How should believers live in a culture of immorality and idolatry?
Believers must not use grace as license to do as they please. Though not under law, not all things are good or edifying, so they should carefully choose their practices. Living amid immorality and idolatry, they are to be a living epistle that watching believers and unbelievers can read and understand.
Les explains that grace is never license; the believer is not under law, yet not all things are good, expedient, or edifying. Therefore a believer must be careful what he does and practices, because believers and unbelievers alike are constantly watching. Paul was bringing the Corinthians to understand that even though they lived in the midst of abject immorality, idolatry, and mythology, wherever they went in that Greek culture they were to be a living epistle—something the world around them could read and understand. He also points to seeking another’s good, not merely one’s own.