1 Corinthians 6:8
in 1 Corinthians 6Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, even against your own brothers!
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Nay, but ye yourselves do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.
KJV
Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.
⋯
This verse in 1 Corinthians 6
Commentary
10 notes on this verseNay, 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.
This site's exposition
The very fact that you have lawsuits among you
on 1 Corinthians 6:7-8
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.
This site's exposition
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.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
Paul is rebuking the people whose wrongful behavior has started the quarrels. Not only are they liable to be charged for the fraud which they have committed; they also share in the fault of those who, compelled by their injurious or fraudulent actions, call upon …
"Nay, ye yourselves do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren." Again, it is a twofold crime, perhaps even threefold or fourfold. One, not to know how to bear being wronged. Another, actually to do wrong. A third, to commit the settlement of these matters even unto the unjust. And yet a fourth, that it should be so done to a brother. For men's offences are not judged by the same rule, when they are committed against any chance person, and towards one's own member. For it must be a greater degree of recklessness to venture upon that. In the other case, the nature of the thing is alone trampled on; but in this, the quality of the person also.
The Medieval Church2 voices
Many accusations. The first is that they do not know how to endure wrongs; the second is that, on the contrary, they themselves commit wrongs; the third is that they wrong their brothers. It would be good, he says, both not to wrong others and …
Then when he says, But you yourselves, he rebukes them for something altogether illicit. First, he accuses them of obvious injustice, when he says: But you yourselves wrong, namely, by speaking openly against the justice of others either in court or outside: "Do not delight …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Nay, you do wrong and defraud,....
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
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).
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Nay, ye do wrong ... - Instead of enduring wrong patiently and cheerfully. they were themselves guilty oi injustice and fraud. And that your brethren - Your fellow Christians. As if they had injured those of their own family - those to whom they ought to be attached by most tender ties. The offence in such cases is aggravated, not because it is in itself any worse to injure a Christian than another man, but because it shows a deeper depravity, when a man overcomes all the ties of kindness and love, and injures those who are near to him, than it does where no such ties exist. It is for this reason that parricide, infanticide, etc. are regarded everywhere as crimes of special atrocity, because a child or a parent must have severed all the tenderest cords of virtue before it could be done.
The words behind it
8 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ἀλλ᾽ | all᾽ | But | G235 → | 635 times |
| ὑμεῖς | humeis | you yourselves | G4771 → | 2973 times |
| ἀδικεῖτε | adikeite | do wrong | G91 → | |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| ἀποστερεῖτε, | apostereite | defraud, | G650 → | 6 times |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| τοῦτο | touto | this [thing] | G3778 → | 1381 times |
| ἀδελφούς. | adelphous | to brothers! | G80 → | 343 times |
ἀλλ᾽But
all᾽G235 →635 times
ὑμεῖςyou yourselves
humeisG4771 →2973 times
ἀδικεῖτεdo wrong
adikeiteG91 →
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
ἀποστερεῖτε,defraud,
apostereiteG650 →6 times
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
τοῦτοthis [thing]
toutoG3778 →1381 times
ἀδελφούς.to brothers!
adelphousG80 →343 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
James 5:4Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 22:13
“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his countrymen serve without pay, and fails to pay their wages,
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Deuteronomy 24:14–15
Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Leviticus 19:13
You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.
- Jeremiah 22:13
Through
Leviticus 19:13You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.
it leads to
- Malachi 3:5
“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- James 5:4
Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
- Malachi 3:5
Through
Colossians 3:25Whoever does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.
it leads to
- Acts 10:34
Then Peter began to speak: “I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism,
- Romans 2:11
For God does not show favoritism.
- Acts 10:34
Through
Mark 10:19You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not cheat others, honor your father and mother.’”
it leads to
- Exodus 20:12–17
Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
- Exodus 20:12–17
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies10
About 1 Corinthians
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrosiaster, COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians; John Chrysostom, Homily on 1 Corinthians 16; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on 1 Corinthians and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on 1 Corinthians.