Navigating The Gray Areas
Introduction
What are some Gray Areas?
Examples of Gray Areas
Principles laid out by the Apostle Paul
Examples of Gray Areas
Conclusion
Examples/Illustrations
12. Everything is permissible for me occurs twice here and twice more in 10:23. It looks like a catch-phrase the Corinthians used to justify their conduct, possibly one they had derived from Paul’s teaching when he was among them. He would perhaps have said something like this by way of an assertion of Christian freedom over against Jewish legalism and the like. Other religions laid down rules that must be kept if people were to be saved (food laws were especially common). To abstain from specified forbidden things was a necessary part of attaining salvation. Not so Christianity. The believer will avoid evil things, but this is not a path of merit, earning salvation. Salvation is all of grace. It depends on what God has done in Christ. The believer is not hedged around with a multitude of restrictions. All things are lawful. But this liberty must be lived out in the spirit of Augustine’s maxim, ‘Love, and do what you will.’ If we love, in the sense in which the New Testament understands love, we need no other guide. The Corinthians, however, were taking Christian liberty to mean, not an unbounded opportunity to show the scope of love, but an incredible means of gratifying their own desires.