Verse Analysis¶
Verse-by-Verse Analysis¶
1 Corinthians 6:12 — "All things are lawful unto me"¶
Context: Paul is writing to the Corinthian church (Gentile converts in a Greek city known for moral laxity). Chapters 5-6 deal with flagrant sexual immorality and lawsuits. The immediate preceding verses (6:9-11) list sins that exclude people from the kingdom of God. The immediately following verse (6:13) says "the body is not for fornication." Verse 6:18 commands "Flee fornication." Verses 6:19-20 say "your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost... glorify God in your body."
Direct statement: Paul states "all things are lawful unto me" but immediately qualifies: (1) "but all things are not expedient (sumpherei)" and (2) "but I will not be brought under the power (exousiasthesomai, future passive — 'be enslaved') of any."
Key observations: 1. The phrase is sandwiched between a vice list (6:9-11) and an anti-fornication argument (6:13-20). 2. Paul's response in the second half is emphatic: "ego" (I, emphatic pronoun) — "I myself will not be mastered by anything." 3. The passive voice (exousiasthesomai) treats the "lawful things" as potential masters/enslavers — the opposite of freedom. 4. This is the ONLY Pauline epistle where "panta moi exestin" appears (twice in this letter: 6:12 and 10:23).
Cross-references: - 1 Cor 10:23 (parallel usage, without "moi") - Gal 5:13 ("use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh") - Rom 6:15 ("shall we sin because we are not under the law? God forbid")
1 Corinthians 10:23 — Second occurrence¶
Context: This comes after a chapter-long argument (10:1-22) about Israel's sin in the wilderness, warning against idolatry (10:14), fornication (10:8), and presumption (10:12). The following verses (10:24-33) discuss eating meat offered to idols and acting for the benefit of others.
Direct statement: "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient (sumpherei): all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not (oikodomei)."
Key observations: 1. The "moi" (to me) is ABSENT in 10:23 — the Greek reads simply "panta exestin" without the personal pronoun. 2. The second qualifier changes from "I will not be brought under power" (6:12) to "all things edify not" (10:23) — shifting from personal self-mastery to community benefit. 3. Verse 10:24 immediately follows: "Let no man seek his own, but every man another's" — the ethic is other-directed, not self-directed. 4. Verse 10:31: "whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" — the ultimate ethical standard is God's glory.
Matthew 5:21-22 — Anger = Murder¶
Context: Part of Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, following the programmatic statement (5:17-20) that he did not come to destroy the law but to fulfil it, and that the disciples' righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.
Direct statement: Jesus deepens the sixth commandment: not only is killing prohibited, but even being angry with a brother "without a cause" puts one in danger of judgment. Escalating verbal contempt ("Raca," "Thou fool") brings escalating consequences.
Key observations: 1. Jesus is INTENSIFYING, not relaxing, the moral demand. 2. The pattern "ye have heard... but I say" moves from external act to internal disposition. 3. The standard is higher than the scribes' reading of Torah, not lower.
Matthew 5:27-28 — Lust = Adultery¶
Context: Same Sermon on the Mount structure as 5:21-22.
Direct statement: Jesus deepens the seventh commandment: not only is the physical act of adultery prohibited, but even looking at a woman with lustful intent constitutes adultery "in his heart."
Key observations: 1. Again, intensification of the moral demand. 2. The focus is on internal disposition (the heart), not just external behavior. 3. Paul's context in 1 Cor 6:12 similarly deals with sexual morality (fornication), making this the most direct comparison point.
Matthew 5:48 — "Be ye therefore perfect"¶
Context: The climactic statement of the "ye have heard... but I say unto you" series.
Direct statement: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
Key observations: 1. The standard is divine perfection — the highest possible moral demand. 2. This is the summary statement of Jesus's ethical intensification.
Romans 6:1-2 — "Shall we sin that grace may abound?"¶
Context: Paul has just argued (Rom 3-5) that justification is by faith, that all have sinned, and that grace abounds where sin abounded (5:20). This raises the question: if grace increases when sin increases, should we keep sinning?
Direct statement: "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid (me genoito). How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"
Key observations: 1. Paul uses the strongest possible negation (me genoito — "may it never be!"). 2. Paul's logic: those who have died to sin cannot live in it. 3. This is Paul's own answer to the charge of antinomianism.
