It Ain't All Good!

I Corinthians 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.

The moral code in America is becoming more and more laxed. How times have changed! Do you remember when Lucille Ball and her husband Ricky slept in twin beds so they wouldn’t offend TV viewers during the 50’s? (They were married!) Now we have shows like the Game where cougars like Tasha Mac are having sex with Terrance the young man from 106 & Park in the living room (they are not married and he’s 20 years her junior). It seems that TV producers are telling us, “It’s all good!”

There was a saying we had in the 90’s “It’s all good,” where we would generalize any activity that may have some questions to if it benefited a person or not. Even if it appeared to be a negative we would simply dismiss it by saying, “It’s all good.” It seems that we have rubber stamped much of our moral indiscretions by saying, “it’s all good,” when it really ain’t.

The Apostle Paul says, “It’s not all good.” Even though much of what our forefathers would have found as morally reprehensible is now legal and culturally acceptable we have “rubber stamped” it as being “all good,” but is it really beneficial? If we were to tell the truth about it, “it ain’t all good.” Paul helps us to distinguish between what’s good and what’s not by one distinct question; Is it beneficial? Does it make you better? Does it help make you a stronger Christian?

It’s not all good if it:

1. Doesn’t benefit you. When we say benefit you we mean spiritually. Something can be good to you physically while diminishing you spiritually. It can have you like Charlie Sheen, thinking you are Winning when you are really losing it.

2. If it makes a slave of you. Paul uses the analogy of food. He says, “Food is for the stomach, and stomach for food but I will not be mastered by anything.” It’s permissible for me to go to an all-you-can-eat Buffet but it’s not beneficial if I’m trying to live healthy and watch my weight. Many people are mastered by their appetites for drugs, sex, alcohol, and even food. It may be good but is it good for you?

3. Against the will of God. Our moral code and our understanding of right and wrong must always be measured against the word of God and not our feelings. Something can feel right but not be Holy.

What Paul is really talking about is Sexual Immorality or Sex outside of marriage. There is an interesting verse Paul has in I Corinthians 6:18 when he says, “all other sin a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Sex can feel good but not be good for you. In fact a Sexually Transmitted Disease can kill you. It’s not all good if it’s not all Holy.

Dear God help me to distinguish between what feels good and what is good for me. Help me to take control of my body and not my body taking control of me. Give us the discipline use our freedom within in the sphere of being spiritually responsible.

In Jesus Name,
Amen