All things are lawful. Really?

tonychanyt said:

Let's see the context, 1 Corinthians 10:

This was the context: idol worship in the city of Corinth where the believers lived.

More specifically, drinking and eating in a pagan sacrifice.

Paul gave a specific answer to a practical question raised by the Corinthians. Then he gave a summary answer:

All things are lawful?

Not really.

Click to expand...

The difference between the two -to eat or not to eat- is in the first case eating meat knowingly sacrificed to an idol or participating in the ritual. The second, regarding eating whatever is found in the market, regarded meat that had been sacrificed but what was left over from the sacrifice was then sold in the markets. When Mithraists slayed an entire bull during their ritual a lot of the beef was left over so they took it to sell in the market.

tonychanyt said:

Let's see the context, 1 Corinthians 10:

This was the context: idol worship in the city of Corinth where the believers lived.

More specifically, drinking and eating in a pagan sacrifice.

Paul gave a specific answer to a practical question raised by the Corinthians. Then he gave a summary answer:

All things are lawful?

Not really.

Click to expand...

That is a good example of Paul being difficult to understand; he seems to be talking about specific food offered to idols; the items of food offered is a set of things , pig and unclean things not included. The things were lawful but offering them to idols was not.

How does this compare with today, where those who oppose God, who say, right and wrong are not absolutes, men can determine what is right or what is wrong.

tonychanyt said:

Let's see the context, 1 Corinthians 10:

This was the context: idol worship in the city of Corinth where the believers lived.

More specifically, drinking and eating in a pagan sacrifice.

Paul gave a specific answer to a practical question raised by the Corinthians. Then he gave a summary answer:

All things are lawful?

Not really.

Click to expand...

In historic Christian thought, everything in creation is good-because God made everything good. But when we separate ourselves from God, as Adam did, then the first "not good", or injustice, occurs, which lead to the opening of a door where all things may be abused, and become harmful as man becomes his own God now, exercising his own authority over his own morality. In that case man actually loses control, and this disordered loss of control, sometimes referred to as "concupiscence", involves covetousness for pride/glory, wealth/material possessions, and pleasure.

When these things become too important in our lives, then they are idols, false gods. Self-love is a healthy and good God-given gift, but when ME is over-emphasized, when my excellence is over-valued, when narcissism sets in, then I'm suffering from "inordinate self-love" as Aquinas put it, and harm to neighbor or even myself very often results. I'm idolizing the self. Similarly, if I over-partake of food I become a glutton. The natural appetite for food is abused as that pleasure becomes a god for me. Desire for status and security can make money my god, etc, etc. When these things are in control then they play their proper roles for us, as tools or normal needs for day to day life. I think this is what Paul was getting at.

tonychanyt said:

Let's see the context, 1 Corinthians 10:

This was the context: idol worship in the city of Corinth where the believers lived.

More specifically, drinking and eating in a pagan sacrifice.

Click to expand...

Paul is telling us, to be sure, that by participating in idol worship is damaging to our relationship with God because that has an effect upon our own very spirits.

But that act of idol worship has no effect on a hunk of dead meat. The ceremony changes the spirit of the participant, not the hunk of meat left over from it.

tonychanyt said:

Paul gave a specific answer to a practical question raised by the Corinthians. Then he gave a summary answer:

All things are lawful?

Not really.

Click to expand...

People go into the written code with a fine-toothed comb asking, "What does the Law say about this thing? Does the Law cover this? Is this thing a sin? How far can I go before it becomes a sin? If I do this but not that, is it still a sin?" Paul wants Christians to stop using that measure.

He boldly asserts, "Everything is permissible" to shove aside the written code. The written code was only a guide, a shadow, pointing to what living for God should be.

But he institutes a couple of new standards of measurement: "Is what you want to do beneficial? Is what you want to do edifying?" Whether it's covered by the written code is not the bar, Paul has set a new bar.

Wait, let me also point out that Paul intends that people have also heard his entire teaching, which includes what he taught in Romans 12:

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

So, speaking to those people, those people who have been transformed by the renewing of their minds and are able to test and approve what God's good, pleasing and perfect will is, to those people, Paul can say, "Examine whether it is beneficial and edifying."

This is a much higher bar. It's applicable to every situation.

fhansen said:

In historic Christian thought, everything in creation is good-because God made everything good. But when we separate ourselves from God, as Adam did, then the first "not good", or injustice, occurs, which lead to the opening of a door where all things may be abused, and become harmful as man becomes his own God now, exercising his own authority over his own morality. In that case man actually loses control, and this disordered loss of control, sometimes referred to as "concupiscence", involves covetousness for pride/glory, wealth/material possessions, and pleasure.

When these things become too important in our lives, then they are idols, false gods. Self-love is a healthy and good God-given gift, but when ME is over-emphasized, when my excellence is over-valued, when narcissism sets in, then I'm suffering from "inordinate self-love" as Aquinas put it, and harm to neighbor or even myself very often results. I'm idolizing the self. Similarly, if I over-partake of food I become a glutton. The natural appetite for food is abused as that pleasure becomes a god for me. Desire for status and security can make money my god, etc, etc. When these things are in control then they play their proper roles for us, as tools or normal needs for day to day life. I think this is what Paul was getting at.

Click to expand...

Yes.

Paul tells us in Romans, "Your master is the one you obey." I might go to church every Sunday and Bible study every Wednesday, but my god is whatever actually controls each of my choices and decisions and actions, day by day, hour by hour.

Maybe I truly need a new pair of shoes. But if I choose to purchase that fancy, expensive pair of blue shoes instead of the less expensive pair of utilitarian black shoes...who did I obey in that choice? Who was my god in that decision? God or my flesh?