1 Corinthians 6:12-20 As the city of Corinth prospered as a major city with high traffic and with many morally

corrupt devices the city also contained a small church which Paul founded (Acts 18:1). Due to the gross moralities within Corinth the church also suffered as it was in the midst of such chaos. Corinths acropolis, high city, rose about 2000 feet and was used for both worship and defense. In regard to worship there was a temple of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, which Some even believed that *Corinths+ temple boasted a thousand cult prostitutes. (Keener, p. 59) This comes into play when one looks at the problems of the church and particularly this section of 1 Corinthians. Paul is writing to the church in Corinth, first, in verse 12, by what looks like his own example. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. There are many different views of where these words derived. We can see through the words themselves how they may have come from many different groups of people or ideas. Specifically in Gnosticism, which developed in the second century, it moved toward asceticism and libertinism at times. Its disparagement of material could already have let to the moral indifferentism of *All things are lawful for me+ nothing done in the body really matters and therefore anything may be done. (Barrett, p. 144-45) There are many who claim these words as a quote previously by Paul and they were in use at Corinth; see for example Moule, p. 196. Paul obviously shows his use of the words in this text but does not follow the same conclusions which the people of Corinth draw from them. (Barrett, p. 144) In other words, Paul attacks the theology on which the behavior stands instead of jumping down their throats concerning their behavior. (Fee, p. 251) Their behavior is obviously in the wrong, now Paul is confronting their theology (digging below the surface of what is seen to what should be seen). He is trying to remind them of the mind of Christ (1Cor.2:16). An alternative view is that the Corinthians are quoting words Paul had himself used in anti-Judaizing polemic; (Barrett, p. 145) Apparently, Paul had argued against the bonds of Jewish legalism and this argument of Christian freedom has been possibly been misconstrued by the Corinthians. His meaning by this would have to do with the adiaphora (the nonessentials; food, drink, days, circumcision, etc.), and so the Corinthian argument saying this applies to Christian ethics also is blatantly wrong. The source of the slogan is debatable. (Fee, p.252) Although debatable the meaning does not change. Assuming an action was lawful or not illegal (under Roman law) it was still not necessarily good for a person (1Cor. 6:12; 10:23). After verse 12 Paul writes in repetition the first words All things are lawful for me, and then continues giving another angle of what those words mean furthermore. Again, these first words are debatable whether they be a quote by Paul, of another person, etc. but nothing about the second part of this sentence is debatable; but I will not be mastered by anything.