Ambrosiaster : We have been bought at so high a price that only Christ, who owns everything, is able to pay it. Therefore whoever is bought with a price ought to serve all the more, in an effort to pay back the buyer. Having been bought by God, we must not once again become slaves of men. Slaves of men are those who accept human superstitions. — COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES Basil of Caesarea : The price of man is the blood of Christ. "You have been bought," it is said, "with a price; do not become the slaves of men." The powers of the evil one are trying to render this price useless to us. They try to lead us back into slavery even after we are free. — HOMILY 21 Jerome : What greater price is there than that the Creator shed his blood for the creature? — HOMILY 29 John Chrysostom : "Ye were bought with a price: become not bondservants of men." This saying is addressed not to slaves only but also to free men. For it is possible for one who is a slave not to be a slave; and for one who is a freeman to be a slave. "And how can one be a slave and not a slave?" When he doeth all for God: when he feigns nothing, and doeth nothing out of eye-service towards men: that is how one that is a slave to men can be free. Or again, how doth one that is free become a slave? When he serves men in any evil service, either for gluttony or desire of wealth or for office' sake. For such an one, though he be free, is more of a slave than any man. But if this be not the meaning, if he bade them forsake their masters and strive contentiously to become free, in what sense did he exhort them, saying, "Let each one remain in the calling in which he is called?" And in another place, "As many servants as are under the yoke, let them count their own masters worthy of all honor; and those that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren who partake of the benefit." And writing to the Ephesians also and to the Colossians, he ordains and exacts the same rules. Whence it is plain that it is not this slavery which he annuls, but that which caused as it is by vice befalls free men also: and this is the worst kind of slavery, though he be a free man who is in bondage to it. — Homily on 1 Corinthians 19 Origen of Alexandria : Christ came and "bought us back" when we were serving that lord to whom we sold ourselves by sinning. So he appears to have recovered as his own those whom he created. He has redeemed a people who chose to belong to another, who sought another lord for themselves by sinning. — HOMILIES ON Exodus 6