1 Corinthians 6:12 ESV “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything.
I'm sure entire sermons have been written about this one verse in Corinthians, so my short paragraph probably won't do this verse justice!
First, I love the way The Message translates verse 12 - it says "Just because something is technically legal doesn't mean that it's spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I'd be a slave to my whims."
There are several times prior to this passage where Paul repeatedly attempts to move people away from an attitude of "It's all about me" to a focus on the one who calls and saves them. What he is saying is that Christ does not set us free so that we can do whatever we want to do; Christ sets us free so that we can do whatever God wants us to do.
The trap of focusing too much on our own freedom is this: what we start to do freely (because we want to, like to, or whatever the reason) can become our master. So, for example, I can indulge in fatty foods and ignore a healthy diet - but the risk I take is that can begin to dominate my life - so that I am no longer free. Or I may love to shop so much that I eventually rack up tons of credit card debt - it can become such an addiction that you are no longer master over it - it becomes master over you. The Lord can set us free from these dominations, but even though we may be freed from these, the way back to health or a balanced budget will still be long and hard.
Let's examine our lives this week and ask the Lord to show us things that we have allowed to master us - let's ask Him for His grace in these areas - to set us free - and to give us strength to continue down the path of daily sanctification.
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