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.
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 6:12 Go To 1 Corinthians 6
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. All things, say Theodoret and Å’cumenius, are through free-will lawful unto me, are in my power, e.g, to commit fornication, to rob, to be drunken, and all the other sins mentioned above. But they are not expedient for the salvation of my soul, inasmuch as they are sins.
But this rendering is rightly condemned by Ambrose, who says: "How can that be lawful which is forbidden? For surely if all things are lawful there can be nothing unlawful." In other words he says that that is said to be lawful which no law forbids. The word lawful does not apply to that which it is in the power of the will to do or leave undone. The meaning, therefore, of this passage Isaiah , all indifferent things, all not forbidden by any law, are lawful to me. So Chrysostom, who with Theophylact refers these words to the next verse.
