1 Corinthians 9:21

1 Corinthians 9:21. to them that are without (the) law without the written law, as without (the) law reasoning with such on their own principles; as he did with the rude idolaters of Lycaonia (Acts 14:15-17), and with the cultivated Athenians on Mars Hill (Acts 17:22-31).

not being without (the) law to God, but under (the) law to Christ. This parenthetic clause, most warily expressed, conveys a weighty truth. To have said nakedly, ‘I am under the law to God,' might seem in the teeth of his whole teaching, to the effect that he had through Christ become “delivered from” and “dead to the law.” He says, therefore, “I am under the law to Christ.” ‘O then (might it be said), you are under the law after all?' ‘Granted: I am indeed “ not without law to God;” I am no antinomian, lawless man God forbid: but my subjection to law in the Person of Christ, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light, transmutes its character out of law that killeth into love which is life.'