All things are permitted, but not all things are of benefit.

1 Corinthians 6 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? ² Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to form the smallest law courts? ³ Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? ⁴ So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? ⁵ I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you anyone wise who will be able to decide between his brothers and sisters, ⁶ but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?

⁷ Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather suffer the wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? ⁸ On the contrary, you yourselves do wrong and defraud. And this to your brothers and sisters!

⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor those habitually drunk, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

¹² All things are permitted for me, but not all things are of benefit. All things are permitted for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. ¹³ Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, however God will do away with both of them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. ¹⁴ Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. ¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are parts of Christ? Shall I then take away the parts of Christ and make them parts of a prostitute? Far from it! ¹⁶ Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “The two shall become one flesh.” ¹⁷ But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. ¹⁸ Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. ¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? ²⁰ For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

In today’s text it says:  Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor those habitually drunk, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.  There is no sin so great that the blood of Jesus does not have the power to redeem. The only sin which a person cannot be cleansed and sanctified from, is the sin they choose to continue in. In Matthew 7:23 Jesus says:  “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; LEAVE ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”   In John 3:17-20 He says:  “God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed.”  It is a deception to believe that a person can choose darkness over light, continuing to practice sin and be an heir of the kingdom of God. Proverbs 26:11 says:  Like a dog that returns to its vomit, So is a fool who repeats his foolishness.  Even worse, is one who has been cleansed and sanctified, yet chooses to continue in the sin Jesus died to redeem them from.

Paul says:  All things are permitted for me, but not all things are of benefit. All things are permitted for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, however God will do away with both of them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.   That all things are permitted does not mean that God accepts or condones them. Rather, He gives us free will. We are permitted to choose what we want, whether good or bad, whether of benefit or harm. In Deuteronomy 30:15-16;19-20  God says:  “See, I have placed before you today life and happiness, and death and adversity, in that I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments… I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have placed before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding close to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days.”  All things are permitted, but our choices do have consequences. They are life and death, happiness or adversity.

Paul says:  Do you not know that your bodies are parts of Christ? Shall I then take away the parts of Christ and make them parts of a prostitute? Far from it! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “The two shall become one flesh.” But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.  It is not only Paul, but Jesus Himself, the one who purchased our redemption on the cross, calls us to sin no more. In John 5:14, to the lame man He healed at the pool of Bethesda, He said: “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.”   In John 8:11, after Jesus intervened on behalf of the woman caught in adultery, He said:  “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.” In John 3:5-7 Jesus says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’”  We are not born again only to continue to live according to the lust and desire of the flesh, but rather we are born again to live according to the Spirit.  Galatians 5:16-24 says:  Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. In truth, our sanctification, the crucifying of our flesh is not a past tense state. Rather it is a lifelong process, a daily, even minute by minute choice that we must make.  In Luke 9:23 Jesus says: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”  James 1:14-15 says:   Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.  We are not all tempted in the same way. What entices one may have no affect on another. That person though will be enticed by his own lust. Each one though, must choose what to do with that temptation.

Jesus says:  “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”  God says:  “See, I have placed before you today life and happiness, and death and adversity, in that I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments… I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have placed before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding close to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days.”    Amen.  Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, I choose life. I choose to daily follow You.  Precious Holy Spirit, enable and empower me to walk in the Spirit, born again, cleansed and sanctified.  Amen.