Having made clear again the reality of standards for Christian conduct, Paul now goes on to deal with the rationalizations that have led some of the Corinthians to standards of their own: “Everything is permissible for me” (6:12). Reasoning from the same axiomatic truths that Paul reiterates in verse 11, some at Corinth have concluded that their Christian faith gives them complete freedom to set their own standards according to their individual sense of propriety. Paul does not disagree in principle, but warns them of two dangers: that they may fall into conduct that is “beneficial” neither to themselves nor to others, and that they may become “mastered” again, this time by the very patterns of behavior that marked freedom for them initially. A more specific instance of the same kind of r…