All Things Are Lawful, but Not All Edify
Tom Shrader works through 1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1, explaining that Christian freedom is not a license to do anything permissible but a call to ask what glorifies God and benefits others. Drawing on Paul's principle that 'all things are lawful, but not all things edify,' Shrader challenges believers to move from the question 'why not?' to 'why?'—weighing choices by their effect on fellow believers and unbelievers alike. The teaching closes in Philippians 2, where Shrader grounds this outward orientation in the humility of Christ, arguing that genuine discipleship requires setting aside personal rights for the good of others.
“Anything and everything a Christian says or does should glorify God.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Life Management
Recorded: 2001 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 38 min
Themes: freedom, serving others, humility, glorifying god, self-sacrifice, edification, christian living, putting others first, new believer, struggling with freedom, feeling entitled, young adult, navigating gray areas, mentor, questioning faith decisions, dealing with temptation
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 8:1, 1 Corinthians 8:13, 1 Corinthians 9:4, 1 Corinthians 10:13, 1 Corinthians 10:14, 1 Corinthians 10:23, 1 Corinthians 10:24, 1 Corinthians 10:27, 1 Corinthians 10:28-30, 1 Corinthians 10:31, 1 Corinthians 11:1, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, 1 Corinthians 6:12, Psalm 24:1, Genesis 4:9, Romans 4, John 14:13, 1 Peter 4:14, 1 Peter 4:16, Philippians 2:3-5, Philippians 2:6-8, Philippians 2:19-22
Theological Themes: christian liberty, sanctification, imago dei, kenosis, christlike humility, adiaphora, conscience, discipleship
Full Transcript
Background: Liberty, Freedom, and the Corinthian Context
In 1 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 1, Paul introduces the idea of meat sacrificed to idols, and this really begins a discussion on liberty and freedom. For us today it is not a giant issue, but for the Corinthians it was. They had come out of awful idolatry, and now there were some who were finding this a stumbling block. Eating meat that had been offered to idols was, for them, a lure pulling them back into their former way of life. Paul gives his conclusion to that in verse 13 of chapter 8: "If what I eat is going to make another Christian sin, I'll never eat meat again as long as I live, for I don't want to make another Christian stumble." There is his principle.
In chapter 9, Paul becomes autobiographical. He asks, "Do I not have as much freedom as anyone else? Am I not an apostle?" In verse 4 he continues, "Don't I have the right to live in your homes and share your meals? And don't I have the right to bring a Christian wife?" He then talks about having planted good seed and therefore being entitled to make his living from it. Yet Paul says he has never taken anything. When he comes into a city to plant a church, he does not take money from them, because he does not want anyone to think he is in it for the cash. When he moves on, those churches support what he is doing, but that is his initial principle.
Warning Against Idolatry and the Faithfulness of God
In chapter 10, there is a warning against idolatry — that cloud that looms over these people, that area from which they had come. They have been delivered out of it, and Paul is saying to watch out for it. Verse 13 is placed by the Holy Spirit in such a remarkable way that its application extends beyond the context to all areas of life. From the New Living Translation, Paul says: "But remember that the temptation that has come into your life is no different from what others experience."
When we hear the word "temptation," we think of something that entices us away to sin, but that word is actually neutral — it simply means to test or to prove. So when difficulties, challenges, and tests come into your life, when those opportunities to prove what is really inside you arrive, Paul wants us to understand their common nature. Are you here today and hurting? Are you in the midst of a test, a challenge, wondering if you can even get through it? Here is the punchline: God is faithful. That is it. That is what we need to remember.
Even in the midst of trials, what happens is we can get sucked into them and end up looking only horizontally around us. If other people know we are hurting, the moment they see us they will ask how we are doing, how we are feeling, and whether we want to or not, we end up talking about ourselves. Paul says no — here is the key to getting through those difficulties, the key not merely to surviving but to thriving in the midst of them: God is faithful. He will not allow a temptation to be so powerful that it overcomes us. He knows how much we can endure, and He will also provide a way out. So we can never say the devil made us do it, or that the temptation was so strong we had no spiritual strength to fight. We always have the weapons. We always have the strength. God is faithful.
