Bible Strands
1 Corinthians 6:12
“Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul writes to the Corinthian church, correcting a claim of Christian liberty (likely "everything is lawful for me") that was being pressed in the direction of sexual immorality (6:13).
The words — ἔξεστιν (exestin, "are lawful") is the word Paul both quotes and qualifies; συμφέρει (sumpherei, "do profit") is the standard he substitutes for mere permissibility.
The thread — 1 Corinthians 10:23 repeats the same two-clause formula with "edify" in place of "profit"; 1 Corinthians 9:27 develops the "mastered" clause with Paul's self-discipline of his body.
Why it lands — The verse gives a reader two tests for any claim of freedom: does it actually benefit, and does it leave you in control?
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
Cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 10:23 “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is edifying.
- 1 Corinthians 9:27 No, I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
- Hebrews 12:15 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no root of bitterness springs up to cause trouble and defile many.
- Romans 14:14 I am convinced and fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.
- 1 Corinthians 8:7 But not everyone has this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that they eat such food as if it were sacrificed to an idol. And since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.
- 2 Thessalonians 3:9 Not that we lack this right, but we wanted to offer ourselves as an example for you to imitate.
- Romans 7:14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
- 1 Corinthians 8:4 So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.
- 1 Corinthians 9:12 If others have this right to your support, shouldn’t we have it all the more? But we did not exercise this right. Instead, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.
- Jude 1:12 These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted.