1 Corinthians 6:12

Even if all things are lawful, not all are helpful, and Paul refuses to be mastered by anything. It matters because Christian freedom is governed by what builds up and never becomes slavery to sin.

Cross-references · 10

• 1 Cor 10:23–33“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are profitable. “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things build up.
• 1 Cor 9:27but I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.
• Heb 12:15–16looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many be defiled by it;
• Rom 14:14–23I know, and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself; except that to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
• 1 Cor 8:7–13However, that knowledge isn’t in all men. But some, with consciousness of the idol until now, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
• 2 Th 3:9not because we don’t have the right, but to make ourselves an example to you, that you should imitate us.
• 1 Cor 9:12If others partake of this right over you, don’t we yet more? Nevertheless we did not use this right, but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News of Christ.
• Jude 1:12These are hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds who without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
• 1 Cor 8:4Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.
• Rom 7:14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin.

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