Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
To them . . . without law—that is, without revealed law: the heathen (compare Romans 2:12 with I Corinthians 9:15).
as without law—not urging on them the ceremonies and "works of the law," but "the hearing of faith" (Galatians 3:2). Also discoursing in their own manner, as at Athens, with arguments from their own poets (Acts 17:28).
being not without law to God—"While thus conforming to others in matters indifferent, taking care not to be without law in relation to God, but responsible to law (literally, "IN LAW") in relation to Christ." This is the Christian's true position in relation to the world, to himself, and to God. Everything develops itself according to its proper law. So the Christian, though no longer subject to the literal law as constraining him from without, is subject to an inward principle or law, the spirit of faith in Christ acting from within as the germ of a new life. He does not in the Greek (as in English Version) say "under the law (as he does in I Corinthians 9:20) to Christ"; but uses the milder term, "in . . . law," responsible to law. Christ was responsible to the law for us, so that we are no longer responsible to it (Galatians 3:13, Galatians 3:24), but to Him, as the members to the Head (I Corinthians 7:22; Romans 8:1-4; I Peter 2:16). Christians serve Christ in newness of spirit, no longer in oldness of the letter (that is, the old external law as such), Romans 7:4-6. To Christ, as man's Head, the Father has properly delegated His authority (John 5:22, John 5:27); whence here he substitutes "Christ" for "God" in the second clause, "not without law to God, but under the law to Christ." The law of Christ is the law of love (Galatians 6:2; compare Galatians 5:13).
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 1 Corinthians 9:21:
1 Corinthians 7:22
1 Corinthians 9:19
Galatians 2:17
Galatians 4:18
Ephesians 5:21
1 Thessalonians 1:5
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