ACC ~ 1 Corinthians 9 v20

NOT A PRETENSE. AMBROSIASTER: Did Paul merely pretend to be all things to all men, in the way that flatterers do? No. He was a man of God and a doctor of the spirit who could diagnose every pain, and with great diligence he tended them and sympathized with them all. We all have something or other in common with everyone. This empathy is what Paul embodied in dealing with each particular person. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

NOT BEING UNDER THE LAW. CHRYSOSTOM: Paul did not become a Jew in reality but only in appearance. How could it have been otherwise, since he was so determined to convert them and deliver them from their predicament? HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 22.5.

NOT A DECEPTION. AUGUSTINE: Paul was not pretending to be what he is not but showing compassion. LETTER 82, TO JEROME.

THINKING SYMPATHETICALLY. AUGUSTINE: A person who nurses a sick man becomes, in a sense, sick himself, not by pretending to have a fever but by thinking sympathetically how he would like to be treated if he were sick himself. LETTER 75, TO JEROME.

1 Cor