FREEDOM AND EXISTENCE

Everything is allowed to me, but not everything is beneficial;
everything is allowed to me, but I will not be enslaved by any of them.” (1 Cor. 6:12)

These words, my beloved, of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, are deeply significant. Our Church has appropriately placed today’s apostolic reading alongside the parable of the Prodigal Son, in order to show that everything is allowed, but not everything is beneficial. The Evangelist Luke presents us with the same theme in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk. 15:11). The prodigal son could have stayed or he could have left, but it was not beneficial for him to leave. This, my beloved, is precisely what the Apostle Paul is saying here today: “Everything is allowed to me, but not everything is beneficial; everything is allowed to me, but I will not be enslaved by any of them.” ­

Here one sees the apostle Paul defining freedom in relation to existence: When my being must move about in a safe manner, one use of my freedom could be fatal if it is indiscriminate. I am free to drink poison but this is not in my best interest, because it would destroy my existence. This is what the apostle Paul wants to emphasize here first of all, this great subject of freedom and existence. Let us take note of this.

If we look at this subject from one-side only, if we only view freedom as something which can exist independently, ignoring existence, then truly our freedom leads to destruction. I will give you an example, a very common example which we see these days: Do I have the right to take drugs? I have this right. I can take drugs. Can anyone prevent me if I want to? No. Am I free to do this? Yes. However, will the drugs I take benefit or harm my existence? Might this very freedom lead my existence to destruction? Undoubtedly, yes. This is how it is in our days. We see freedom being viewed with no consideration for existence. He’ll tell you… “I want to enjoy this; I don’t care how it will affect my life.” Let us consider this, my beloved.

The word of God brings within our reach something which we could not grasp: freedom is connected with existence. If we were to look at the subject existentially, that is, only from a philosophical perspective (not a Christian perspective), anyone in their right mind would say that the gift of freedom should not destroy existence.

In our day and age we say there is freedom, and at the same time we also say that we affirm existence, which is why in our century we have these existentialist currents, precisely in order to preserve existence. However, we trouble ourselves in vain, because we have mistakenly placed these two forces in opposition, these two good things, freedom and existence. The one must safeguard the other; freedom must safeguard existence. This is why – I will repeat – the apostle Paul says: “Everything is allowed to me, but not everything is beneficial.” Why not? Because these things which I am allowed could also destroy me; therefore they do not benefit me.

There is also a second point: “Everything is allowed to me, but I will not be enslaved by any of them.” This is, in fact, an oxymoron. Is it possible for freedom to enslave? Is this possible? Is this not an oxymoron? (An oxymoron is like saying: “Turn on the light to make it dark.”) So is it possible for me to have freedom and the freedom enslave me? It is not possible. The Apostle says: Everything is allowed to me, but the things which are allowed to me will end up enslaving me, and since they will enslave me, freedom ends up leading me to a kind of enslavement. And this, my beloved, is happening in our days. Today, in the name of freedom, we cultivate the passions, and the passions enslave us; we are enslaved to our own passions.

When you see the one who uses drugs because he is free to use them, a young man perhaps, and he says to you: “I took drugs because I was free to, but now I’m hooked; please, sir, save me”…, what can we save him from? A compulsion. This is precisely what a passion is; you create a compulsion. This compulsion, then, is no longer freedom, because he becomes just like the donkey which we put a bridle on, blind its eyes and whip from behind, and it goes round and round and round (this image from the old days) – this is what the man who is eventually led away from his freedom into slavery looks like.

Today, my beloved, we have all become slaves of the devil. When we turn around and become slaves of God, then we become free men. The subject of freedom is very delicate. The passions do not control freedom, but freedom controls existence, and also the entire man himself and the course of his life. Freedom is a delicate thing; one misuse of it leads where no one would expect.

But why did the apostle Paul say these words? He said them, my beloved, because it seems that when he had found himself in Corinth, he said to the Corinthians: “Everything is allowed to me…” In regard to what? In regard to foods, because there were restrictions on foods in the old law, for pedagogical reasons. God said, This is clean; that is unclean. You may eat this; you may not eat that (Lev. 20:25). It seems that this is why Paul had said the phrase, “Everything is allowed to me”. He also said:“All things are clean” (to those who are clean) (Rom. 14:20; cf. Acts 10:15; 11:9). Nothing is unclean. As it usually happens, people isolate a single phrase from Holy Scripture and explain it however they want.

