¹²All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. ¹³Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.
1 Corinthians 6:12-13

John, to my dear friends in Christ; in 1 Corinthians 6:12-13 we see Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tell us that all things are lawful for us to do, but he also tells us not all things are profitable. Christians, at times, feel they are free to do whatever they want. That's true, however, the freedoms we have are as directed by God.

First, remember God clearly gives us direction in His word (for example, we are free to eat anything we want (Acts 10:9-16), but we are not free to steal (Exodus 20:15), and our freedom must not interfere with someone else's relationship with God (Romans 14:13-23)).

Second, for those areas not clearly defined by God we need to bring it into context, does it edify God and my relationship with Him, and will our freedom in this area effect others? You see, we are truly not our own, we are either slaves to righteousness or slaves to sin (Romans 6:15-23). Let me give you an example, suppose there is a movie you just have to see, but the movie has people not married to each other living together, and a few words of blasphemy. Other then that, it's a great movie. What do you think this will do with your relationship with God; can He come into the movie with you? What do you think it does to your witness? Do you know when you pay to see a movie with blatant accepted sin, that in essence, you are saying to others and your children that the sin is acceptable?

The Holy Spirit tells us in verse 13 that our bodies are for the Lord, we are not our own and we are called to a higher standard. When we don't think about what we do, in effect we tell God, "God, I'm in control and this afternoon I'm going to be with my friends and we're going to gossip the whole afternoon. God, get on your shelf, Satan, get on my back, lets go." (Did you see the subtlety of the statement to God? Don't think you're alone, when you put God on the shelf who did you allow to have control?)

Again, everything we do we must ask ourselves, "Will this help in my relationship with God? Can God be with me when I do this? And will my freedom affect others" Now be careful, don't be legalistic, follow God's Word and the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will tell you areas that you need to adjust because those areas are affecting your or others relationship with God. Be careful not to dictate what others must do just because you feel led to do it yourself. For example, I can't watch most TV programs without sinning so for me TV is sinful, but someone else can watch hours of it without a single sin. Would it be right for me dictate to the other person not to watch TV? No. However, if that person who is free to watch TV knows I am weak when it comes to TV and they invite me to their home and that person proceeds to watch hours of TV in front of me, then they will be guilty of leading me into sin.

Finally, if the Holy Spirit brings something to your attention through God's Word, prayer, sermon, etc., then follow what He asks. This can be very freeing, instead of knowing a bunch of rules and regulations, God tells you what is good or bad for you.

Look carefully; did you see any promises above? They're there you just need to look closely. The one I like the best is in verse 13, our bodies belong to the Lord. If I was to belong to someone (including myself) I prefer it to be the Lord, awesome isn't it!

Dear Heavenly Father, You are an awesome God. You call us to a higher standard, Your standard. Tell us when we fall short of that standard and help us to stand up through the trials and temptations we will have this week to violate Your standard, in Jesus name I Pray, Amen.

God's Many Blessings to You,

john
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Scripture references (unless noted otherwise): The Open Bible, New American Standard
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