1 Corinthianschapter 6
20 verses · Paul · AD 54 or 55 · Paul's letters
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
Introduction
Paul, Paul's letters, 1 Corinthians Overview.
Paul now takes up two more reports from Corinth. Members of the church were dragging each other into the city courts, and some were defending visits to prostitutes with slogans about freedom. He answers both with the same kind of reasoning, asking again and again whether they do not know what God has made them. Listen for the list of wrongdoers and the turn that follows it. Listen also for how Paul handles the slogans he quotes back to them. Read it as teaching on the believer's body and the believer's neighbour alike.
Context
- Who
- Corinthian believers suing one another in public and defending their freedom with slogans.
- What
- Paul condemns lawsuits between believers before unbelieving judges and forbids sexual immorality, teaching that the body is for the Lord.
- Where
- Written from Ephesus to Corinth, a port city with busy law courts.
- When
- About AD 53 to 55, during Paul's stay at Ephesus.
- Why
- To show that those washed, sanctified and justified by God must settle wrongs within the church and honour God with their bodies.
Historical context
Roman civil courts were weighted toward the wealthy. A suit was normally brought by a man of standing against a social inferior, juries were drawn from the propertied, and cases were as much about publicly shaming a rival as recovering property. Litigation was a recognized tool of honour competition among the elite.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
So when believers went to law against each other, the pattern almost certainly ran downhill, a richer member humiliating a poorer one in front of the city. Paul's question is why they cannot find one wise man among themselves to judge the matter, and his verdict is that having lawsuits at all is already a defeat.
Corinth was a port with two harbours, and where sailors and traders passed through, prostitution followed. Ancient writers used the city's name as a byword for it. Some of the congregation had grown up regarding a visit to a prostitute as morally unremarkable, no more significant than a meal.
That is the assumption behind the slogans Paul quotes and qualifies: all things are lawful for me, and food for the stomach and the stomach for food. He answers with the body's destiny, it is for the Lord, it is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and it was bought with a price.
Significance
The list of what some of them had been, ending with "and such were some of you, but you were washed, sanctified, justified," told a congregation of former idolaters, adulterers, thieves, and drunkards that the past tense was real.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The instruction that followed was equally concrete: better to be wronged than to drag a brother before a pagan judge, and glorify God in your body, because it is no longer your own.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Dragging Brothers Before Pagan Judges
1 Corinthians 6:1-3
If any of you has a grievance against another: Paul is astonished that believers take disputes to pagan magistrates instead of before the saints. The saints will judge the world, and even angels, so the things of this life lie within the church's competence now.
1 Corinthians 6:1
“Dare--This word implies treason against Christian brotherhood [BENGEL]. before the unjust--The Gentile judges are here so termed by an epithet appropriate to the subject in question, namely, one concerning justice.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
3 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Corinthians 6:1
“Dare any of you This is the first statement -- that, if any one has a controversy with a brother, it ought to be decided before godly judges, and that it ought not to be before those that are ungodly. If the reason is asked, I have already said, that it is because disgrace is brought upon the gospel, and the name of Christ is held up as it were to the scoffings of the ungodly.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
1 Corinthians 6:1
“The unjust - The heathens. A Christian could expect no justice from these. The saints - Who might easily decide these smaller differences in a private and friendly manner.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 6:1
“Dare any of you - The reasons why the apostle introduced this subject here may have been: (1) That he had mentioned the subject of judging 1Co 5:13, and that naturally suggested the topic which is here introduced; and, (2) This might have been a prevailing evil in the church of Corinth, and demanded correction.”
the saints will judge the world?: Paul argues from the greater to the lesser. Wesley and Calvin connect the saints' judging to the promise of thrones at Matthew 19:28, with believers sitting beside Christ as He judges. Ambrosiaster reads it differently, the faith of the saints condemning the world's unbelief by its example.
we will judge angels?: Theodoret, Theophylact and Tertullian take these angels to be fallen ones, the demons. Severian holds that Paul means priests and teachers judged for false teaching about Christ. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown recall the spectacle of 4:9, now reversed.
