New English Translation
1 Corinthians 6:12
12“All things are lawful for me” – but not everything is beneficial. “All things are lawful for me” – but I will not be controlled by anything.
1 Corinthians 6:12 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)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.
- New International Version (NIV)“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything.
- English Standard Version (ESV)"All things are lawful for me," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be dominated by anything.
- New King James Version (NKJV)All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
Context of 1 Corinthians 6:12
10thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God. 11Some of you once lived this way. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. “All things are lawful for me” – but not everything is beneficial. “All things are lawful for me” – but I will not be controlled by anything. 13“Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both.” The body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14Now God indeed raised the Lord and he will raise us by his power.
Read all of 1 Corinthians 61 Corinthians 6:12 word by word
Πάντα μοι ἔξεστιν ἀλλ᾽ οὐ πάντα συμφέρει· πάντα μοι ἔξεστιν ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἐγὼ ἐξουσιασθήσομαι ὑπό τινος.Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for 1 Corinthians 6:12
- 1 Corinthians 10:23“Everything is lawful,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is lawful,” but not everything builds others up.
- Romans 14:14I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean in itself; still, it is unclean to the one who considers it unclean.
- 1 Corinthians 8:4With regard then to eating food sacrificed to idols, we know that “an idol in this world is nothing,” and that “there is no God but one.”
- 1 Corinthians 9:12If others receive this right from you, are we not more deserving? But we have not made use of this right. Instead we endure everything so that we may not be a hindrance to the gospel of Christ.
- 1 Corinthians 10:24Do not seek your own good, but the good of the other person.
- Romans 14:15For if your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy by your food someone for whom Christ died.
- 2 Thessalonians 3:9It was not because we do not have that right, but to give ourselves as an example for you to imitate.
- 1 Corinthians 9:27Instead I subdue my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified.
- Romans 7:14For we know that the law is spiritual – but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin.
- Hebrews 12:15See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no one be like a bitter root springing up and causing trouble, and through him many become defiled.
- Jude 1:12These men are dangerous reefs at your love feasts, feasting without reverence, feeding only themselves. They are waterless clouds, carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit – twice dead, uprooted;
Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 6:12
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 12All things are lawful unto me - It is likely that some of the Corinthians had pleaded that the offense of the man who had his father's wife, as well as the eating the things offered to idols, was not contrary to the law, as it then stood. To this the apostle answers: Though such a thing be lawful, yet the case of fornication, mentioned 1 Corinthians 5:1, is not expedient, - it is not agreeable to propriety, decency, order, and purity. It is contrary to…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 12All things are lawful unto me - The apostle here evidently makes a transition to another subject from that which he had been discussing - a consideration of the propriety of using certain things which had been esteemed lawful. The expression, “all things are lawful,” is to be understood as used by those who palliated certain indulgences, or who vindicated the vices here referred to, and Paul designs to reply to them. His reply follows. He had been…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 12-20Verses 12-20 Some among the Corinthians seem to have been ready to say, All things are lawful for me. This dangerous conceit St. Paul opposes. There is a liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, in which we must stand fast. But surely a Christian would never put himself into the power of any bodily appetite. The body is for the Lord; is to be an instrument of righteousness to holiness, therefore is never to be made an instrument of sin. It is an honour…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 12Some Christians believed they could do anything, including being sexually immoral. Paul disagrees, saying not everything is beneficial. True Christians should live disciplined lives (see 10:23; Galatians 5:13).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1212. All things are lawful unto me--These, which were Paul's own words on a former occasion (to the Corinthians, compare 1Co 10:23, and Ga 5:23), were made a pretext for excusing the eating of meats offered to idols, and so of what was generally connected with idolatry (Ac 15:29), "fornication" (perhaps in the letter of the Corinthians to Paul, 1Co 7:1). Paul's remark had referred only to things indifferent: but they wished to treat fornication as such, on…Read the comment
Topics related to 1 Corinthians 6:12
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 6
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Illustrated New Testament
- Burkitt’s Expository Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Family Bible Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- The People’s New Testament
- Robertson’s Word Pictures
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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