“’Everything is permissible for me’ – but not everything is beneficial. ‘Everything is permissible for me’ – but I will not be mastered by anything.” 1 Corinthians 6:12
“’Everything is permissible’ – but not everything is beneficial. ‘Everything is permissible’ – but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.” 1 Corinthians 10:23, 24
Have you ever known a non-Christian who thought Christianity was just a big system of do’s and don’t’s? Or maybe it was even a Christian who felt that way. The thinking is that God has given us a lot of rules that we have to keep and if we keep them well enough, we just might earn God’s favor. If we don’t keep them very well, look out! That’s when God’s anger just might strike. I’ve never quite understood what they think will happen. Maybe they’re waiting for the lightening bolt to strike. Or perhaps it’s a belief that we’ll find out when we die. We’ll reach those pearly gates only to hear God, who sacrificed His only Son for us, say that we slipped up on a technicality so we can’t come in. My guess is that most of the time, the individual doesn’t really know what they think will happen. It’s more of an underlying fear that they somehow didn’t keep the rules quite right.
Here’s two news flashes for you: The first is that you haven’t kept them right. Neither have I. No one has because no one can. Here’s the second: Once we accept Christ, whatever sins we’ve committed or line we’ve crossed has been paid for in full. That includes sins we committed before accepting Christ, as well as those we commit after that. Hang on! Don’t stone me as a heretic quite yet. I’m not saying that now we’re free to do whatever we want. In fact, that’s what these verses are talking about. Apparently, there was a saying in the Corinthian church that everything is permissible. In a sense they were right. Since we can’t pay for any of our own sins, Christ had to do it. Therefore, we are always able to ask for forgiveness. I would guess that the saying started as a way to praise God for the incredible freedom we find in Christ and that we no longer live under the Old Testament sacrificial system. But our enemy will take anything and twist it if it will cause us to adopt an incorrect belief about God.
So how do we determine what is and what is not permissible? Well, on some things, God has given us pretty clear instructions. Those instructions are for our own good as well as the good of others. On other things, the Bible isn’t quite so clear. That’s where these verses come in. Let’s ask ourselves a few questions. The first set of questions apply to ourselves. Is what I’m doing (or about to do) beneficial? Or is it something that has mastered me? We can think of the “common” addictions of alcohol, drugs, smoking. But what about the less commonly discussed such as food, or work, or materialism, or anything else that has gained mastery over us? If there is anything in our lives that controls us in any way, get rid of it! The second set of questions pertain to others: Is what I’m doing helpful to others or harmful? Am I building others up or tearing them down? Perhaps more to the point: am I even thinking of how my actions will impact those around me? I’m not suggesting that we worry about what others will think of us. Not at all! It’s not about us. Rather, are we behaving in such a way as to build others up, to strengthen them, to help draw them closer to God? Let’s praise God for the freedom He’s given us, and also for the privilege and responsibility of being His ambassadors here on earth!