Chapter 8

All Things Are Lawful But……..

Paul neither ceases to honor the Jewish law, nor does he discredit the law of conscience which he clearly understands as playing an important role in the general administration of Divine jurisprudence. (Government) As is typical with Paul, he expounds truth using his personal experience. What of the law? To what law do I owe allegiance? He answers these questions by reflecting on his personal journey, which aptly began with his dramatic awakening out of the sleep of Jewish law-keeping and the temple-priest institution seated in Jerusalem. What he concludes concerning law is nothing less than revolutionary; never before conceived of—a new religion without priesthood, without temple, without written code. Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome, the sum of religious and secular government were respectively scandalized by the civic philosophy of Paul: “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant of all…” [1] and, “All things are lawful to me but not all things are expedient”.[2]  As it is with human systems of government, the ultimate motivation and goal, no matter how noble the initial intent, is power, and that applies to ecclesiastical as well as secular institutions. To be expected, the idea of complete personal freedom is rejected by those who would control others with dint of force. Is Paul prompting some form of anarchy or de-humanizing laissez-faire approach to social organization? In fact, Paul does not comment on secular institutions at all. When he speaks of himself as being “under the law of Christ”, his intention is clearly not to bind men to yet another system of regulation, but to loose them. He teaches his converts to comply with their respective civil governments, for these God has ordained. To live under the law of Christ is not revolutionary in the political sense.  The law of Christ does not set an individual at odds with the “law of the land”. The Pauline Christian is obligated to live in the civil order in quietness and peace with an attitude of prayer for those in civil authority.[3] The law of Christ is revolutionary in the personal and relational sense. The change radically effects how an individual relates to God, others and self, in fact, it is the structure of the self that radically changes. A Christian is “bought with a price” as Paul explains, and is no longer living in self but in Christ as an actual purchased possession. Now with Christ as the Sovereign head of the individual all things become lawful since Christ is the end of the law and has all authority. Initially it seems that the purchased possessions set up a kind of owner-slave relationship but Paul moves from that metaphor to the reality of the ultimate status of the one under the law of Christ-Sonship—with royal anointing and regal authority. As a Prince of God, Paul refuses to be brought under the power of any outside forces. All things are lawful but all things are not worthy of regal bearing. Anointing is the effect of royalty. There is royal authority which is the legal status and there is regality which is the mien, or bearing of the Prince. Paul is simply proposing that a prince should be princely.[4]

The revelation Paul has of his royal status in the kingdom of God is indeed heady, hence the constant reality check of suffering and his appeal to his brethren to endure hardship and pain, for their official coronation will be in due time.[5]