"All Things Are Lawful, but Not All Things Edify"
In verse 14, Paul says to flee completely from idolatry, and we close out this section today, running through to chapter 11, verse 1. Paul makes the statement: "All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify." This may ring a bell, because we have heard it before. Keeping a finger in chapter 10, verse 23, and flipping back to chapter 6, we find the earlier occurrence.
In 1 Corinthians 6:9, Paul writes: "Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers shall not inherit the kingdom of God." In other words, if someone who claims to be in God is involved in these sins on an ongoing, unrepentant basis, then heaven is not their destination. They may think it is. They may have prayed a prayer or made a profession of faith somewhere, but their lifestyle reveals it was not real. That is what Paul is saying.
The Transformation of the Corinthian Church
What follows in verse 11 is fascinating: "And such were some of you." That is the description of the church. If you were to ask Paul to describe the church at Corinth, he would say they were fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminates, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, and swindlers. That was what they were like back in Corinth — quite a church. "Such were some of you" — past tense. But then Paul identifies three things that changed everything: they were washed, they were sanctified, and they were justified. They were born again, regenerated. The old things had passed away, and they had become new creatures.
Because they were washed and sanctified, their lives began to reflect it. Their lives had been transformed, so now they lived in a transformed way. Every Sunday, on the front panel of the bulletin at East Valley Bible Church, the same central point is communicated: your life has to be different. The church is committed to glorifying God by helping one another live that transformed life.
All Things Are Lawful, but Not All Things Edify
If you say you're His, then you were washed, and you were sanctified, and it should be visible. You're justified. You now have legal standing of righteousness before God. In 1 Corinthians 6:12, Paul said, "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything." When Paul says all things are lawful, he is not saying adultery is okay, stealing is okay, or murder is okay. He is saying that aside from the things God condemns and prohibits, everything else is lawful.
So how do we know what to do? How do we know how to live? When we are in a situation, how do we figure out the best course of action? Paul gives us the principle: "All things are lawful, but not all things edify." The term edify literally means to build a house — the idea is to build up.
The question, then, is this: does it build me up? Will I be a better person? Will I be closer to the Lord? Will I be able to touch the lives of those around me? Will the body be stronger, and will the lost people in my life be attracted to what they see?
The Wrong Question and the Right One
We are constantly asking the question, "Why not?" Is it all right to go to this movie? Why not go? Is it all right to have a drink? Why not? Paul says there is a different question to be asked. The question is not "why not?" — the question is "why?" Just because you can do something does not mean you have to do it.
Science teaches us that it operates with no restraint. If scientists can do something, they will do it. Stem cell research, cloning — it does not matter what restrictions are put in place. If they cannot do it here, they will do it in France or Austria. Because they can, they will. When scientists were able to produce the atomic bomb, the very men who invented it wrote a letter to the president within days saying, "Don't ever use this thing." But because they scientifically could build it, they did. And most of us translate that same principle into our lives: because we can, we will.
Paul says that is not the right way to think. The better question is: does it build you up? And there is an even greater question still: "Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor."
Am I My Brother's Keeper?
Back in Genesis 4:9, the Lord came to Cain and said, "Where is Abel your brother?" Cain answered, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" And Paul says, yes — you are. When you are looking at areas of your life that are not necessarily sinful, areas that are neutral and may have some value, Paul says to consider the nutritional value. Is it going to build you up? Count the cost. And the grid through which to interpret these decisions is to ask: is it going to benefit others?
Our natural tendency is to ask, "What about me?" We did a baby dedication this morning — a cute little baby in a beautiful white gown and bonnet, something likely passed down through generations. In about a year and a half, that same child will go to the nursery crying, need individual attention until satisfied, and then, when set down with toys all around, won't touch any of them. The moment another child reaches out, that baby will draw everything close and say, "Mine, mine, mine." That is the natural thing. That is the way we are wired. That is how we come into this world — thinking only of ourselves. "What about me? Mine. I. Me." Those are the personal pronouns we love.
Paul says he does not want us thinking that way. That is why the Christian life is supernatural in its nature — but more on that when we close today.
