Paul Now Stresses that All Immorality Is To Be Avoided At All Costs (6:12-20).
‘All things are lawful to me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful to me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.'
It is probable that Paul had had quoted at him, ‘all things are lawful to me.' It may indeed have been his own phrase, but twisted to a new meaning. This may have resulted from his teaching that Christ had freed us from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13), that the law was a schoolmaster, but that now we are free from the schoolmaster (Galatians 3:23-25), that we are no longer under the law but under grace (Romans 6:14). Thus the Law no longer condemning what we do because its penalty has been met at the cross, all things are lawful for us because, having become new men, we will choose what is lawful. But its perversion would come from people who had misinterpreted his words, either deliberately or accidentally. So he counters by saying, yes, but not all things are expedient, not all things are helpful. The Christian being in Christ (1 Corinthians 6:15) and being a Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19) must seek to do what pleases Him. Thus what is contrary to Christ is excluded, it is not expedient, nor helpful.
Or it may be that his opponents made this their watchword, saying, ‘If we experience spiritual gifts and blessings our behaviour is unimportant. Because we are ‘spiritual' all things become lawful to us. We can then do what we like. We rise above the flesh.' Thus he is then seen as countering them by saying, ‘Yes, but all things are not helpful to those who would know God.'
Furthermore, he then adds, nor will I ‘be brought under the power of any.' Freedom is freedom to be free, he says, not freedom to do what we like and become enslaved by it. Had not Jesus said, ‘everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin' (John 8:34). But men do not go with a prostitute because it is a releasing experience (whatever they may claim), they do it because they are slaves to sexual desires. And no Christian should choose to come under the power of the flesh. So he is declaring that the Christian's freedom from the law means being free from the slavery of sin and bad habits. It means being free to live for Christ. It means being free to turn our back on all that defiles. It means being free to walk as He walks. (See Romans 6-7). ‘If the Son shall make you free you will be free indeed' (John 8:36).