1 Corinthians 6:3
“But when the comparison is challenged with an angel, I am compelled to maintain that the head over all things is the stronger of the two, to whom the angels are ministers, who is destined to be the judge of angels, if he shall stand fast in the law of God-an obedience which he refused at first.”
Tertullian · written before 220 · Against Marcion Book IIpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 6:3
“Shall judge angels - All the angels that shall be judged, good or bad. Probably the reference is to fallen angels, as there is no account that holy angels will then undergo a trial. The sense is, “Christians will be qualified to see the justice of even the sentence which is pronounced on fallen angels. They will be able so to embrace and comprehend the nature of law, and the interests of justice, as to see the propriety of their condemnation.”
1 Corinthians 6:3
“He will come to judgment with all his saints, 1 Thess. iii. They themselves are indeed to be judged (see Matt. xxv. 31-41 ), but they may first be acquitted, and then advanced to the bench, to approve and applaud the righteous judgment of Christ both on men and angels.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
So if you need to settle everyday matters: The verse can be read as a command or as irony. Read as irony, Paul mocks a church that trusts its quarrels to outsiders of no standing in the church.
1 Corinthians 6:4
“Things pertaining to this life - They could examine all civil cases among themselves, which they were permitted to determine without any hinderance from the heathen governments under which they lived. Who are least esteemed in the Church - Τους εξουθενημενους, Those who were in the lowest order of judges; for the apostle may refer here to the order in the Jewish benches, as Dr. Lightfoot conjectures, of which there were five, viz.: - 1. The great Sanhedrin, consisting of seventy-two elders, which presided in Jerusalem. 2. The little Sanhedrin of twenty-five, in large cities, out of Jerusalem.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 6:4
“Them who are of no esteem in the church - That is, heathens, who, as such, could be in no esteem with the Christians.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 6:4
“If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life,.... Not judgements relating to life and death, for these were not in the power of a Jewish sanhedrim now, and much less of a Christian community, but were wholly in the power of the Roman magistrates; but judgments relating to the common affairs of life, or what the Jews call דיני ממונות, "pecuniary judgments" (b), in distinction from דיני נפשות, "judgments of souls", or capital ones.”
1 Corinthians 6:5-6
I say this to your shame: Paul asks if no one among them is wise enough to arbitrate between brothers. The question stings a church that prized its wisdom in chapters 1 to 4, and the pagan court sees Christians unable to govern themselves.
1 Corinthians 6:5
“To shame you out of your present unworthy course of litigation before the heathen, I have said (1Co 6:4), "Set the least esteemed in the Church to judge." Better even this, than your present course. Is it so?--Are you in such a helpless state that, &c.? not a wise man--though ye admire "wisdom" so much on other occasions (1Co 1:5, 22).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 6:5
“Paul attacks the Corinthians because, although they are right in the middle of Greece, they have no truly wise people in their midst, even though many had gone to preach wisdom to them.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Commentary on 1 Corinthians 2.27.20-22patristic
1 Corinthians 6:5
“The meanest of your own members are able surely to determine these disputes. Refer the matters in variance to any, rather than go to law about them before heathen judges. They are trifles not worth contending about, and may easily be decided, if you have first conquered your own spirits, and brought them into a truly Christian temper.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
one brother goes to law: Theophylact counts a double wrong here, a suit against a brother and a hearing before unbelievers. Chrysostom notes that the judges called unjust in verse 1 are now called unbelievers, to deepen the shame. Theodoret finds no clash with Romans 13.
