The big picture
Corinth's public lawsuits expose the same contradiction that has appeared in its factions: people claiming spiritual wisdom are unable to live without defrauding one another. Paul first asks why ordinary disputes must be carried before outsiders, then goes deeper and calls the lawsuits themselves a defeat when brother is wronging brother. The vice list that follows is not detached moral cataloguing. It leads to "such were some of you" and to a changed identity described as washing, sanctification, and justification. The chapter then turns to sexual conduct through another disputed slogan about liberty. Paul grants no freedom that becomes a new master and refuses to treat bodily appetite as self-justifying. Bodies belong to the Lord, are destined for resurrection, are members of Christ, and are temples of the Holy Ghost. The final claim is the one that gathers everything: "ye are not your own." Disputes and bodies alike are being handled under another ownership.
Central truth
Paul commands Corinth to confront tolerated wrongdoing, stop defrauding fellow believers, and honour God with bodies that belong to the risen Christ.
The study notes have a page of their own
The movement by movement analysis, the words to trace, the verse by verse notes and where readers differ are written for someone studying alone. They are on the Deep Personal Reflections page for this chapter. This page is the lesson.
A chapter-specific teaching brief
These anchors come from this chapter itself. They help a teacher use the Level 1 overview, the Level 2 study, and the Scripture text as one lesson.
Open with the chapter’s first image
1 Corinthians 6:1: “Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?”
Slow down at the turning point
1 Corinthians 6:9: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate…”
Keep this word trail visible
body, know, judge, Lord, fornication, members
What to explain, in order
Teach the passage in this order. Each step names the verses it rests on, so every point can be shown in the text before it is applied.
1 Corinthians 5:1-5
A church that boasted instead of mourning
Name the wrong plainly and briefly, without detail: a man is living with his father's wife, probably a stepmother, something Paul says even the pagans would not name (5:1). Then turn the class at once to the congregation's response, "ye are puffed up" (5:2). Explain "deliver such an one unto Satan" (5:5) as removal from the fellowship, the protected household of God, into the world where Satan works. Point out the stated aim, "that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus". Teach this first because every later step assumes a discipline that seeks rescue, not punishment.
1 Corinthians 5:6-8
Christ our passover
Explain leaven as yeast, a small amount that works through the whole batch of dough. Then read Exodus 12:15 so the class sees the Passover custom Paul is drawing on: before the feast every trace of leaven was cleared from the house. Paul's order matters. The Lamb has already been sacrificed, so the church is already "unleavened" (5:7) and must clear out what does not belong. This step comes second because it gives the reason for the discipline in 5:1-5: not reputation, but the holiness of a people redeemed by Christ's sacrifice, keeping a feast of "sincerity and truth" (5:8).
1 Corinthians 5:9-13
Inside and outside
Paul corrects a misunderstanding of an earlier letter. Read 5:10 slowly so the class hears him reject withdrawal from the world. Then read 5:11 and explain "railer" as an abusive or slanderous person and "extortioner" as a swindler, someone who takes by force or fraud. Note that greed, abuse and drunkenness stand beside sexual sin on the list, so no one sin is singled out. Explain "no not to eat" as the shared table of fellowship. End on 5:12-13: God judges those outside; the church is responsible for itself. Teach it here so the lawsuits that follow are heard as another failure to judge within.
1 Corinthians 6:1-11
Defrauding brothers, and the washing
Read 6:1-8 as one scene: believers taking one another to the civil courts over "things pertaining to this life" (6:4). Explain "the saints shall judge the world" (6:2) as their share in Christ's final reign, the reason a trivial dispute should be within their competence. Then read 6:9-10 in full, without lingering on single words. Say that translations and traditions render some of the terms in 6:9 differently, and that the list as a whole names the patterns of life of the old age: sexual, religious, financial and social. Then read 6:11 as the climax, with its three verbs. This is the hope the warning serves.
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Bought with a price
Show the class the Corinthian slogans Paul quotes and qualifies: "All things are lawful unto me" (6:12) and "Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats" (6:13). Explain "expedient" as beneficial. Paul answers with five truths about the body: the Lord is for it, it will be raised, it is a member of Christ, sexual union makes one flesh, and it is the Spirit's temple. Explain that in 3:16 the temple was the whole church and here it is each believer's body. Teach this last because chapter 5 began with a sin in the body, and Paul ends by saying whose body it is.