Galatians 5:13 — "Use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh"¶
Context: Paul has argued for Christian liberty from the law's condemning jurisdiction. He now warns against misusing that liberty.
Direct statement: "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another."
Key observations: 1. Paul explicitly warns against using liberty as license. 2. The alternative to fleshly misuse is love-driven service. 3. This is immediately followed by "all the law is fulfilled in one word... Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (5:14).
Galatians 5:19-21 — Works of the flesh¶
Context: Following the liberty/flesh warning, Paul lists the "works of the flesh."
Direct statement: The list includes "Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like."
Key observations: 1. Paul's list includes BOTH external acts (adultery, murder, drunkenness) AND internal dispositions (hatred, wrath, envy) — paralleling Jesus's intensification from act to attitude. 2. The consequence: "they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God" — kingdom exclusion language identical to 1 Cor 6:9-10. 3. Paul addresses BOTH the behaviors Jesus addresses (adultery, murder/hatred, wrath/anger) AND additional ones.
Ephesians 5:3-5 — "Let it not be once named among you"¶
Context: Paul's ethical instruction to the Ephesian church.
Direct statement: "But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints."
Key observations: 1. "Let it not be once named among you" — an extreme moral standard. 2. "No whoremonger, nor unclean person... hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ" — kingdom exclusion. 3. Paul includes even "foolish talking" and "jesting" — moving beyond acts to speech, similar to Jesus's progression from murder to angry words.
Colossians 3:5-8 — "Mortify your members"¶
Context: Paul's ethical instruction to the Colossian church.
Direct statement: "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry."
Key observations: 1. "Mortify" (nekrosate — put to death) is an intense moral demand. 2. "Inordinate affection" and "evil concupiscence" are DESIRES, not just acts — paralleling Jesus's heart-level ethics. 3. "Put off all these; anger, wrath, malice" (3:8) — Paul addresses anger explicitly, as Jesus does in Mat 5:22.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-7 — "This is the will of God: your sanctification"¶
Context: Paul's instructions to the Thessalonian church.
Direct statement: "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God."
Key observations: 1. Paul explicitly identifies abstaining from fornication as "the will of God" — compare Jesus's "he that doeth the will of my Father" (Mat 7:21). 2. Paul condemns "the lust of concupiscence" — internal desire, not just external act, paralleling Jesus's lust=adultery (Mat 5:28). 3. "God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness" — a clear moral standard.
Romans 13:8-10, 13-14 — Love fulfills the law; moral conduct¶
Context: Paul's ethical section of Romans.
Direct statement: Paul quotes five Decalogue commandments and summarizes them as "love thy neighbour." He commands walking "honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying."
Key observations: 1. Paul explicitly quotes the commandments — including "Thou shalt not commit adultery" and "Thou shalt not kill" — the very commands Jesus intensifies. 2. Paul's "make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof" (13:14) parallels Jesus's lust prohibition. 3. "Chambering" (koitais — sexual immorality) and "wantonness" (aselgeiais — debauchery) are condemned by Paul — not permitted under "all things are lawful."
Patterns Identified¶
Pattern 1: Paul's "all things lawful" statements are always immediately followed by restrictions¶
Every use of "panta exestin" is IMMEDIATELY qualified: - 6:12a: "but not expedient" (sumpherei) - 6:12b: "but I will not be brought under power" (exousiasthesomai) - 10:23a: "but not expedient" (sumpherei) - 10:23b: "but not all edify" (oikodomei)
Pattern 2: Paul's "all things lawful" appears in contexts where Paul is RESTRICTING behavior¶
- 6:12 context: "Flee fornication" (6:18), "your body is the temple" (6:19)
- 10:23 context: "Flee idolatry" (10:14), "do all to the glory of God" (10:31) Both passages RESTRICT, not expand, permissible behavior.
