1 Corinthians 6:18

Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. FLEE. Our safety in such temptations is flight (; ). EVERY SIN THAT - Greek, 'Whatsoever a man doeth.' Every other sin-even gluttony, drunkenness, and self-murder-are comparatively external to the body (; ). This sinner injures, but does not alienate the body: he rather sins against the body's temporary organization, and against the soul, than against the body's permanent essence, designed "for the Lord." "But" the fornicator alienates that body which is the Lord's, and makes it one with a har...

18._Flee fornication Every sin_, etc. Having set before us honorable conduct, he now shows how much we ought to abhor _fornication_, setting before us the enormity of its wickedness and baseness. Now he shows its greatness by comparison — that this sin alone, of all sins, puts a brand of disgrace upon the body. The body, it is true, is defiled also by theft, and murder, and drunkenness, in accordance with those statements — Your hands are defiled with blood. (Isaiah 1:15.) You have yielded your members instruments of iniquity unto sin, (Romans 6:19,) and the like. Hence some, in order to avoid this inconsistency, understand the words rendered _against his own body_, as meaning _against us_, _as being connected with Christ_; but this a

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 18. _FLEE FORNICATION._] Abominate, detest, and escape from every kind of uncleanness. Some sins, or solicitations to sin, may be _reasoned_ with; in the above cases, if you _parley_ you are undone; _reason_ not, but FLY! _SINNETH AGAINST HIS OWN BODY._] Though sin of every species has a tendency to destroy life, yet none are so mortal as those to which the apostle refers; they strike immediately at the basis of the constitution. By the just judgment of God, all these irregular and sinful connections are married to death. Neither prostitutes, whoremongers, nor unclean persons of any description, can live out half their days. It would be easy to show, and _prove_ also, how the end of these things, even with respect to the _body_, is death; but I forbear, and shall finish the subject with the words of the prophet: _The show of their countenance doth witness_ against them, and they...

FLEE FORNICATION - A solemn command of God - as explicit as any that thundered from Mount Sinai. None can disregard it with impunity - none can violate it without being exposed to the awful vengeance of the Almighty. There is force and emphasis in the word “flee” φεύγατε pheugate. Man should escape from it; he should not stay to reason about it; to debate the matter; or even to contend with his propensities, and to try the strength of his virtue. There are some sins which a man can resist; some about which he can reason without danger of pollution. But this is a sin where a man is safe only when he flies; free from pollution only when he refuses to entertain a thought of it; secure when he seeks a victory by flight, and a conquest by retreat. Let a man turn away from it without reflection on it and he is safe. Let him think, and reason, and he may be ruined. “The very passage of an impu...

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

FLEE FORNICATION,.... As that which is hurtful, scandalous, and unbecoming Christians; avoid it, and all the occasions of it, that may lead unto it, and be incentives of it: EVERY SIN THAT A MAN DOTH IS WITHOUT THE BODY not but that other sins are committed by the body, and by the members of it as instruments; they are generally committed by the abuse of other things that are without, and do not belong to the body; and so do not bring that hurt unto and reproach upon the body, as fornication does: BUT HE THAT COMMITTETH FORNICATION, SINNETH AGAINST HIS OWN BODY; not meaning his wife, which is as his own body; but his proper natural body, which is not only the instrument by which this sin is committed, but the object against which it is committed; and which is defiled and dishonoured by it; and sometimes its strength and health are impaired, and it is filled with nauseous diseases hereb...

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

THE FOLLY OF THE LAW COURTS (1 Corinthians 6:1-8)...