Do you recall how the apostle Paul said to the Thessalonians: “Test everything; retain the good”? (1 Thes. 5:21) He says this concerning the prophets in the Church, so that the faithful would test them: “Is what they are saying true?” But we test something because it pleases us, because this is how we benefit, and we also say “Test all things; retain the good”. In other words, “Try everything, it doesn’t matter if it is sinful or not; learn to retain only the good.” My beloved, do you see how people interpret the meaning of the word of God as they wish? This is what is happening here. The Apostle said “everything is allowed to me” to the Corinthians in regard to foods. This issue of foods, however, is a nonissue, because man is built to eat, only he should not go beyond his limits of course, about which he says right after: “Food is for the belly and the belly for food.” All foods are allowed to me, but be careful. Ιf, for example, I eat, but overeat, this is not to my benefit. But in any case, “a time will come when both the stomach and the foods will be done away with” (not the body, because it will resurrect) (1 Cor 6:13).

There are things which you should not try out. You are free to do these things if you like – you are free! – however Adam and Eve were also free to try their luck and their departure from Paradise. This, however, did was not to their benefit – and the things which do not benefit are the carnal sins. With these you cannot say, “I will try them”, because the result is death. And when Paul is speaking to the Christians in Corinth (where the goddess Aphrodite was worshiped, and where the sin of carnal passion was widespread) he says to them: You cannot give your body over to sin. “Everything is allowed to me, but not everything is beneficial.” And on this very subject, my beloved, the Apostle Paul takes up every proof and every argument to convince the Corinthians that they do not benefit at all from the carnal sins, but derive benefit by keeping themselves pure and undefiled. His arguments? You heard them in the apostolic passage. I will relate them to you very briefly:

The first argument: You cannot give your body over to sins because this body of yours will resurrect. Your digestive system which allows you to eat today will be done away with: “But God will do away with both this (the belly) and these (the foods)” (1 Cor 6:13). It will not be resurrected as functional; but the body will be resurrected, and you cannot give it over to sin, because if you give it over to sin it will be unfit [ακατάλληλο] to enter the kingdom of God. But God has also raised up the Lord (Jesus Christ), and He will also raise us by His power” (14). Consequently, since we will resurrect, since the body which we will take will be new (new, but bearing the scars of sin if we committed carnal sins in this present world, because sin has both a metaphysical and eternal dimension), the first argument he makes to the Corinthians is that we will resurrect.

The second argument: Our bodies are members of Christ’s body. How is it a member of Christ’s body? When I partake of the Body and Blood of Christ, I become part of the Body and the Blood of Christ. Have you ever considered, my beloved, that I do not open my spiritual mouth, my soul, to commune of the Body and Blood of Christ, as well as my physical mouth, which takes this Body and Blood of Christ in a sensible way? So when I take the Body and the Blood of Christ, and I receive Him psychosomatically, then, without a doubt, I become a member of His Body.

The Apostle also asks a rhetorical question supposing I go into immorality. He says, “Having taken the parts of Christ, shall I make them parts of an immoral woman? Does not the Scripture say, ‘He who joins himself to an immoral woman is one body with her?’” “God forbid!” he says (it is something unthinkable) (1 Cor. 6:16; cf. Mt. 19:5-6, Mk. 10:8, Eph. 5:31, Gen 2:24). Now wrap your head around this, my beloved: so many are those who commit sins of the flesh, and without going to confession, go and receive Holy Communion! Wrap your head around this. Think about what is happening now… the Apostle also shudders like this in the face of this reality…

A third argument: Moreover, our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Man could never imagine, even the greatest of minds, that his being could become a temple of God. Man’s thinking was: “The gods dwell on Olympus, and we in the plain. There is no relation between the gods and man.” However, the true God revealed that these things which they could never imagine and conceive as realities, that God – the living God – dwells in heaven and at the same time dwells within man himself, and that when man accepts God (of course through Jesus Christ, the Incarnate God), man himself becomes a dwelling place of God. Man could never conceive this thought on his own; it is a truth revealed to us.