Where learners get stuck
The misreadings this passage tends to produce, and how to answer each from the text.
"Paul tells the church to throw sinners out and have nothing to do with them."
Paul's discipline in 5:5 has a saving aim, "that the spirit may be saved", and it is limited to a person "called a brother" who persists in open sin (5:11), not to anyone who struggles or repents. He rejects avoiding outsiders altogether (5:10). In 2 Corinthians 2:6-8 Paul later urges the church to forgive and comfort a disciplined man, "lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow". Discipline in this letter is for restoration, carried out with mourning, not contempt.
"This chapter means Christians should never go to court or call the police."
The disputes in 6:1-8 are "things that pertain to this life" (6:3), matters of property and fraud between believers who are wronging one another. Paul does not address crime, abuse or the protection of the vulnerable, and Romans 13:3-4 calls the civil authority God's minister to restrain evil. Never use this passage to discourage anyone from reporting harm or seeking safety. Its target is believers who would rather win than be wronged, and a church unable to settle a dispute wisely.
"The list in verse 9 is about other people, the really bad sinners."
The list includes thieves, the covetous, drunkards and revilers (6:10), sins found in every congregation. Paul writes it to warn the Corinthians themselves, "Be not deceived" (6:9), because they had just been defrauding each other (6:8). And he says, "such were some of you" (6:11). The list is not a ranking of outsiders but a description of the life every believer was washed from. Teach it with the whole room inside it, and with the three verbs of verse 11 as the good news for all.
"Christian freedom means anything I do with my body is my own business."
Paul quotes the slogan "All things are lawful unto me" and limits it twice: not all things are "expedient", and "I will not be brought under the power of any" (6:12). Then he says the believer is "not your own" (6:19). Freedom in Christ is freedom from the power of sin, not ownership of oneself. The body will be raised (6:14) and is joined to the Lord (6:17), so what is done in it matters to him. The chapter ends with worship: "glorify God in your body" (6:20).
Learning objectives
- Identify the wrongdoing and the congregation's response in chapter 5.
- Explain the Passover and leaven comparison.
- Distinguish accountability inside the church from judgment of outsiders.
- Trace the complaint about lawsuits back to defrauding brothers.
- Explain the change announced by 'such were some of you'.
- Connect bodily holiness with resurrection, union, and belonging.
Teacher preparation
- Read 1 Corinthians 5:1–6:20 without separating sexual wrongdoing, greed, litigation, and bodily allegiance into unrelated lessons.
- Explain the father's-wife relationship in 5:1 without graphic detail; distinguish what is reported from unknown circumstances and identities.
- Prepare definitions of leaven, 'railer', 'extortioner', and 'expedient'; read the full vice lists without turning unfamiliar terms into slurs.
- Read Exodus 12:15 and Genesis 2:24 for Paul's comparisons; mark 'Christ our passover' and 'one flesh'.
- Prepare fictional cases only; do not turn 6:1–8 into a prohibition on reporting crimes, seeking protection, or obtaining independent help.
Evidence and interpretation checks
Explicit
Use 1 Corinthians 5:1–2,11–13 and 6:8,19–20: Paul confronts tolerated wrongdoing, distinguishes insiders from outsiders, condemns defrauding, and grounds bodily honour in God's ownership.
Scripture-supported
Connect 1 Corinthians 5:7–8 to Exodus 12:15: Paul explicitly applies Passover and removed leaven to Christ's sacrifice and the congregation's sincerity and truth.
Strong inference
Infer a shared pattern of self-serving entitlement from 1 Corinthians 5:2,6 and 6:7–8,12; boasting and claimed freedom coexist with harm to others.
Possible or traditional reading
Present bodily chastisement and the breaking of sinful self-reliance as interpretations of 'destruction of the flesh' in 1 Corinthians 5:5; retain its stated saving aim.
Limit
State that 1 Corinthians 6:1–8 addresses disputes and defrauding among believers, not a complete safeguarding policy; it does not authorise concealing crime or compelling dangerous private mediation.
