All Things Are Lawful For Me

1 Cor. 6:12 and 1 Cor. 10:22

1 Corinthians 6:12 (NKJV)

12 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I    will not be brought under the power of any.

            I’ll be the first to admit that this is a difficult verse. That is, until you take the time to study and to really think carefully about what is said and what is at stake here. When Paul says “all things are lawful to me”, would it make any sense, whatsoever, that Paul is saying that he is immune to the condemnation of sin? Of course after I really stop to think about and study this scripture, I really don’t believe it is as complicated as it seems when we first read it.

            But I really do believe that just about everyone who reads this verse has a serious hard time (at first) trying to get these words of Paul the Apostle to agree with what we read in the Bible about the restrictions placed on many things that the Bible calls sin. Just before Paul wrote this phrase he listed many acts that are contrary to God’s will and he lists them as sins; Sins that will keep us from being saved. Look at these many sins that Paul lists that are forbidden for the Christian to be associated with. These are sins listed by Paul that the “law of Christ” has condemned.

Galatians 6:1-2 (NKJV)

1 Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a      spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.

2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Notice this phrase)

            There is a law of Christ and it forbids the Christian from engaging in certain acts that are described by the Word of God, the Bible, to be sin. We are not to be involved with sinful things. The Bible is clear about that. In fact, Paul lists many of these things just before he makes the statement that “all things are lawful for me”. Look at some of these in the preceding verses.

1 Corinthians 6:8-11 (NKJV)

9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be             deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor             sodomites,

10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the             kingdom of God.

11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were             justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.  

            Well, these things are certainly not lawful. I think we can readily see that anyone who engages in these behaviors without repentance has no part in the kingdom of God. These acts clearly violate the “law of Christ” and will cost those who violate these commands their eternal soul.

            So what could Paul possibly mean when he says “all things are lawful for me”?

            What law is Paul referring to?

            Well, I think the answer to that is really pretty obvious, don’t you?

            Paul is referring to the freedom from the Jewish law which was a brand new religion that all Christians now had because of the death of Christ on the cross. Very few people in Paul’s day understood this new freedom from the law they had. They didn’t understand the new freedom from the Law of Moses and they didn’t understand that the Gentiles were now a part of God’s chosen people. This was especially true with the Jewish “clergy” and most of all the other Jews as well.

            The people of Corinth were struggling with many sinful things. The Bible tells us that they were accepting a man who had taken his father’s wife in an unscriptural union and in addition to that, we are told about their struggle with eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols. And even that’s not all the sins they were having trouble understanding. Verses 8-11 list many sins contrary the law of Christ and the text plainly says that “such were some of you”.

            It would not be an unrealistic stretch at all to conclude that much of the confusion in Corinth about sinful things involved a misunderstanding of whether or not the Law of Moses condemned some of these acts and were they really forbidden by the Jewish Law? Many of the commentaries agree with this concept and I think the context of these verses point to this conclusion.

            This misunderstanding about the Jewish Law leads the Apostle Paul to remind the Jewish people that we are “not under Law” as God’s people have always been in the past. There is a freedom from “Law” with this new Christian religion that Christ had brought into the world.

            Paul says, “All things are lawful for me”. And he is referring to the fact that he is no longer bound to the many, many ordinances and statutes placed on God’s people by the Jewish Law. Today we understand this concept much more than the average Jew did in the days of Paul. We know the Bible tells us that the Law changed at the cross.

Colossians 2:13-14 (NKJV)

13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made   alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,

14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary          to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.  

            Who would think that there would be religious people today who would actually want this passage to mean that there are no rules and restrictions on anything we would desire to engage in today? But there are. Of course, very few if any would actually want this freedom from any form of law to really be “all inclusive”.  Most would place some kind of limit on just how far this “lack of law” would actually go. And generally it is governed by this part of Paul’s comments.

1 Corinthians 6:12 (NKJV)

12 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 

            This part of this verse can easily be explained in such a way that it would appear that Paul is talking about drinking alcohol. And this is one of the main reasons why some religious people would like for these comments by Paul to say that there is nothing off limits for a Christian to engage in if only he does not become addicted to what he is doing.  But the fact is, there are many sinful things that a Christian just cannot be involved with, in any amount, and in any way at all. Fornication is one of these sinful things and Paul singles it out in following verses in this chapter just to make it clear. But there are many others and he lists them in the verses we have already quoted.

1 Corinthians 6:8-11 (NKJV)

8 No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren!

9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be             deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor             sodomites,

10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the             kingdom of God.

11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were             justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. 

            The conclusion is this; there is a Law of Christ and there are sinful things that a Christian just cannot do in any amount. But this is not what Paul is trying to explain to the Jews in Corinth. His explanation is the freedom that Christians have from the centuries old Jewish Law that was so embedded in the minds of the Jews.

Carl O. Cooper