Consequently, the Spirit of God comes and dwells inside the man (here, of course, the Spirit of God is emphasized; the entire Holy Triune God comes to dwell, my beloved). Since He dwells, it is His dwelling. In other words, it is a temple. Temple means dwelling place. Since this body is a dwelling place of God, of the Holy Spirit, how then is it possible to give it over to sin? It is never possible. Just think about this: if someone were to defile this temple building by doing filthy acts here, how would it be characterized? This temple of stone will eventually be demolished one day, it will not remain in eternity; but “You,” the Apostle says, “You are a living temple of God”1. These temple buildings are destroyed and rebuilt; I, on the other hand, will die and resurrect. How then can this temple of God, this temple of the Holy Spirit, be at the same time a den of thieves and filthy acts?

Moreover the apostle Paul adds something more: “Glorify God with your body and with your spirit, those of you who belong to God” (1 Cor. 6:20).2 How, then, can I glorify God with my body? I understand “with my spirit” to mean “if my mind is lifted up and gives glory to God”, but how can I glorify God with my body? “I glorify” does not only mean “I speak words”; it has a broader meaning: “My presence alone, as one who is sanctified” – this precisely is a glorification to God. That is, if I have kept my body pure, if I have not let it become a dwelling place of demons, a house of immorality, then this very body of mine is a glorification to God; my body takes on a doxological dimension – this is what the apostle Paul is emphasizing. This is how the true Christian, who by merely existing in this world, is a musical note of praise to God in this world; and His body, when he keeps it far from sin and immorality, this also is praise to God.

My beloved, the problem is, many times we cannot grasp what benefits us and what does not benefit us. We are uninformed. If, at some point, we study the word of God and we understand our ontology, that is, if we acquire an understanding of Christian anthropology, to know who we are as human beings, this will then lead us to be able to stand correctly before God. Then we will be making the most of our existence, and our freedom, which has been given to us by God as a very precious gift (there are two precious gifts of God; there are many, but there are two which are the most precious: rationality and freedom).

Freedom can never be thought of without rationality. It has no value. An animal is free to do something but it does not have rationality, and there is no value in this. Neither can rationality ever exist without freedom, because a rational being without freedom is also not worth much. Freedom and rationality are an inseparable pair of good gifts of God; they must go together. Our freedom, then, in the space where God dwells, must be the very element which should lead us to preserve our existence.

As St. Paul says “Everything is allowed to me, but not everything is beneficial”, and they must lead us to the correct preservation of our existence. What does “correct preservation” mean? If I martyr for Christ, don’t I destroy my existence? No, I do not. Existence is seen from a corner of eternity: When I resurrect, where will I be found? Here is where the matter is seen from. So if I destroy my being with the passions, I have destroyed it forever. If I give my being over to martyrdom for the love of Christ, then I have truly and correctly preserved my existence.

Thus, I will make an appeal that we never ever forget that freedom and existence are two things which go hand in hand; the one safeguards the other. Freedom safeguards existence; it should not destroy it. So when we learn the law of God, when we learn our ontology, then we will really actualize whatever God had in His mind for us: To bring us into existence, and to take us with Him into His eternal bliss.

THE END – TO THE GLORY OF THE HOLY AND TRIUNE GOD

1. (2 Cor. 6:16; cf. Lev. 26:12) We translated “ναὸς Θεοῦ ἐστε ζῶντος” “a living temple of God” rather than “a temple of the living God”. Gramatically, there is no article to make it “the living God”. Contextually, St. Paul here seems to be contrasting lifeless temples and living (ζῶντος) temples, rather than characterizing God as living (ζῶντος), which is to say omething different. It seems that if it were “living God”, the Greek would be «Ὑμεῖς γὰρ ἐστε ναὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος», as in Mt. 16:16, 26:63 and Dan. 6:21.).

2. (1 Cor 6:20) «δοξάσατε δὴ τὸν Θεὸν ἐν τῷ σώματι ὑμῶν καὶ ἐν τῶ πνεύματι ὑμῶν, ἅτινά ἐστι τοῦ Θεοῦ.» We translated ἅτινά: “whoever, anyone” rather than “which”. Rather than restating that the Corinthian Christians belong to God, it seems that this line might be an exhortation to them to glorify God: Now that you know you are God’s, you must glorify God by keeping your bodies pure!