Discussion with answer guidance
1. Why is the congregation's boasting part of the problem in chapter 5?
What a good answer contains
Because the church's response is itself a sin Paul names. The wrong is grave, a man has "his father's wife" (5:1), but Paul's first rebuke goes to the assembly: "ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned" (5:2). Then he says, "Your glorying is not good" (5:6). A good answer sees that the congregation's pride and inaction are part of what is wrong, and that mourning was the response they owed. A weak answer makes the chapter only about one man, as if the rest of the church were spectators. Paul addresses them all, "when ye are gathered together" (5:4).
Show teacher guidance
Read 5:1–6: the assembly tolerates grave wrongdoing instead of mourning and acting. Do not restrict responsibility to the absent offender alone.
2. What makes the leaven comparison more than advice about bad influences?
What a good answer contains
It is tied to Passover and to who the church already is. "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us" (5:7). Israel cleared leaven from the house before the feast (Exodus 12:15); Paul says the lamb has already been sacrificed, so the church is to keep the feast "with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (5:8). A strong answer holds both halves: they are unleavened, so they must become what they are. A weak answer reduces it to a proverb about bad company and loses Christ our passover.
Show teacher guidance
Use 5:6–8. Paul names Christ as Passover and contrasts malice with sincerity and truth; retain the congregation's identity as well as its action.
3. Does separation from an unrepentant brother require avoiding all outsiders?
What a good answer contains
No. Paul corrects exactly that misreading of his earlier letter. He did not mean "the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world" (5:10). The separation applies to "any man that is called a brother" who persists in these things (5:11). Outsiders are God's to judge (5:13). A good answer distinguishes accountability inside the church from withdrawal from society, which Paul calls impossible. A weak answer builds a fortress church that avoids unbelievers, or ignores the fact that greed and drunkenness sit on the same list as sexual sin.
Show teacher guidance
Read 5:9–13. Paul expressly rejects leaving the world; distinguish internal accountability from controlling everyone beyond the congregation.
4. What does Paul say the litigating believers are doing to one another?
What a good answer contains
They are cheating each other. "Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren" (6:8). Paul's shame is not first about appearances before "the unbelievers" (6:6), though that matters, but about believers who will "judge the world" (6:2) unable to settle a dispute and willing to take from one another. His question is pointed: "Why do ye not rather take wrong?" (6:7). A good answer keeps the defrauding in view. A weak answer turns the passage into a rule that a church member may never report a crime or seek protection from the authorities; Paul is addressing property disputes between believers, not harm that the law exists to restrain.
Show teacher guidance
Use 6:7–8: they wrong and defraud fellow believers. Do not reduce the rebuke to concern about the church's public image.
5. How does 'such were some of you' change the force of the list?
What a good answer contains
It turns a list of exclusions into a testimony of change. After naming those who "shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (6:9-10), Paul says, "And 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" (6:11). A good answer keeps both the warning and the washing: the list is real, and so is the change. Notice "were": Paul describes a past from which they have been cleansed. A weak answer either softens the list or uses it as a permanent label for people, which the verse forbids.
Show teacher guidance
Read 6:9–11 fully. Hold warning together with washing, sanctification, and justification; reject permanent labels that deny the transformation Paul announces.
6. Why does Paul refuse to treat sexual conduct as merely another appetite?
What a good answer contains
Because the body is not only an appetite; it belongs to the Lord and will be raised. The Corinthian slogan paired food and the belly (6:13), and Paul answers, "the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body." God raised the Lord and "will also raise up us" (6:14). The body is a member of Christ (6:15), sexual union makes "one flesh" (6:16, quoting Genesis 2:24), and "your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost" (6:19). A strong answer ends where Paul ends: "ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body" (6:20). A weak answer treats this as health advice.
Show teacher guidance
Trace 6:13–20: resurrection, membership in Christ, one-flesh union, the Spirit's temple, and purchase. Avoid reducing the argument to general fitness advice.
Responsible application
Heart and habits
Ask learners to test a fictional claim that permission alone makes an action wise, using benefit and mastery in 6:12.
Relationships and community
Have the group propose an accountable response to fictional financial exploitation, protecting those harmed rather than prioritising institutional reputation.
Bodily dignity
Draft a third-person explanation of why belonging to Christ rules out treating another person's body as a disposable means of gratification.
Session plans
Two timings of the same lesson. The shorter keeps the reading, the central discussion and one response; the longer gives the confusions and the application their own time.
