1 Corinthians 6:12, commentary and pictures

All things lawful does not mean all things right for the professed follower of Christ, for the word is spoken to those who claim to be Christians, not to those who make no profession of righteousness. It belongs to the lesson of the whole sixth chapter, which gospel ministers and medical missionaries are to study, that watchmen may wake up, take in the situation, and give the warning message for this time. That lesson exposes the customs and habits of the Gentile world as needing reform, with a warning against drunkenness.

Lawfulness alone never makes a practice right; only what is expedient is to be followed, only what is beneficial, useful, and wise in the situation. A lawful right must therefore be set aside when using it is not helpful for saving people. Nothing permitted must be allowed to gain power over the person or become a master. Things in themselves lawful and harmless when rightly used and properly managed ruin souls when loved and devoted to excessively, when strength of mind that should be wholly given to God is given to matters of minor importance, and what is harmless becomes sinful and demoralizing when carried to excess, perverted, and misapplied.

Vigilance and resistance are required in the face of temptation and sin rather than indulgence that damages mind and character. So flesh food and wine are to be avoided when they are not helpful and when they cause a brother to be made weak. Applied to tobacco use, no one, especially professionals responsible for others, must put present gratification above soundness of mind and body or become enslaved to appetite or passion, but must use knowledge of the laws governing the body, obey those laws, and set a pattern of self-control for those influenced.

Even a perfect right, such as working on Sunday, is not to be exercised if doing it will hinder God's work, close human minds against the truth, shut doors God has opened, and obstruct light shining from heaven, so that lawful freedom does not become an obstacle to helping others. Defiant action is forbidden while prejudice is strong and the Sabbath issue has not yet come; the crisis must not be brought on before the time so as to cut off the ability to warn the world. Full truth must be held back from minds that would turn it into darkness until they can bear it, and refraining from Sunday work where refraining advances the interests of the work is not receiving the mark of the beast. Those who are subjects of the enemy are not the temples of God, so Christians must make no concessions to the enemy, change not one principle of truth received from God, hold no fellowship with those in league with evil angels, refuse the teachings of the prince of darkness, have Satan cast out of the heart, be healed of the maladies of sin and unbelief, and come to the Lord humbling their poor defective hearts before Him to receive help, in order to wake up as watchmen who take in the situation and give the warning message for this time, for Christ never purchased peace by compromise.