1 Corinthians 6: 12 There is a dearth of good commentary about this verse, at least this is true for material accessible on the Web. A few of the better commentaries are included below for reference purposes. What Christian believers seem unable to get is a fundamental philosophical principle. And remember, the Apostle Paul knew philosophy. Acts 17: 18 "And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers joined issue with him..." "So they took him and brought him before the Court of Areopagus and said, 'May we know what this new doctrine is that you propound? 20 You are introducing ideas that sound strange to us, and we should like to know what they mean.' We are then told that Paul was successful in defending his views in opposition to these particular philosophers. In other words, 6: !2 makes use of a philosophical principle. Yes, Paul's immediate concern is sexual immorality -and morality generally- at Corinth. However, the principle has universal application, which was why he used it in the first place. And it says, very clearly, that "freedom" cannot be an Absolute for any Christian because some things done in freedom may well be bad for the soul -person, spirit, mind, etc- and in all such cases these things must be opposed. The primary lesson I draw, even though the other lessons are important and were the subject of Paul's discussion in the Epistle, is that any doctrine based on the primacy of liberty is anti-Christian. And there is no thought of "live and let live" when it comes to evil. All evil must be identified and then strenuously opposed, fought against, and defeated. Therefore, there is no justification for libertarianism. The basic premise of libertarian philosophy is dead wrong and is indefensible. That is, insofar as libertarianism is anti-communal and libertine and denies the primacy of Biblical truths, it must be challenged head on and defeated. Understanding this, now we can tackle the questions that were most on Paul's mind the day he wrote the epistle. For at the heart of the problem was how ancient "libertarianism" -the Greco-Roman equivalent- allows (enables) libertinism and all related evil phenomena. If you don't know philosophy the way that Paul did, you won't grasp his meaning. Billy ------------------------------------------------------------- Central Baptist Church Fort Walton Beach, Florida Dr. James Qurollo, Pastor
Still another problem in the church at Corinth had been reported to Paul. There was a problem of moral laxity in the church. The pagan immorality in Corinth had found its way into the church. This must be discontinued. There is a difference between liberty and license. License says that I can do anything I want. There are no limitations. License says that what I do is no one else's business. By contrast liberty says I am free to do what is right. As believers we have liberty, but we do not have license. Just as the spiritual position of one who is saved has changed, so his practice must change also. Whereas prior to their salvation, believers may have engaged in the sins mentioned in verses 9-10, now they must no longer engage in them because they have been washed, they have been sanctified, and they have been justified. Believers must remember that their new-found liberty in Christ does not grant them license to continue sinning. Sexual license brings slavery. Satisfying one's sexual appetite cannot be compared to satisfying his appetite for food. Sexual misconduct will join a member of Christ with a harlot, and sexual misconduct must be avoided. The believer's body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and is not to be used for immorality. In _I Corinthians 6:12-20_ (http://www.centralbaptistfwb.com/bible/1-corinthians/6/#12-20) we see that we do not have license to commit sexual immorality; rather, we have liberty to live for the Lord. -------------------------- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops [_6:12_ (http://www.usccb.org/bible/1cor/6:12) –_13_ (http://www.usccb.org/bible/1cor/6:13) ] Everything is lawful for me: the Corinthians may have derived this slogan from Paul’s preaching about Christian freedom, but they mean something different by it: they consider sexual satisfaction a matter as indifferent as food, and they attribute no lasting significance to bodily functions (_1 Cor 6:13a_ (http://www.usccb.org/bible/1cor/6:13) ). Paul begins to deal with the slogan by two qualifications, which suggest principles for judging sexual activity. Not everything is beneficial: cf. _1 Cor 10:23_ (http://www.usccb.org/bible/1cor/10:23) , and the whole argument of _1 Cor 8_ (http://www.usccb.org/bible/1cor/8:) –_10_ (http://www.usccb.org/bible/1cor/10:00) on the finality of freedom and moral activity. Not let myself be dominated: certain