All Things Are Lawful, But Not All Things Edify

In one paragraph

This message came from Pastor Mark's ongoing study of 1 Corinthians, covering chapter 10 verse 23 through chapter 11 verse 1. He worked through what Christian liberty actually looks like when it bumps up against other people's consciences, and what it means to do everything to the glory of God. Paul opens this section by agreeing with the Corinthians that all things are lawful, but he immediately...

Read together

1. 1 Corinthians 10:23 All things are lawful for me but not all things are helpful, all things are lawful for me but not all things edify
2. 1 Corinthians 10:24 Let no one seek his own but each one the others well-being
3. 1 Corinthians 10:25-26 Eat whatever is sold in the market asking no questions for conscience sake, for the earth is the Lord and all its fullness
4. Psalm 24:1 The earth is the Lord and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein, cited as part of a Jewish meal blessing
5. 1 Corinthians 10:27-30 If an unbeliever invites you to dinner, eat whatever is set before you, but if someone says this was offered to idols do not eat it
6. 1 Corinthians 10:31 Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God
7. 1 Corinthians 10:32-33 Give no offense to Jews or Greeks or the church of God, not seeking my own profit but the profit of many that they may be saved
8. 1 Corinthians 11:1 Imitate me just as I also imitate Christ
9. Acts 10:9-16 Peter's vision of the sheet with unclean animals and the voice saying rise Peter kill and eat, and what God has cleansed you must not call common
10. Acts 17 Paul quotes from pagan scholars and prophets when speaking to the Greeks

Talk about it

1. The pastor said 'all things are lawful for me but not all things are helpful' and asked whether something is permissible is a different question from whether it is constructive. Where in your own life do you feel the tension between those two questions right now?
2. Paul's short command was essentially 'do not seek your own, seek the other.' What makes that genuinely hard to do in practice, and can you think of a time when you did it or failed to do it?
3. The pastor drew a line between going to a bar to meet someone where they are and going to a place like a pagan temple where other kinds of sin are woven into the setting. How do you personally think through where that line is, and how do you decide?
4. The throttle mechanism the pastor landed on was 'that they may be saved.' How does keeping that goal in view actually change the small daily decisions you make around people who do not believe?
5. Paul told the Corinthians to imitate him as he imitated Christ, and the pastor named specific ways Paul could and could not imitate Christ. Which of the ways Paul did imitate Christ feels most challenging or most natural for you to follow in your own life?