1 Corinthians 6
- Who wrote it
- Paul
- Who it was for
- The church in Corinth
- What was happening
- Lawsuits among believers, a warning about wrongdoing, and the body as the Lord's temple
What’s happening
Paul is shocked that a believer with a grievance against another would go to court before unbelievers instead of the saints. The saints will judge the world and angels, so surely they can judge small matters. Better to be wronged or defrauded than to go to law against a brother, and in fact they are the ones doing wrong. Then a warning: "Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God's Kingdom?" He lists wrongdoers, including the sexually immoral, idolaters, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, slanderers, and swindlers, and says, "Such were some of you. But you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God." Next he takes up a slogan, "All things are lawful for me," and answers that not all things are helpful, and that he will not be mastered by anything. Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food, but the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. God raised the Lord and will raise us up. Their bodies are members of Christ, and joining oneself to a prostitute makes one body with her. "Flee sexual immorality." The body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and "you are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body."
Why the setting matters
In the Roman world, lawsuits were a tool of the powerful: wealthy citizens could take poorer ones to court, and judges often favored people of status. Paul's concern is partly that Christians are using the courts to attack each other, in front of outsiders, over what he calls trivial matters. The "all things are lawful for me" in 6:12 is probably a Corinthian slogan, which Paul quotes and corrects, and so is probably "food is for the stomach" (6:13). The vice list in 6:9-10 includes two words, malakoi and arsenokoitai, whose exact meaning is debated among translators and scholars; translations vary, and readers should consult commentaries rather than lean on a single English word. Prostitution was common in a port city, and some Corinthians may have thought what the body did did not matter for the spirit; Paul answers that the body belongs to the Lord and will be raised. "Bought with a price" uses a slave-market word, which would be heard in a city full of slaves and freed people.
Who’s in this chapter
Paul
Appalled at lawsuits and at casual sexual immorality.
The believers in Corinth
Told they will judge the world and belong to Christ.
Jesus
Lord of the body; the One whose name washes, sanctifies, and justifies.
Talk it through
- Paul says it is better to be wronged than to take a fellow believer to court. When is that hard, and when might it not apply?
- "Such were some of you." How does that sentence hold both honesty about sin and hope?
- Paul quotes a slogan, "all things are lawful," and then corrects it. Which slogans do we use that need the same correction?
- "You are not your own." What does it mean to say the body belongs to the Lord?
Read 1 Corinthians 6
World English Bible
1Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbor, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? 2Don’t you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3Don’t you know that we will judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? 4If then you have to judge things pertaining to this life, do you set them to judge who are of no account in the assembly? 5I say this to move you to shame. Isn’t there even one wise man among you who would be able to decide between his brothers? 6But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers! 7Therefore it is already altogether a defect in you, that you have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? 8No, but you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that against your brothers. 9Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, 10nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortionists, will inherit God’s Kingdom. 11Some of you were such, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God.
12“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are expedient. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be brought under the power of anything. 13“Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods,” but God will bring to nothing both it and them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. 14Now God raised up the Lord, and will also raise us up by his power. 15Don’t you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16Or don’t you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, “The two”, he says, “will become one flesh.” 17But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. 18Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Text: World English Bible, Public domain. About our sources