I find myself as of late considering sin.
1 Cor 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.
I have come to interpret this verse in correlation with other verses as meaning that everything is okay to do but not everything is productive. In the direct context it is speaking of morality with sexual morality being the theme.
In John 14:15 Jesus says, "If you love me, you will obey what I command." The greatest commandment is to love God with all ones heart soul mind and strength with the second being to love one's neighbor as himself.
It was for freedom he set us free. We are saved by grace not by works that anyone should boast. These are also familiar passages. I am coming to two simple conclusions.
The first is that the Bible's purpose is to bring people into fellowship with Him and promote His glory. Promoting His glory is almost a tag on in this as it is God's over ruling purpose. As far as having relationships with us this is promoting from beginning to end. In the beginning of Genesis we see man walking in the Garden of Eden with God and at the end we see Him being worshiped in Heaven. Throughout scripture God is bringing the Jews to Him and constantly trying to keep a relationship with them, and in the New Testament we see God sending his Son to die for our sins to restore fellowship with Him. We have mistakenly made the Bible out to be a book of how to live our lives when it is a book that shows us how God wants us to live our lives. The difference is subtle but it changes the meaning. If it is simply a book on how to live our lives it becomes a self help book with the major purpose of making us better. As it is a book on how God wants us to live it makes it into the guide on what we need to be in relationship with Him. Does it tell us how to live? Most definitely. But to believe that it is simply a guide to living is why as humans we tend to look for rules to follow to make our lives more godly, whereas we are supposed to live lives that make us more holy so we may be closer to God.
The basic difference is what the legalist and pharisees did. When you focus on it as a book of ways to live you decide which ones you think are more important, when they all are equally important. One modern example of this would be how greed, stealing, drunkenness and sex outside of marriage are condoned but homosexuality seems to be considered the ultimate sin even though all are listed in the 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. It is very easy to strain at a gnat and miss the camel when we focus on the actions and attitudes rather the purpose (Mt 23:24).
The other difference is that if its about a relationship with God and Him drawing us nearer it is by His power that we can achieve it. God sent His Holy Spirit to help us, he is the one that keeps us from falling (Jn 14-16, Jud 24).
That is that now that we can do whatever we want but if we want more of God we will do what He wants. It almost sounds like liberal theology but under the new covenant we are forgiven for anything. In the initial passage Paul says that everything is allowed, but that with some things comes both loss and bondage. In the passage in Romans 1 it states several things were God is not okay with but these are things it clearly states that these things happen when God is not glorified as God. In other places he says that many of the same will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:9-10). This is where grace comes in and the truth of the matter is that "Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Rom 10:13). No matter what one has done or are doing can be forgiven as long as one trust in Jesus death and resurrection and declares Him Lord of their life (Rom 10:9-10). So everyone go and sin, it's okay....
OR NOT! In 1 Peter God says, "Be ye holy; for I am Holy" (1 Pet 1:16). Jesus said that if you love Him you will obey. If the Bible is our guide book for having a relationship with God then we will want to follow it because we love God. Based on John 14:15 alone we do not love God if we are not obeying. Based on the Romans 1 and 1 Corinthians passages mentioned before to do the sins listed brings us bondage and are indicators that we are failing God in some way. If we want more of God we must remove this flesh nature that so easily causes us to fail (Heb 12:1).
In the end it all comes down to if we are pursuing a relationship with God or not. If you are continuing in your sin without wanting to change you may want to ask yourself if you truly love God.
