The big picture
Legal quarrels now draw a rebuke from Paul, a messenger sent by Jesus Christ. Jesus is the risen Lord whom these believers serve. They live in Corinth, a Greek city, and form a church, a group of believers. Some take each other to court while others defend how they use their bodies. Paul asks what their shared bond with Jesus means for both disputes. He points back to God's work of cleansing them. He also points ahead to the time when God will raise their bodies from death.
In this chapter
- A Lawsuit Exposes a Prior Defeat 1 Corinthians 6:1-8
Paul rebukes believers who ask outsiders to settle their disputes with one another.
- The Past Does Not Define the Cleansed 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Wrongdoing excludes people from God's kingdom, his rule, Paul warns the church.
- Permission Does Not Prove Benefit 1 Corinthians 6:12-14
Claims of freedom receive two tests from Paul.
- God Has Bought the Whole Person 1 Corinthians 6:15-20
Believers share a bond with Christ that includes their bodies, Paul says.
Central truth
Paul says those who belong to Jesus must not cheat each other or treat their bodies as tools for any desire.
Scripture beside the summary
1 Corinthians · King James Version · 201 Corinthians 6:1-8
A Lawsuit Exposes a Prior Defeat
Paul rebukes believers who ask outsiders to settle their disputes with one another. He says God's people will judge the world and angels, God's heavenly servants. Why, then, can they not settle smaller matters within the church? Their claim to wisdom rings hollow when no wise member can help. Paul says the lawsuits themselves show that things have gone wrong. He would rather see them bear a loss than wrong each other. Yet some are cheating their fellow believers. His rebuke deals with fraud and quarrels within this group. He does not discuss every kind of crime or court case here.
In everyday life
A marina member brings a court claim against a neighbour over shared mooring fees. He refuses to meet two boat owners whom they both trust. They stand beside the jetty with the receipts, but he walks away. Winning now matters more to him than ending the wrong. Paul addresses people called to share God's future judgement, not a boating club.
Notice
1 Corinthians 6:7 Paul calls the resort to such lawsuits a defeat before any verdict arrives. Winning the claim cannot by itself repair the wrong in their shared life.
1 Corinthians 6:1-8
King James Version1Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?
2Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
3Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?
4If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.
5I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?
6But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.
7Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?
8Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
The Past Does Not Define the Cleansed
Wrongdoing excludes people from God's kingdom, his rule, Paul warns the church. He names sexual wrongdoing, worship of false gods, adultery, and male same-sex acts. Christians differ over which sexual acts the terms cover and how they apply today. Theft, greed, drunkenness, abusive speech, and taking goods by force also appear. Paul does not let wealth or social respect hide these wrongs. He then points to the believers' changed standing. Some once lived in these ways. Through Jesus and God's Spirit, they have been cleansed, set apart for God, and put right with him. Their former sins do not fix their future forever.
In everyday life
A debt adviser reads a client's old file of theft and threats. Today the client brings wage slips and proof of money repaid. She records the change without hiding the harm he caused. His past acts are real, but they no longer describe his whole life. Paul credits cleansing to Jesus and God's Spirit, not repayment or steady work.
Notice
1 Corinthians 6:11 The shift from what some were to what they have received matters. Paul names God's cleansing work after his warning. Their past is not an unchangeable label.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
King James Version9Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
11And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:12-14
Permission Does Not Prove Benefit
Claims of freedom receive two tests from Paul. Does a choice help, and does it start to rule the person making it? He refuses to come under anything's control merely because it is allowed. Food serves the stomach, but both will pass away. That does not make every bodily desire a guide to right conduct. Paul says the body belongs to the Lord, not to sexual wrongdoing. The Lord also cares for the body. God raised Jesus from death and will raise believers too. Their bodies have a future with him, so bodily acts matter now.
In everyday life
A cyclist stops beside a shop with another empty packet of energy powder. She once used it now and then. Today she refuses to ride without it, though buying it breaks no rule. She sees how much the habit now controls her plans. Paul bases the body's purpose on being raised by God, not on fitness or shopping choices.
Notice
1 Corinthians 6:14 Being raised from death gives the body a future in Paul's account. God does not treat it as a container to throw away when its present life ends.
1 Corinthians 6:12-14
King James Version12All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
13Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
14And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
1 Corinthians 6:15-20
God Has Bought the Whole Person
Believers share a bond with Christ that includes their bodies, Paul says. He rejects taking a body joined to Christ into sex with a prostitute. Sexual union joins two people bodily; it is not detached from the rest of life. Their union with the Lord also binds them in spirit. Paul tells them to avoid sexual wrongdoing and calls it a wrong against their own bodies. God's Holy Ghost, or Spirit, lives in them as in a temple, a holy dwelling. They have been bought at a cost and belong to God. He therefore claims their bodies as well as their spirits.
In everyday life
A transplant patient looks at the scar left by a kidney donated by his brother. He sets out his medicines before breakfast and checks the care plan. The gift has cost another person something he cannot repay. Remembering that cost shapes his care for his body. Paul says God owns the redeemed person; a family donor has no such claim.
Notice
1 Corinthians 6:20 The price paid changes the claim of ownership. Paul says God's rescue covers the whole person. The body is included in what God has bought.
1 Corinthians 6:15-20
King James Version15Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
16What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
17But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
18Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
19What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
1 Corinthians 6:1 begins with “Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?”
Where the chapter turns
1 Corinthians 6:9 forms a natural hinge: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate…”
The final note
1 Corinthians 6:20 leaves the reader with “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
A word trail through the chapter
The words body, know, judge, Lord, fornication, members help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- expedient
- Helpful or good for a purpose, not merely allowed.
- revilers
- People who attack others with abusive or insulting speech.
- harlot
- A prostitute, someone who receives payment for sex.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
