“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.

1 Corinthians 6:12

Since we considered some of Jame’s writings on liberty yesterday, let’s look at some of what Paul had to say on the topic in his first letter to the church at Corinth.

In the verses that preceded the verse above, Paul wrote –

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Paul had just said that those who believed were forgiven and washed, sanctified and justified in the name of Jesus and by the Spirit of God. So when Paul wrote that “all things are lawful for me”, he was probably quoting something that some of the people in the church were saying in response to the message of Grace. But Paul points out a couple of things in his comments- “Not all things are helpful and I will not be dominated by anything.”

In the verses that follow, Paul addresses the timeless topic of sexual immorality. It was an issue in the first century and is certainly appropriate in our world today. Don’t you agree? So the law of liberty doesn’t free us to live contrary to God’s standards.

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20

The message is clear here that we have great liberty thanks to the work of Christ, but liberty is not license to live opposed to God’s views. Liberty should encourage us to pursue God’s ways in every part of our lives.