Throwback on 1 Corinthians 9:20

To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. (1Co 9:20 NRS)

“Did Paul merely pretend to be all things to all men, in the way the flatters 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.”

Ambrosiaster “Commentary on Paul’s Epistles” ACCS

“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”

Augustine “Letter 75” ACCS