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but <i>the profit of the many, that they may be saved</i>&quot;. Through his sharing in the cross of the Lord Jesus, he, the very human Paul, became an agent in the salvation of all men. He too became a &lsquo;slave of all&rsquo; after the pattern of the Lord in His time of dying. We may make excuses about Jesus not being exactly in our position, because God was His Father etc. Valid or not, those excuses disappear when we are faced with Paul&rsquo;s challenge.</p>