45 minutes
Pride where grief belongs
Read 5:1-2 and name the wrong briefly. Ask question one. Write "puffed up" and "mourned" on the board.
The leaven and the Lamb
Read Exodus 12:15 and 1 Corinthians 5:6-8. Take question two and explain "Christ our passover".
Not out of the world
Read 5:9-13. Take question three and the confusion about throwing sinners out, including 2 Corinthians 2:6-8.
Defrauding and washing
Read 6:1-11. Take questions four and five, with the confusions about courts and about the list in verse 9.
Whose body
Read 6:12-20. Take question six and the confusion about freedom. Hand out the sheet, read the key verse together and pray.
90 minutes
What the church did
Read 5:1-2 and ask the group what a congregation could have done instead of boasting. Keep the details of the wrong brief.
Discipline that seeks rescue
Read 5:3-5 with 2 Corinthians 2:6-8. Take question one and the confusion about throwing sinners out. Explain "deliver such an one unto Satan".
Passover and the whole lump
Read Exodus 12:15-20 and 1 Corinthians 5:6-8. Take question two. Ask what sincerity and truth look like in a congregation's life.
Inside and outside
Read 5:9-13. Take question three. Explain "railer" and "extortioner" and note who else is on the list.
Lawsuits and the list
Read 6:1-11. Take questions four and five and the confusions about courts and about verse 9. Make clear that no one should be discouraged from seeking protection.
The body and the price
Read 6:12-20 and Genesis 2:24. Take question six and the freedom confusion. List the five truths about the body on the board.
Applications
Work through the fictional cases in the applications: permission and wisdom, financial exploitation, and dignity of persons.
Handout and prayer
Read the key verse together, point to the take-home line, and pray that the church would be a place of honest grief and real washing.
Adapting the lesson
Children
Do not teach chapter 5 or the vice list to young children. Use 6:19-20 alone: our bodies are a gift God made and a home for his Spirit, and he paid a great price for us. Let them name good things their bodies can do for God and for others, such as helping, singing and sharing. Keep all talk of sexual sin out of the room.
Youth
Be direct and calm. Young people hear the slogans of 6:12-13 everywhere: my body, my choice, it is only natural. Let them find Paul's answers in 6:13-20 themselves. Take 6:11 seriously, so that anyone carrying shame hears washing before warning. Never use a learner's life as an example, and make clear you are available afterward for anyone who needs to talk privately or needs help to be safe.
Adults
Give time to how congregations fail both ways: tolerating open sin among members, and handling discipline harshly or publicly. Read 2 Corinthians 2:6-8 as the other half. Discuss the lawsuits honestly, including that 6:1-8 is never a reason to cover up harm or keep victims from the authorities. Say that translations render terms in 6:9 differently, without turning the lesson into a debate about one word.
One to one
Read 6:9-11 together and ask which word in verse 11 the person most needs: washed, sanctified or justified. Then read 6:19-20 and ask what it means to them that they were bought with a price. If they are carrying a sin or a wound in this area, listen first, do not press for details, and where they have been harmed help them find safe and qualified help.
Song and video learning lab
A song or video may interpret, compress, or dramatize the text. Its value becomes clearer when its choices are compared with Scripture.
- Before the media: the exact passage and its central movement.
- During the media: the words, people, events, and emotions the artist emphasizes.
- After the media: what it clarifies, what it leaves out, and what belongs back in the biblical text.
Handout
One page for learners to take home. The print button prints this section alone.
1 Corinthians 5–6
The passage in brief
1 Corinthians 5 and 6 confront a church that was proud of itself while a serious sin went unaddressed, and believers who were cheating each other in court. Paul calls the church to grieve, to restore its holiness because Christ our Passover has been sacrificed, and to settle its disputes wisely. He warns that the unrighteous will not inherit God's kingdom, and then says some of them were once like that, but have been washed. The body belongs to the Lord.
A verse to keep
What? 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? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 · King James Version
Questions to take home
What does Paul say the church should have done in 5:2, and why does he mention Passover in 5:7?
What three things happened to the believers in 6:11?
Why does it matter what we do with our bodies, according to 6:13-20?
This week
Read 6:11 aloud each morning this week and thank God for one specific thing he has washed you from.
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.
