1 Corinthians 6:11,12 - and this is what you were

6:11

The section closes with a declaration of the glory of the gospel. The things listed here “is what some of you were”! The world, and sadly large parts of the church, want men and women to remain as slaves to sin, and in doing so they claim they are acting in love. They are doing no such thing, they are condemning people to destruction. In Christ we are washed, sanctified and justified, through the blood of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. There is a sense in which the work is all completed the moment we believe, i.e. we are totally acceptable to God, but there is then an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit bringing about changes in our lives.

6:12

Paul now deals more generally with the issue of sexual immorality. Corinth was infamous for sexual immorality, and this affected the church.They needed to understand why avoiding sexual immorality was so important. In the next chapter Paul will deal more positively with marriage. 

“I have the right to do anything”. The Corinthians seem to have taken a rather superficial, not to say stupid, view of the freedom we have in Christ. Remember that in Galatians Paul is majoring on freedom, saying “it is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Gal 5:1). The Corinthians were misapplying this principle. Benjamin Franklin said “Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, but it is forbidden because it is hurtful.”. There is a significant amount of truth in this statement. Moreover, if we sin we become mastered by that sin, they become a slave to sin (John 8:34). So if we have an ounce of common sense we will try to avoid sin!