1 Corinthians 6:6
“Brother goeth to law with brother - One Christian sues another at law! This is almost as great a scandal as can exist in a Christian society. Those in a religious community who will not submit to a proper arbitration, made by persons among themselves, should be expelled from the Church of God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 6:6
“We have rulers of the church to whom we should take our disputes, so that we will not be summoned before the law courts of unbelievers.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Commentary on 1 Corinthians 2.27.27-28patristic
1 Corinthians 6:6
“The bonds of fraternal love were broken through. And a brother offended, as Solomon says, is harder to be won than a strong city; their contentions are like the bars of a castle, Prov. xviii. Note, Christians should not contend with one another, for they are brethren.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Corinthians 6:7-8
The very fact that you have lawsuits among you: Paul counts the church defeated before any verdict, since lawsuits among brothers are themselves the loss. He asks why they would not rather be wronged, the standard of the Sermon on the Mount, where giving up rights serves the kingdom.
1 Corinthians 6:7
“Indeed there is a fault, that ye quarrel with each other at all, whether ye go to law or no. Why do ye not rather suffer wrong - All men cannot or will not receive this saying. Many aim only at this, "I will neither do wrong, nor suffer it." These are honest heathens, but no Christians.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 6:7
“There is utterly a fault - There is ALtogether a fault; or you are entirely wrong in this thing. That ye go to law ... - That is, in the sense under discussion, or before pagan magistrates. This was the point under discussion, and the interpretation should be limited to this. Whatever may be the propriety or impropriety of going to law before Christian magistrates, yet the point which the apostle refers to was that of going to law before pagans.”
1 Corinthians 6:7
“In matters of great damage to ourselves or families, we may use lawful means to right ourselves. We are not bound to sit down and suffer the injury tamely, without stirring for our own relief; but, in matters of small consequence, it is better to put up with the wrong. Christians should be of a forgiving temper.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
you yourselves cheat and do wrong: Verse 7 asked the wronged party to bear the loss, and verse 8 turns on the party doing the wrong. Chrysostom counts up to four faults, failing to bear wrong, doing wrong, going before the unjust, and doing it to brothers.
1 Corinthians 6:8
“Nay, ye do wrong - Far from suffering, ye are the aggressors; and defraud your pious, long-suffering brethren, who submit to this wrong rather than take those methods of redressing their grievances which the spirit of Christianity forbids. Probably the apostle refers to him who had taken his father’s wife.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 6:8
“Ye, whom your Lord commanded to return good for evil, on the contrary, "do wrong (by taking away) and defraud" (by retaining what is entrusted to you; or "defraud" marks the effect of the "wrong" done, namely, the loss inflicted).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Such Were Some of You: and You Were Washed
1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?: The list puts sins Corinth might have counted respectable, the greedy, drunkards and verbal abusers, beside the sexually immoral and idolaters. Its warning falls on a settled, unrepented pattern of any of these sins.
1 Corinthians 6:9
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?.... A way of speaking much like that in the Talmud, הוי יודע שהעולם הבא אינו עשוי אלא לצדיקים "know thou, that the world to come is not made but for the righteous?" (h) Without a righteousness there will be no entrance into the world of bliss and happiness hereafter; and this must be a better righteousness than what a sinful creature is capable of working out, and no other than the righteousness of Christ.”
3 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 6:9
“Know ye not ... - The apostle introduces the declaration in this verse to show the evil of their course, and especially of the injustice which they did one to another, and their attempt to enforce and maintain the evil by an appeal to the pagan tribunals. He assures them, therefore, that the unjust could not be saved. The unrighteous - The unjust ἄδικοι adikoi - such as he had just mentioned - they who did injustice to others, and attempted to do it under the sanction of the courts.”
1 Corinthians 6:9
“THE Gospel is as holy as the Law. The Gospel is full of mercy to sinners, but it shows no mercy to sin. The Gospel speaks most tenderly to the ungodly, but it speaks most sternly to ungodliness. There is a great difference made, in the New Testament, between the sinner and the sin. And while the sinner is, in Infinite mercy, spared, encouraged to hope, and wooed by almighty love, sin is denounced as a dreadful thing, an abominable thing which God hates and must punish.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2661: “A Marvelous Change” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
1 Corinthians 6:9
“These good-natured, harmless people are ranked with idolaters and sodomites! We may learn hence, that we are never secure from the greatest sins, till we guard against those which are thought the least; nor, indeed, till we think no sin is little, since every one is a step toward hell.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
will inherit the kingdom of God: Several names repeat the list of 5:10 and 5:11, and Barnes remarks that Paul always ranks the greedy with the worst offenders. Cyprian joins the verbal abusers to the Lord's warning against contemptuous words at Matthew 5:22. Verse 11 then names the washing that changed such people.
