The words For and free indicate a connection with 1 Cor. 9.4 (see the comments). From this point to the end of the chapter, Paul links together the two main aspects of his defense covered in verses 4-12a and 12b-18.

I am free from all men: men is implicit in the Greek, as in 1 Cor. 9.1 (see the comments on that verse). Other common language translations agree with Good News Bible in giving the meaning in two contrasting statements. Another possibility is to express free from all negatively, as for example in Translator’s New Testament, “Although I am no man’s slave…,” contrasting with the following words, “I have made myself every man’s slave.” This is no doubt what Paul means.

The word all, corresponding to Good News Bible‘s “nobody,” may mean either “all people” or “all things.” The context shows that Paul is talking about people.

The exact meaning of win is uncertain. The meaning “to win as Christians,” suggested by Barrett, fits verses 20 and 21 later in this chapter, where Paul talks about “winning Jews” and winning “those under the law.” But if we applied this meaning to verse 22 also, the “weak” (“weak in faith”) would have a more general meaning than that in 8.7-13 and would include those who were already Christians. Win could also mean “to make and keep people as Christians to the end,” and this would fit in well with chapter 10. It is probably better to leave this phrase ambiguous, as Revised Standard Version and Good News Bible have done.

The more should probably be rendered “as many people as possible,” as in Good News Bible.

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .