1 Corinthians 9:15-23

St Paul's use of his Christian liberty is restrained by the thought of the needs of others

15. But I have used none of these things Having disposed of the objections against his claims to Apostleship, he proceeds to the instance he had been intending to give of his voluntary abandonment of his rights as a Christian for the sake of others. Thus he vindicates his own consistency, shewing that the doctrine he laid down in ch. 1 Corinthians 6:12, and which he again asserts in 1 Corinthians 9:19 of this chapter, is a yoke which he not only imposes upon others, but willingly bears himself.

than that any man should make my glorying void A remarkable inversion in the order of the Greek here has led some editors to prefer a different reading, which is found in some MSS., and which may be thus rendered: (1) It were better for me to die than my ground of boasting no one shall make(it) void; or (2) It were better for me to die than no one shall make my ground of boasting void. But the latter introduces an unfinished construction more harsh than is usual in St Paul's Epistles. The word here translated gloryingis translated in the next verse -a thing to glory of." See note on the same word in ch. 1 Corinthians 5:6.