1 Corinthians 6:10
“Nor covetous; - See the note at 1Co 5:10. It is remarkable that the apostle always ranks “the covetous” with the most abandoned classes of people. Nor revilers - The same word which in 1Co 5:11, is rendered railer; see the note at that place. Nor extortioners - See the note at 1Co 5:11. Shall inherit - Shall enter; shalt be saved, 1Co 6:9.”
And that is what some of you were: The people Paul addresses once stood inside the list of verses 9 and 10. The threefold you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified traces conversion whole, so no sin the list names lies beyond the gospel's reach.
1 Corinthians 6:11
“And such were some of you: but ye are washed - From those gross abominations; nay, and ye are inwardly sanctified; not before, but in consequence of, your being justified in the name - That is, by the merits, of the Lord Jesus, through which your sins are forgiven. And by the Spirit of our God - By whom ye are thus washed and sanctified.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 6:11
“And such - Such drunkards, lascivious, and covetous persons. This shows: (1) The exceeding grace of God that could recover even such persons from sins so debasing and degrading. (2) It shows that we are not to despair of reclaiming the most abandoned and wretched people. (3) It is well for Christians to look back on what they once were.”
1 Corinthians 6:11
“You are washed, you are sanctified, you are justified in the name of Christ, and by the Spirit of our God. Note, The wickedness of men before conversion is no bar to their regeneration and reconciliation to God. The blood of Christ, and the washing of regeneration, can purge away all guilt and defilement.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Corinthians 6:11
“And such were some of you,.... Not all, but some of them; and of these everyone was not guilty of all these crimes; but some had been guilty of one, and others of another; so that they had been all committed by one or another of them.”
Your Body Is Not Your Own: Bought at a Price
Paul appears to quote a Corinthian slogan, Everything is permissible for me, and answers that not everything is beneficial. The same slogan was being stretched to treat fornication as a bodily appetite like any other.
1 Corinthians 6:12
“All things - Which are lawful for you. Are lawful for me, but all things are not always expedient - Particularly when anything would offend my weak brother; or when it would enslave my own soul.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 6:12
“All things are lawful unto me - It is likely that some of the Corinthians had pleaded that the offense of the man who had his father’s wife, as well as the eating the things offered to idols, was not contrary to the law, as it then stood. To this the apostle answers: Though such a thing be lawful, yet the case of fornication, mentioned 1Co 5:1, is not expedient, ου συμφερει - it is not agreeable to propriety, decency, order, and purity.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Corinthians 6:12
“All things are lawful unto me--These, which were Paul's own words on a former occasion (to the Corinthians, compare 1Co 10:23, and Ga 5:23), were made a pretext for excusing the eating of meats offered to idols, and so of what was generally connected with idolatry (Ac 15:29), "fornication" (perhaps in the letter of the Corinthians to Paul, 1Co 7:1).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Corinthians 6:13-14
The body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body, a claim verse 14 grounds in the resurrection. Since God will raise us also, a body bound for glory is never disposable now.
1 Corinthians 6:13
“Meats for the belly ... - This has every appearance of being an adage or proverb. Its meaning is plain. “God has made us with appetites for food; and he has made food adapted to such appetites, and it is right, therefore, to indulge in luxurious living.” The word “belly” here κοιλία koilia denotes the “stomach;” and the argument is, that as God had created the natural appetite for food, and had created food, it was right to indulge in eating and drinking to any extent which the appetite demanded.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 6:13
“As if he had said, I speak this chiefly with regard to meats; (and would to God all Christians would consider it!) particularly with regard to those offered to idols, and those forbidden in the Mosaic law. These, I grant, are all indifferent, and have their use, though it is only for a time: then meats, and the organs which receive them, will together moulder into dust.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 6:13
“Therefore fornication is not indifferent, since it is a sin against one's own body, which, like the Lord for whom it is created, is not to be destroyed, but to be raised to eternal existence.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
He will raise us also: The resurrection answers the slogan of verse 13, for the body that God will raise has a future the stomach lacks. Tertullian draws the conclusion that the raising happens in the body. Barnes adds that believers' bodies will be made like Christ's, as at Philippians 3:21.
