1 Corinthians 6:15

Know 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. Resuming 1 Corinthians 6:13, "the body is ... for the Lord" (1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 4:12; Ephesians 4:15; Ephesians 5:30). SHALL I THEN TAKE? (Hebrew, laaqach (H3947)) - deliberately alienating them from Christ. For they cannot...

15._Know ye not that our bodies are the members_, etc. Here we have an explanation, or, if you prefer it, an amplification of the foregoing statement. For that expression, _the body is for the Lord_, might, owing to its brevity, be somewhat obscure. Hence he says, as if with the view of explaining it, that Christ is joined with us and we with him in such a way, that we become one body with him. Accordingly, if I have connection with an harlot, I tear Christ in pieces, so far as it is in my power to do so; for it is impossible for me to draw Him into fellowship with such pollution. (354) Now as that must be held in abhorrence, (355) he makes use of the expression which he is accustomed to employ in reference to things that are absurd — _God forbid _(356) Observe, that the spiritual connection which we have with Christ belongs not m

12-20 Some among the Corinthians seem to have been ready to say, All things are lawful for me. This dangerous conceit St. Paul opposes. There is a liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, in which we must stand fast. But surely a Christian would never put himself into the power of any bodily appetite. The body is for the Lord; is to be an instrument of righteousness to holiness, therefore is never to be made an instrument of sin. It is an honour 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. The hope of a resurrection to glory, should keep Christians from dishonouring their bodies by fleshly lusts. And if the soul be united to Christ by faith, the whole man is become a member of his spiritual body. Other vices may be conquered in fight; that here cautioned against, only by flight. And vast multitudes are cut o...

Verse 1 Corinthians 6:15. _KNOW YE NOT THAT YOUR BODIES ARE THE MEMBERS OF_ _CHRIST?_] Because he has taken your nature upon him, and thus, as believers in him, ye are the members of Christ. _SHALL I THEN TAKE_, c.] Shall we, who profess to be members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, connect ourselves with _harlots_, and thus dishonour and pollute the bodies which are members of Christ? _God forbid_! These passages admit of a more literal interpretation. This, if given at all, I must give in a strange language. _Membra humana, ad generationem pertinentia, vocantur_ Membra Christi, _quia mysterium conjunctionis Christi et Ecclesiae per_ _conjunctionem maris et faeminae indigitatur_, Ep

KNOW YE NOT ... - This is the third argument against licentiousness. It is, that we as Christians are united to Christ (compare the notes at John 15:1 ff); and that it is abominable to take the members of Christ and subject them to pollution and sin. Christ was pure - wholly pure. We are professedly united to him. We are bound therefore to be pure, as he was. Shall that which is a part, as it were, of the pure and holy Saviour, be prostituted to impure and unholy embraces? GOD FORBID! - See the note at Romans 3:4. This expresses the deep abhorrence of the apostle at the thought. It needed not argument to show it. The whole world revolted at the idea; and language could scarcely express the abomination of the very thought....

EXPOSITION 1 CORINTHIANS 6:1 _Litigation before heathen courts forbidden._ 1 CORINTHIANS 6:1 DARE ANY OF YOU? rather, _Dare any one of you? _It is in St. Paul's view an _audacious _defiance of Christian duties to seek from the heathen the justice due from brother to brother. A MATTER; some ground of civil dispute. AGAINST ANOTHER; _i.e. _against another Christian. When one of the litigants was a heathen, Christians were allowed to go before heathen law courts, because no other remedy was possible. GO TO LAW BEFORE THE UNJUST. The "unjust" is here used for "Gentiles," because it at once suggests a reason against the dereliction

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. Signifying, that it is a most absurd, indecent, abominable, and detestable thing, that the bodies of the saints, which are the members of Christ, should be joined in carnal copulation with an harlot....

SHALL I Paul does not invoke the authority of the seventh commandment, but appeals to the believer's sacredness as a member of Christ....

CHAPTER 6 __ 1. Concerning Disputes before Heathen Courts. (1 Corinthians 6:1). 2. The Holiness of Believers; Their Bodies the Temples of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:8). Instead of settling their disputes amongst themselves, as it becomes the Saints of God, they brought their difficulties before a heathen court. In doing this they had lost sight of the dignity of their calling. The Saints of God are to reign with Christ and share His glory; they shall judge the world and angels in that day. Going to a heathen court to have these matters settled by one who was not a child of God, but unrighteous, was unworthy of them; they were making known their own shame before the world. If they had remembered that coming day of glory, when as Saints they were to par

IMPURITY IS NO TRUE EXPRESSION OF CHRISTIAN FREEDOM, BUT INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE BELIEVER'S UNION WITH CHRIST. The special case of incest and the warnings against impurity in the last section (1 Corinthians 6:9 f.) have prepared the way for this explicit and reasoned denunciation. Impurity was defended on the principle that all things were lawful, possibly a maxim in which Paul had expressed his own doctrine of Christian freedom. If so, here, as elsewhere, illegitimate inferences were drawn from his antinomianism, here to defend licence, elsewhere to discredit his doctrine of freedom by exhibiting its moral dangers. More probably the maxim was coined by those who defended licentiousness; Paul opposes to it the counter-maxim, All things are not expedient, _i.e._ there are things which involve moral and spiritual loss. All are lawful, he repeats, retorting: Yes, but if they are at m