The counter-balancing caution 6:14-7:1
The Corinthians had a tendency to respond to Paul’s teachings by first resisting them and then going overboard in applying them inappropriately. They had done this in dealing with the incestuous man, for example (1 Corinthians 5). Consequently Paul immediately explained what he did not mean by his appeal so his readers would not become dangerously openhearted to all people as well as to himself. This section of text summarizes 1 Corinthians 10:1-22 where Paul had previously warned the Corinthians about idolatry.
"Paul is quite capable of digressing, and it may be argued that while he is pleading for mutual openheartedness he reflects that the reason for the restraint which he deprecates on his readers’ part is their uneasy awareness that they have not made the complete break with idolatrous associations which he had earlier urged upon them (1 C. 10.14ff.); hence this exhortation." [Note: Bruce, p. 214. See also Carson and Moo, pp. 438-40.]
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