1 Corinthians 6:14
“And God hath both raised up the Lord,.... God the Father has raised up from the dead the Lord Jesus Christ, though not exclusive of the Son, who was equally concerned in the resurrection of himself, whereby he demonstrated himself to be the Son of God, truly and properly God. And will also raise up us by his own power; for the resurrection of the dead, whether of Christ, or of his people, is an act of power, of God's own power, even of his almighty power, and is what the power of a mere creature could never effect.”
3 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 6:14
“In the same manner, therefore, as Christ did rise in the substance of flesh, and pointed out to His disciples the mark of the nails and the opening in His side (now these are the tokens of that flesh which rose from the dead), so "shall He also," it is said, "raise us up by His own power." And again to the Romans he says, "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies." What, then, are mortal bodies?”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book Vpatristic
1 Corinthians 6:14
“Believers shall be raised up out of the rest of the dead (see on Php 3:11); the first resurrection (Re 20:5). us--Here he speaks of the possibility of his being found in the grave when Christ comes; elsewhere, of his being possibly found alive (1Th 4:17). In either event, the Lord's coming rather than death is the great object of the Christian's expectation (Ro 8:19).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Corinthians 6:14
“It is an honour done to the body that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead: and it will be an honour to our bodies that they will be raised. Let us not abuse those bodies by sin, and make them vile, which, if they be kept pure, shall, notwithstanding their present vileness, be made like to Christ's glorious body.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Corinthians 6:15-17
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?: Paul cites Genesis 2:24, The two will become one flesh, to show that sexual union forms a real bond whatever the intention. Uniting a member of Christ with a prostitute is therefore unthinkable.
1 Corinthians 6:15
“Know ye not that your bodies are the members, of Christ,.... The whole persons of God's elect were chosen in Christ, and given to him, and made one with him, their bodies as well as their souls; and both are redeemed by him, and, in union with him, are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones: shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 6:15
“In the body will He raise us, because the body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And suitably does he add the question: "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? " What has the heretic to say? That these members of Christ will not rise again, for they are no longer our own? "For," he says, "ye are bought with a price.”
Tertullian · written before 220 · Against Marcion Book Vpatristic
1 Corinthians 6:15
“For they cannot be at the same time "the members of an harlot," and "of Christ" [BENGEL]. It is a fact no less certain than mysterious, that moral and spiritual ruin is caused by such sins; which human wisdom (when untaught by revelation) held to be actions as blameless as eating and drinking [CONYBEARE and HOWSON].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
one with her in body?: Paul applies Genesis 2:24, the founding word on marriage, to a man's union with a prostitute. Chrysostom observes that the joining itself makes the two into one. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the Genesis words as God speaking through Adam.
1 Corinthians 6:16
“He that is joined to a harlot is one body - In Sohar Genes., fol. 19, we have these remarkable words: Whosoever connects himself with another man’s wife, does in effect renounce the holy blessed God, and the Church of the Israelites.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Cross references
1 Corinthians 6:16
- QuotingGenesis 2:24“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”
'The twain shall be one flesh' (against joining a harlot)
one with Him in spirit: The two unions stand side by side, one with a prostitute in body and one with the Lord in spirit. Chrysostom notes that Paul presses the charge by naming the two partners outright. Aquinas describes the second union as formed by faith and love.