Eating Without Asking Questions
Paul tells us to eat anything sold in the meat market without asking any questions for conscience sake. When you go to the market and see a good-looking piece of beef, do not ask where it came from. Get it, barbecue it, eat it, and enjoy it. He quotes from Psalm 24:1: "For the earth is the Lord's, and all it contains."
The issue arises when you have to deal with other people. In verse 27, Paul writes that if one of the unbelievers invites you and you wish to go, eat anything set before you without asking any questions for conscience sake. The implication here is that these believers are interacting with lost people.
We know the "one another" passages of Scripture — love one another, forgive one another, pray for one another, encourage one another, bear one another's burdens, strengthen one another. We know all of those. But we can sometimes get a distorted view and try to live a life consisting only of the "one anothers."
Living as Salt and Light
Isolating ourselves into a little Christian ghetto where everything is Christian — Christian music, Christian friends, Christian everything around us — may feel good in the short term. It may even feel safe. But here is the problem: it is unbiblical living. We are to be salt and light. We need to be with our Christian friends, and we must not forsake the assembling together, but we also need to be involved with unbelievers. The idea here is that we are normal enough that they would even want us to come over and spend time with them — come over, have something to eat, watch the ball game.
Eating Meat Sacrificed to Idols
When they bring out the meat, Paul says simply to eat it. That is not a problem. The problem comes in verses 28 and 29: "But if anyone should say to you, this meat is sacrifice to idols, do not eat it. For the sake of the one who informed you, and for conscience sake, I mean not your own conscience, but for the other man's conscience." Now you are over at somebody's house with an unbeliever, and apparently there is also a believer present — because a believer is the only one who would be concerned about this. The unbeliever does not care what you eat. But when the believer points out that the meat was sacrificed to idols, Paul says at that point do not eat it.
What about sensitivity toward the lost person? There are certain times we find ourselves in positions where it is a lose-lose — someone is going to be offended. Paul says that in that case, offend the unbeliever rather than the weaker brother. So go ahead and pass on the meat.
When the Weaker Brother Sets the Standard
This has produced some fascinating discussions, because suddenly you realize: I am the stronger one, I understand it is just meat offered to idols, it does not mean anything, and even Paul says it is nothing — but now this person, because he is immature, because he is weak, is going to dictate what I do? At what point does his weakness become legalism for me? At what point has he thrust his standard onto me? That is a difficult question to answer fully. All we have is what the text shows us, and it seems that along the way you are saying, "I would normally eat this, but I do not want to offend you — let me explain why, and perhaps I can educate that person and bring them along." But Paul seems to say that until they get it, you continually yield to them.
The Overriding Principle: Glory to God
Then Paul states his overriding principle — his rule of thumb: "Whether then you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it to the glory of God. Give no offense to either the Jew or the Greek or to those in the church." At that point he has covered all of mankind — the Jew, everyone else, and the Christian. Do not offend any of them, if you can help it. He continues, "Just as I also please all men and all things." Paul says that being a people pleaser, in that sense, is a good thing.
Paul is not saying that if a group of people want to go and sin, he goes and sins with them. He is saying that if what they want to do is not sinful, he will participate with them, because he wants to be with them. How can he be salt or light if he is not with them? The underlying idea is stated again: not seeking his own profit, but the profit of many. He is not looking out for himself.
Glorifying God in All of Life
In this whole issue of freedom, Paul's conclusion is that whatever it is — eating, drinking, or anything in life, something as mundane as a meal or something as profound as sharing the gospel — the aim is to glorify God. He is worthy of our praise and exaltation, and that happens in so many different ways.
We glorify God as we confess our sin. We glorify God as we trust Him — Romans 4, believing He is who He said He was. We glorify God as we bear fruit. Jesus says, "By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." There is a dominant thought among some in the church, and among many in this valley, that a person can accept Jesus Christ as Savior but He is never Lord, that there can be acceptance without any difference in life following it. That is deeply destructive. Jesus says there is one way to prove you are a follower of His: you bear fruit. You say He is Lord — now show the world. You are the salt, you are the light. Let them see your good works, as the Sermon on the Mount says, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
We also glorify God when we thank Him and acknowledge that all things are from Him. We glorify God as we suffer for Christ. First Peter 4 says, "If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the Spirit of the glory of God rests upon you." And verse 16: "If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but in my name, he is glorified."