Pattern 3: Paul's vice lists match Jesus's ethical categories¶
| Jesus's Intensification | Paul's Vice Lists |
|---|---|
| Anger = murder (Mat 5:22) | "hatred, wrath, murders" (Gal 5:20-21); "anger, wrath, malice" (Col 3:8) |
| Lust = adultery (Mat 5:28) | "Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness" (Gal 5:19); "evil concupiscence" (Col 3:5); "lust of concupiscence" (1 Thess 4:5) |
| Love enemies (Mat 5:44) | "by love serve one another" (Gal 5:13); "love worketh no ill" (Rom 13:10) |
| Be perfect (Mat 5:48) | "sanctification" (1 Thess 4:3); "holiness" (1 Thess 4:7) |
Pattern 4: Paul addresses internal dispositions, not just external acts¶
Like Jesus's movement from act to attitude, Paul condemns: - "hatred" (not just murder) — Gal 5:20 - "evil concupiscence" (not just adultery) — Col 3:5 - "inordinate affection" — Col 3:5 - "foolish talking, jesting" — Eph 5:4 - "lust of concupiscence" — 1 Thess 4:5
Pattern 5: sumphero (G4851) shared by both Jesus and Paul¶
- Jesus: "it is profitable (sumpherei) for thee that one of thy members should perish" (Mat 5:29) — in the LUST = ADULTERY passage
- Paul: "all things are not profitable (sumpherei)" (1 Cor 6:12; 10:23) Both authors use the same word to restrict permissiveness in moral contexts.
Connections Between Passages¶
The Corinthian slogan evidence¶
The textual evidence suggesting "all things are lawful" is a Corinthian slogan Paul is quoting and correcting: 1. The phrase is in tension with Paul's own argument in the same passages (6:9-11 vice list, 6:18 "flee fornication") 2. Paul uses the adversative "alla" (but) to immediately counter each assertion 3. In 10:23, the personal "moi" drops out, suggesting Paul is distancing from the claim 4. Paul uses similar quote-and-correct patterns elsewhere in 1 Corinthians: - "Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats" (6:13a) — likely another slogan, corrected by "but God shall destroy both" - "We all have knowledge" (8:1) — corrected by "knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth"
Shared vocabulary between Paul and Jesus on sexual morality¶
- porneia (G4202): Jesus (Mat 5:32), Paul (1 Cor 5:1, 6:13,18, 10:8, Gal 5:19, Eph 5:3, Col 3:5, 1 Thess 4:3)
- moicheuo (G3431): Jesus (Mat 5:27,28,32), Paul (Rom 13:9)
- sumphero (G4851): Jesus (Mat 5:29), Paul (1 Cor 6:12, 10:23)
- epithumia (G1939, lust/desire): Jesus (Mat 5:28 — epithumesai), Paul (1 Thess 4:5 — epithumias; Col 3:5 — epithumian; Rom 13:14 — epithumias)
Word Study Insights¶
G1832 (exesti) — "lawful"¶
The word exesti appears 32 times in the NT. In the Gospels, it is almost exclusively used in QUESTIONS about legal permissibility (Sabbath healing, paying taxes, divorce). In Paul, it appears only 4 times — all in 1 Corinthians, all qualified immediately. The word itself implies permission under some system of regulation.
The absence of "moi" in 10:23¶
In 6:12: "Panta MOI exestin" — "all things to ME are lawful" In 10:23: "Panta exestin" — "all things are lawful" (no "to me") This difference is consistent with Paul quoting a slogan that the Corinthians use; by chapter 10, he drops even the first-person association with the claim.
Difficult Passages¶
Does "all things are lawful" mean Paul actually believes all things are lawful?¶
The context makes this reading untenable. Three verses before (6:9-10), Paul lists behaviors that EXCLUDE people from the kingdom. Six verses after (6:18), he commands "flee fornication." If Paul literally believed all things were lawful, his argument in 1 Cor 5-6 is self-contradictory. The most natural reading is that Paul is quoting a position (the Corinthians' claim) and then correcting it.
Does Paul's qualification ("but not expedient") weaken Jesus's absolute standard?¶
The Contradiction position could argue that by framing morality in terms of expediency rather than absolute prohibition, Paul lowers the bar. However, Paul also uses absolute language: "God forbid" (me genoito, Rom 6:2,15), "flee fornication" (1 Cor 6:18), "let it not be once named among you" (Eph 5:3), "mortify your members" (Col 3:5), "shall not inherit the kingdom" (1 Cor 6:9-10, Gal 5:21, Eph 5:5). Paul's absolute moral prohibitions exist alongside his expediency language — the "not expedient" applies to morally neutral matters (like eating meat, 1 Cor 8-10), not to moral absolutes.