Our passage from 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 deals with sexual immorality, but I gave this background because we cannot understand properly what is happening in the Church unless we understand that the Church is simply at this point reflecting the culture around us. Jesus said that the Church is to be salt and light in the world (Matt. 5:13-16). But in saying that He acknowledged the possibility that the salt can lose its saltiness or that the light can be hidden. That is what has happened as the Church has reflected the world’s values.
As we come now to the second part of 1 Corinthians 6, we see that this passage stands over against any spirit of accommodation. Notice how Paul begins his treatment in verse 12: “‘Everything is permissible for me’—but not everything is beneficial.” What is he saying there? He is saying that if we break the law of God, we do so at our peril. Or to put it in other terms, breaking the law of God hurts. It is harmful. This is really the direct antithesis of the third point above about people’s claim to be autonomous, and that I am a law unto myself and can therefore do anything I want to do. Paul says that is not true. Because this is God’s universe, when you break His laws there are going to be harmful consequences for your disobedience. So, for example, when you break God’s law in this area of sexuality, there is no angel standing there with a flaming sword to keep you from doing it. You can do it, but God says, “Listen, it is harmful to you. If you don’t believe that, you will find out the hard way as time goes on.” And not only is it harmful to us personally; it is also harmful to society, which is to say that it is harmful for other people, too.
In the second half of verse 12 he makes another point by the use of repetition. He repeats the statement, “Everything is permissible for me,” but then adds, “but I will not be mastered by anything.” What is he talking about there? He is saying, “Look, if you break the laws of God, not only is it harmful, it’s enslaving. You get mastered by it. That’s the trouble with sin.” You see, we think we want to sin. It comes across to us as something good to do, and so we deceive ourselves by thinking that it is not going to hurt. But other times we are not consistent. What we sometimes do is change that thinking a bit. We instead say, “Well, you know, even if it hurts, it’s my choice. If I want to get hurt a little bit and I think it’s worth it, that’s alright. After all, when the pain gets too great or if the consequences are too high a price to pay, I’ll simply quit.” Paul says that you cannot do that. That is not the way sin works. Sin is like an octopus. You get within one of its tentacles and think that you can manage it somewhat, and then you find that there is another tentacle. And that one is followed by another tentacle. Pretty soon, you are caught and you cannot get free.
This is why we need the Deliverer. We need Jesus Christ the Redeemer to break the fetters of our sin. We cannot do it by ourselves. In fact, apart from God’s grace we do not even have the desire to break free of our sin. If you have come to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, you know that you are a sinner. Not only have you come to know you need the forgiveness of your sins, but you need deliverance from your sins. And knowing that Christ has died to redeem you from your sin, how can you enter lightly once again into sin’s clutches? Paul says that the Christian will not be mastered by anything that is harmful and contrary to the law of God. That is the opposite of the point made earlier about people believing they are self-sufficient and perfectible. They are most certainly not self-sufficient and perfectible, and their own enslavement to sin proves that in a tragic way.
