All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. 24 Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being.—1 Corinthians 10:23-24
There are not many qualities more lovely or more like Christ than when unselfishness and self-sacrifice are lived out among His people. Love does not seek its own...it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things...love is eternal...it never fails. It has its Christlike effect here, and because it is eternal, its effect goes before us into eternity. Loving someone with this kind of love bears lasting fruit.
As a Christian, I do have freedom. My freedom was purchased by the precious blood of my Jesus who gave Himself for me. Paul says rightly that all things are lawful for him, but not all things build up and some things can lead us back to our old Master...Satan. He reminded the Corinthians of this earlier in Chapter 6 verse 12.
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
We who have died with Christ are now His slaves unto righteousness. We are no longer in bondage to sin. We have the freedom not to sin.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.—Romans 6:5-11
In our freedom we also have a responsibility to those who are weaker in the faith. Some of the things that I am free to do, might lead another to go against his conscience and fall into sin. (For whatever is not from faith is sin). As a member of the body of Christ it is my job to always build the other members up and seek their advantage over my own. As Christ followers than, love is our rule of law. Love is the one thing that we always owe and is never repaid. Love edifies. Love fulfills the law because it does no harm to a neighbor.
Father, thank you for the freedom you have given me in Your Son. Thank you that I have been set free from sin through faith in my Jesus. Thank you that by Your Spirit’s power, I have the freedom NOT to sin! May I glorify You today by living out the truth of what I believe. May my actions follow what my heart believes! May all I do today be done in love and for Your glory. Praying that by the means of the Spirit’s power within me, I use my freedom to build others up by loving them with Your self-sacrificing love. May I treat them the way You, my God, have treated me.
For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!—Galatians 5:13-15
