Not under the power of any

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. – 1 Corinthians 6v12

Here Paul reiterates something that he says over and over in his letters. He was free from the law. He even went so far here to say that “All things are lawful for me.” In another place he writes, “…the law has no dominion over me.” Apparently, judging from the context here, the Corinthians had taken that statement and run with it. “Hey, if we are free from the law, we can really do anything we want! They had turned liberty into licence to sin.

Here is a key “problem” of moving away from a legalistic, galatian view of Christian living. “If we don’t give people standards and rules for living, they are going to do whatever they want.” I have known many churches who have adopted this view of preaching and teaching. The bad thing is, and what makes it so tempting, is that it “works.” We all know how people, or “sheeple,” can be moved and manipulated artful preaching.

Yet, we are faced with Paul’s statement, “All things are lawful for me.” What do we do with a statement like that?

The answer is, we read the rest of the passage. All things are indeed lawful, BUT:

All things are not helpful

I will not be brought under the power of any of these things

But food and the stomach, or fleshly things and the flesh, are temporal

Our bodies were not made for fleshly sins

Our bodies were made for the Lord

The Lord works in our bodies

I would love to take the time to expound on all of these points, and I will probably preach this one day, but for the moment one phrase if key to me, “I will not be brought under the power of any.”

I have to ask myself, “Though I am free from the law, to which things am I a slave? Have I simple swapped masters?” It is easy to live a certain way if someone simply sets out the rules for me, but what if I have to know is there are things that have authority.

If I am under the authority of pride, anger, sexual lust, gluttony, substances, backbiting, discontent, covetousness, worry, or any number of sins then I err. My body was made for the Lord, not for me to run rampant in my freedom from the law!

My master is no longer the law, now my Master is Christ. My desire is to live under His authority and His alone. My desire is that He would be my motivation to follow and live according to His word, not some man inspired fear of crossing the line.