1 Corinthians 6:17
“But he that is joined to the Lord - The true Christian, united by faith to the Lord Jesus; see Joh 15:1 ff. Is one spirit - That is, in a sense similar to that in which a man and his wife are one body. It is not to be taken literally; but the sense is, that there is a close and intimate union; they are united in feeling, spirit, intention, disposition. The argument is beautiful.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 6:17
“He is joined to the Lord in union with Christ, and made partaker by faith of his Spirit. One spirit lives and breathes and moves in the head and members. Christ and his faithful disciples are one, John xvii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Flee from sexual immorality: The command is flight, with no room to reason with the temptation. Most sins use the body as an instrument, while sexual sin makes the body its object. That is why Paul says flee.
1 Corinthians 6:18
“Every sin that a man commits against his neighbour terminates upon an object out of himself, and does not so immediately pollute his body, though it does his soul. But he that committeth fornication, sinneth against his own body - Pollutes, dishonours, and degrades it to a level with brute beasts.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 6:18
“Flee fornication - Abominate, detest, and escape from every kind of uncleanness. Some sins, or solicitations to sin, may be reasoned with; in the above cases, if you parley you are undone; reason not, but Fly! Sinneth against his own body - Though sin of every species has a tendency to destroy life, yet none are so mortal as those to which the apostle refers; they strike immediately at the basis of the constitution. By the just judgment of God, all these irregular and sinful connections are married to death.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit: Paul names each believer's body a temple of the Holy Spirit, as 3:16 named the church. A temple belongs to the God who dwells in it, so You are not your own removes the ground of the slogan in verse 12.
1 Corinthians 6:19
“And even your body is not, strictly speaking, your own even this is the temple of the Holy Ghost - Dedicated to him, and inhabited by him. What the apostle calls elsewhere "the temple of God," chap. iii, 16, 17, and "the temple of the living God," 2 Cor. vi, 16, he here styles the temple of the Holy Ghost; plainly showing that the Holy Ghost is the living God.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 6:19
“Thus "YOUR [plural] body" is distinguished here from "HIS OWN [particular or individual] body" (1Co 6:18). In sinning against the latter, the fornicator sins against "your (ideal) body," that of "Christ," whose "members your bodies" are (1Co 6:15). In this consists the sin of fornication, that it is a sacrilegious desecration of God's temple to profane uses.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
you were bought at a price: The picture is the slave market, and Ambrosiaster draws the rule that the one bought no longer decides for himself. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown link the price to the ransom of Matthew 20:28.
1 Corinthians 6:20
“For ye are bought with a price,.... Not with gold and silver, but with the precious blood of Christ, as the whole church, and all the elect of God are.”
4 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 6:20
“Ye are bought with a price - As the slave who is purchased by his master for a sum of money is the sole property of that master, so ye, being bought with the price of the blood of Christ, are not your own, you are his property.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Corinthians 6:20
“Glorify God with your body, and your spirit - Yield your bodies and all their members, as well as your souls and all their faculties, as instruments of righteousness to God. Devote and employ all ye have, and all ye are, entirely, unreservedly, and forever, to his glory.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 6:20
“But God is dishonoured when either is defiled by so beastly a sin. Therefore flee fornication, nay, and every sin. Use your bodies for the glory and service of their Lord and Maker.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Corinthians 6:20
“ATTACKS have often been made upon the central doctrine of the Gospel, namely, the doctrine of Redemption or Atonement, for it is well-known to be the crux of the Gospel. These onslaughts have, in many instances, been very craftily made. They have professed to be mere corrections of our phraseology, but were essentially assaults upon the Truth of God itself.”
