“All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor.”

Forgiven you can be if you think Paul repeats himself. Earlier he wrote:

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. (1 Cor. 6:12, emphasis added)

What he applied to himself, he now expands into a general principle for all believers. In the next chapter, he urges his readers, “Be imitators of me …” (1 Cor. 11:1), and here is a specific example.

Someone has come up with a more colloquial way of putting this: “All things are lawful, but some things are stupid!” It is reckless to put our freedom above the conscience and sensibilities of others. The truth of our freedom in Christ should never be used to cause division, disunity, or discord among God’s people. “I” first, no matter how we frame the truth, is not meant by God to be the characteristic of our freedom.

Remember when Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment? He answered that the first was to love God and the second to love your neighbor (Matt. 22:37–40). Notice that He did not exalt self-realization, self-freedom, or any other self-centered attitudes of mind. The greatest thing God wants to see in us is an outward focus, first on Him and then on others.

It is true that we are now free from the detailed observance of the Law as a means to salvation, and therefore Paul can write, “All things are lawful.” We are no longer judged by the Law, so technically we are “free” to do things the Law prohibits because the Law no longer has authority over us. But we are not free from the principles God highly regards. As Christians, we still need to put God first, others second, and ourselves last. And yes, that means, at times, curbing a freedom that seems good to us (“Let no one seek his own good”) in order to focus on a higher good (“but that of his neighbor”). Jesus put it this way: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34).

Do you enjoy “x,” but have a friend who struggles with the temptation of “x”? Do you have a friend for whom freedom from the control of “x” means abstinence from all “x”? Yes, it may be lawful to do “x,” but is it stupid in that context? If your first response is to defend your freedom as more important than fellowship with that person, maybe you have missed the point. Don’t be stupid.

Lord, help me to consider the selfish cost of my freedom when it affects others.