NOTES for Co1 6:12
"Allowed" and "forbidden" are removed by the apostle from the vocabulary and replaced with the word "free." Freedom is not permissiveness, but the ongoing work of our spirit. What Paul says means that, in accepting Christ, we deprive ourselves of the right to live automatically. Each of our actions must be measured against the standard "beneficial." Everything is permitted; we only need to keep giving ourselves an account of whether such a thing is beneficial for me as a temple of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing that can be excluded from the sphere of our choice.
What am I dependent on? What possesses me, blocking out what matters most, clouding the clarity of consciousness? For one person it is smoking, for another health, for another social contact, and who knows what else can become an object of worship and dependence that acts destructively on our life in freedom. And this life is arranged in such a way that every action must become the result of a free and conscious choice for which we are ready to give an answer before God.