How this psalm is built
The form: The close of the reports from Corinth, a rebuke on lawsuits between members and on the use of the body, following the failure to judge in chapter 5, as Aquinas classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Do you not know | The question falls five times in this chapter, at verses 2, 3, 9, 15 and 19, and a sixth time at verse 16 in the form Or don't you know. Each time it calls up something the church already held and sets its conduct against it. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read it as an appeal to a truth all Christians recognized, aimed at a church that gloried in its knowledge.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 1 Corinthians 6:2. | 1 Corinthians 6:2, 1 Corinthians 6:3, 1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Corinthians 6:15, 1 Corinthians 6:16, 1 Corinthians 6:19 |
| From the greater to the lesser | Verses 2 and 3 argue that people who will judge the world and angels can settle the trivial cases of this life. Albert Barnes states the reasoning plainly, that Christians qualified for the larger judgment must be qualified to decide disputes among their own members.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on 1 Corinthians 6:2. | 1 Corinthians 6:2, 1 Corinthians 6:3 |
| The list of those who will not inherit | Verses 9 and 10 name nine kinds of wrongdoer in the Berean text, each brought in by neither or nor, and the list is framed by the words will not inherit the kingdom of God at both ends. Verse 11 answers it with three verbs, washed, sanctified and justified. John Wesley remarks that people counted harmless stand in the list beside idolaters, and draws from it that no sin should be thought little.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755, on 1 Corinthians 6:9. | 1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Corinthians 6:10, 1 Corinthians 6:11 |
| Sayings quoted and answered | The Berean text sets two sayings in quotation marks, Everything is permissible for me, given twice at verse 12, and the saying about food and the stomach at verse 13. Paul answers each with a clause that follows at once. John Wesley limits the first saying to things lawful and names two cases where it gives way, when a thing would offend a weak brother and when it would enslave the soul.John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755, on 1 Corinthians 6:12. | 1 Corinthians 6:12, 1 Corinthians 6:13 |
Where the chapter stands
12 more paragraphs on the patterns
Chapters 5 and 6 answer reports that had reached Paul, and 7:1 turns to the letter the church had sent him. Chapter 5 closed on the church's duty to judge those inside it at 5:12 and 13, and 6:1 takes up judging at once. Albert Barnes holds that the judging named at 5:13 suggested the new topic. Thomas Aquinas reads the chapter as a second rebuke on judgment, first on the judges the Corinthians chose and then on the suits themselves from verse 7.
The chapter hands two things forward. The sexual immorality of verse 18 is the ground on which 7:2 commends marriage, and the price of verse 20 returns at 7:23.
Who speaks
Paul speaks throughout. The church's voice enters only in the sayings he quotes at verses 12 and 13, and in the questions that assume what the church already knew.
The two halves
Verses 1 to 11 deal with wrongs done between members and close on the list of those who will not inherit the kingdom. Verses 12 to 20 deal with the body and close on the temple of the Holy Spirit. The matter of judging runs across the seam from 5:1 to 6:11, and the matter of the body runs from 6:12 into 7:5.
The Old Testament cited
Verse 16 quotes Genesis 2:24 on the two becoming one flesh. It is the chapter's one quotation, and Paul uses it to show what union with a prostitute does.
The debated readings
The angels of verse 3. Theodoret of Cyrus and Theophylact of Ohrid take them as demons who were once angels, and Albert Barnes as probably the fallen angels. Severian of Gabala reads them as priests and teachers judged for false teaching, and John Chrysostom names that reading and rejects it.
The judges of verse 4. John Wesley takes those of no standing in the church as the heathen judges, so the verse rebukes. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown take it as a command to set even the lowest members to judge. Albert Barnes records that the Greek verb may be read either way.
Going to law at all. Ambrosiaster holds that a Christian ought to avoid litigation and bring a serious matter to the church. Matthew Henry allows lawful means in matters of great damage and counsels bearing the wrong in small ones.
Keep studying
Studies11
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on 1 Corinthians 6:1; John Chrysostom, Homily on 1 Corinthians 16, 407, on 1 Corinthians 6:1 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on 1 Corinthians, 1274, on 1 Corinthians 6:1.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Ambrosiaster, COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES; Charles Hodge, An Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians; Cyprian, Epistle LIV; Frederic Godet, Commentary on First Corinthians; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin; John Chrysostom; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Severian of Gabala, PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH; Tertullian; Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 195; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on 1 Corinthians and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on 1 Corinthians.