Contentment in a Culture of More
Be content. That is otherworldly living. Part of what we will be doing on an upcoming trip: Susan and I are going back east for a completely secular speaking engagement, flying into Washington, D.C. and down into Virginia to speak to MasterCard International. MasterCard sponsors this event and brings in 25 of their top petroleum accounts and CEOs from across North America. When I was told my topic was contentment, I asked whether this was some disgruntled employee about to be fired who had booked the event — because my message is the antithesis of everything MasterCard stands for. But I think the world senses that emptiness, especially the more successful people become, the more hollow it feels.
We glorify God when we pray. John 14:13 says, "Whatever you ask in my name, I will do that the Father may be glorified." And we glorify God as we spread His Word. That list could obviously be expanded much further.
Glorifying God in All Things
Here is the principle: anything and everything a Christian says or does should glorify God. So when trying to figure out what to do or what not to do, the question that comes to mind is, what would Jesus do? More importantly, what would He have you do?
Then Paul says, "Be an imitator of me." I remember the first time I read this, I thought, this guy is bold. Right after we became Christians, we heard a bunch of guys teach and went to a bunch of churches, and these guys would say, "Life is hard. We're all on a journey. We're all slugging it out." I would go to the car and say, "Well, we don't need to go back there. This guy is no further along than we are." If he's slugging it out, what do I need to go back there for? If he's not at least a block ahead of me, I'm wasting my time.
Now, I know the guy is never perfect, but at least he's got something figured out. I remember the first time I read this and I thought, this Paul is my kind of guy. He's not ashamed. It's not even cocky or arrogant. He just says, "Hey, you need a role model. You're trying to figure out what your life is supposed to be like. You need an imitator."
The word means literally to walk in those same steps. We used to get snow, real deep snow, and if you were really smart, you would let somebody go ahead of you and then just walk right in their steps to get right through. That's what it means to be an imitator. And Paul says, if you need a role model, look at me. How can he say that? Because he is simply an imitator of Christ.
The Key: Humility Over Selfishness
What allowed Paul to say this brings us to Philippians chapter 2. Paul tends not merely to say "do this" or "don't do this," but rather "be this" — have this characteristic in your life. You see it there in Philippians chapter 2, verse 3: "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; and do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others."
That word "selfishness" is also rendered "strife" — something that leads to factions and division. "Empty conceit" means pursuing your own personal glory, your own agenda. That is what our natural flinch will be. My desire is to sit in the chair and say, "Mine, mine, mine." I want to do everything I can to advance my agenda, my cause, my likes, my dislikes. But Paul says, do nothing from that place.
See how that connects to what we just looked at? Remember what he said: "Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor." Paul is saying he wants to live in a way where he pleases all men, not seeking his own profit. That is the contrast he is drawing.
John MacArthur, in his study Bible, makes two sentences as a point on the word translated "humility," and for me this was gigantic. He explains that this word translates a Greek term that Paul and other New Testament authors apparently had to coin — they had to make this word up. It had previously been a term of derision, conveying the idea of low, shabby submission.
A Word the World Never Needed
Here is what that means. Paul is saying to these people, "I want to tell you how to live. I want to give you the key to life. If you want to be a Christian, if you want to see God make a difference in your life, here is what you need: humility." And they essentially had no word for it. They had never heard of any such thing.
I think that is a terrific point, because that is how otherworldly Christian living really is. It never even occurred to them, as they put together their vocabulary, to come up with a word that would capture the thought of being genuinely concerned about somebody else. It never even dawned on them that somebody would live that way.
Paul says that this quality becomes the essence of what God really uses. I will never be the man, the woman, the student that God wants me to be if I am not humble. It is not going to happen. C.S. Lewis describes pride as a complete anti-God state of mind. Pride is the antithesis of humility.
I will say that most of the hurt, most of the pain, most of the anguish in your life is caused by pride — either yours or somebody else's. Almost always. "I want my way. I'm not going to yield on this. We're going to do this my way." So we manipulate, we gossip, we slander, we cut people down, we lie. Why? Because we want our piece of the action.