apparently free actions may involve in fact a secret servitude in conflict with the lordship of Jesus. ---------------------- from: Bob Wilkin Executive Director of Grace Evangelical Society ...What on earth did Paul mean when he said that "All things are lawful for me"? Whatever he meant, he clearly did not mean that it was acceptable for Christians to defile the marriage bed, lie, cheat, murder, get drunk, covet, etc. Notice the three verses which precede verse 12. There Paul warns that the unrighteous-adulterers, homosexuals, thieves. covetous, drunkards, revilers and the like-will not inherit (i.e., possess, have a position of rulership in) the kingdom of God. Likewise, in the subsequent verses Paul commands them to flee immorality (v 18) and to glorify God in their bodies (v 20). In several of his letters Paul gave lists of sins, things which were unlawful for Christians. See, for example, Ephesians 5:3-5, Galatians 5:19-21, and 1 Corinthians 6:9-11--the verses immediately preceding the verse in question. In Romans 8:7ff Paul refers to the believer's obligation to obey "the law of God." Yes, Paul taught that believers are no longer under the Law of Moses (Rom 10:4; Gal 3:25; 4:9-12, 21-31). However, he did not teach that we are under no law of any kind. We are under the commands of the New Testament. (By the way, nine of the ten commandments are repeated in the New Testament.) The expression "All things are lawful for me" was evidently a slogan that the Corinthian Christians had adopted and used to rationalize their sinful behavior. Paul's use of their slogan certainly got their attention. When Paul refers to "all things" he, unlike the Corinthians who coined the slogan, means all things not specifically forbidden in Scripture. This is crystal clear in the immediate (6:1-20) and broader (8:1-11:1). Paul is referring to our liberty in unspecified areas. There is much freedom in our walk with Christ. We can choose any car, any apartment or house, any clothes, any food, any sport, etc., yet with two prominent restrictions. Paul's first restriction to our liberty in unspecified things concerns its effect on others in the body: "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful." If our choice of clothes or food or the like will cause fellow believers to stumble, we are to restrict our freedom (1 Cor. 8-10). ---------------------------------- from: Ra McLaughlin Vice President of Creative Delivery Systems at Third Millennium Ministries. In general, the idea of "mastery" in _1 Corinthians 6:12_ (http://biblia.com/bible/nkjv/1%20Corinthians%206.12) is that sometimes things have control over us in one way or another. Sometimes they control us in ways that we might call "addiction" in a technical sense, such as drugs that cause physical withdrawal when we stop taking them. At other times, things control us because we willingly submit ourselves to them (cf. _Rom. 6:11-14_ (http://biblia.com/bible/nkjv/Rom.%206.11-14) ). At still other times, we feel that we are mastered by things because we lack the spiritual strength to fight against the influence of sin in our lives (cf. _Gal. 5:17_ (http://biblia.com/bible/nkjv/Gal.%205.17) ; _Rom. 7:14-25_ (http://biblia.com/bible/nkjv/Rom.%207.14-25) ). This is not to say that we should always choose a responsibility over a recreational activity — God himself decreed a Sabbath day of rest, so in some sense even recreation can be viewed as a responsibility. Moreover, it is reasonable to pursue some happiness for ourselves, just as we pursue the happiness of others. It takes wisdom to know when our recreational pursuits are crossing the line into sin, and it's impossible to define that line clearly and precisely — especially for someone else. The location of that line changes according to the circumstances of our lives, and according to the conviction and inward leading of the Holy Spirit at any given moment. Certainly we have crossed the line into sinful mastery/subjection when the thing or activity that influences us somehow leads us into sin. We are probably also in the realm of sinful mastery when we lack the spiritual strength to avoid the activity or thing in question (here we need to be clear that our spiritual strength is not will power, but rather reliance on the Holy Spirit). Perhaps the most common way that our recreational pursuits cross the line into sin, however, is when they constitute a foolish use of our time (_Eph. 5:15-16_ (http://biblia.com/bible/nkjv/Eph.%205.15-16) ) — when we could and should be doing something more productive, such as when the benefits of those other activities outweigh the benefits of our recreations. Ra McLaughlin Vice President of Creative Delivery Systems at Third Millennium Ministries. -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
