ἄνομος θεοῦ … ἔννομος Χριστοῦ אABCDFG. Rec. θεῷ and χριστῷ.

κερδάνω here אABCFG. κερδήσω (as in 1 Corinthians 9:20) rec. with DE. The latter is clearly an alteration to agree with 1 Corinthians 9:20. Both forms of the future are in use.

21. τοῖς�. Literally, to the lawless, as a lawless man, i.e. to those who had received no external laws or statutes from God. St Paul’s accommodation to the prejudices of Gentiles may be seen in Galatians 2:3; Galatians 2:12; Galatians 2:14.

μὴ ὢν ἄνομος θεοῦ. The gen. of relation. A kind of apology is here made for the use of the term lawless. It was only intended in the sense just explained. Even a Gentile was under some kind of law (Romans 2:14-15), and no Christian could rightly be called lawless, for he was subject to that inward law written in the heart, of which Jeremiah had prophesied (Jeremiah 31:33), even the law of the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2), which, though it had set him free from a slavish bondage to ordinances (Colossians 2:20), had not set him free from the obligation to holiness, justice, and truth which is involved in the very idea of faith in Jesus Christ. Cf. Galatians 6:2. The μὴ indicates what the Apostle was in his own mind, ‘not considering myself as without law in relation to God.’

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Old Testament