The Mindset of Christ
Staying in Philippians 2, verse 5: "Have this attitude in yourself that was also in Christ Jesus." Have the same mindset. Look at the world through the same grid, the same barometer, as Jesus did.
Then in verses 6 through 8, Paul tells us who Jesus is: "Who, although He existed in the form of God..." Paul had a couple of Greek words available to him that could be translated "form" — one that conveys merely having some similar characteristics.
The Mind of Christ
He is in the form of God, meaning He is God. Jesus Christ is God. When somebody comes to you and says Jesus wasn't God, never claimed to be God, here is a passage you can take them through. He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. He did not hang on to that. But He emptied Himself — He poured Himself out.
The New King James says He made Himself of no reputation. He emptied Himself, not of His deity, but of His glory. He took the form of a bondservant. He was made in the likeness of man, found in the appearance of man. If you had a group photo and looked at it, you would not point and say, "Oh, that's a God there." No — He just looked like everybody else.
He humbled Himself, moved from fully God to fully God and fully man, became obedient — obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. He did not just come and die. He died in the most humiliating, embarrassing way possible, crucified with criminals.
Timothy: A Model of Kindred Spirit
That was good for Jesus, and that was a good way for Paul to live as well. Moving forward in Philippians 2 to verse 19, Paul writes to the church at Philippi: "I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so I'll be encouraged when I learn your condition." He says, "For I have nobody else like Timothy — I have no one of kindred spirit."
Understand what Paul is saying here. Everywhere Paul goes, he is making leaders. He is pouring his life into other men, charging them to pass the Word, pass the faith, live the faith. He looks over the lives of everyone he has touched and says, "There is the guy right there — of kindred spirit." There are a whole bunch of guys, and they are all pretty good. Some are better than others. But one stands out.
What makes Timothy stand out? Is it that he is articulate, powerful, or courageous? No. Look at verse 20: "No one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare." There it is. Verse 21 continues: "For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus. But you know his proven worth, that he served me for the furtherance of the gospel, like a child serving his father."
Setting Aside Your Own Rights
That characteristic runs all through Paul's writing and all through the New Testament — you cannot miss it. If you want to be a person that God is going to use in a significant way, then you have to set aside your own rights. You have to make decisions based on what is good for others, not necessarily yourself. You are going to have to yield. You may have authority over others, and you may be stronger than them, but you are going to yield to them in some of these areas of preference. Why? Because you love them.
I remember listening to Chuck Swindoll once, and he was giving four or five things a pastor needs. I thought I had better write this down. One was to study the Word, and the others were things I thought I already knew. Then he came to the final point and said, "Now this is the most important." I put a little star by it and thought, I had better get this one. The number one thing a pastor needs more than anything else — love his people.
I have to tell you, that never even occurred to me as something that would be on the list. But the more I think about it, the more I say that is everything else. Swindoll is exactly right — that supersedes everything else.
Information Made Incarnate
When we teach here — in small groups, in discipleship — it is not just communicating information. It is not as though we could line things up and beam them back and forth. It is communicating information incarnate. This message is so different from the rest of the world that when you give it, people are going to watch you to see if you believe it. They want to see that your life is different. And love is what is going to motivate that — making others more important than yourself.
A Prayer for Students Going Back to School
There is a group of you in this room who, over the last couple of weeks — and some of you tomorrow — are going to have a great opportunity to live this out. It is you junior high and high school students heading back to school. I want to invite all of you, along with all the staff, to come up front so we can pray for you before you go back.
Some of you have had great summers, and some of you have seen your life change and transform. I know that — I got to be part of that at camp. Now comes the real first test: how are you going back? You are going to see some of the same kids you have not seen in three months, and they are going to try to pull you right back into the things you said you would never be involved in again.
Some of you have gotten away from all of that, and this is a great time to be reminded that this is serious business. We want you to succeed in school — I hope you learn math and all of that, even though I never did. But we want you to understand there is something bigger than that at stake. You are getting ready to go to Mesquite Junior High, Mesquite High, Dobson, Gilbert, Chandler, Hamilton, Rhodes, Mesa, Valley Christian, and all the rest of these schools. You are getting ready to go.