1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Butler's Comments

SECTION 3

Defilers Are Not Brothers (1 Corinthians 6:12-20)

12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything. 13Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for foodand God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, The two shall become one flesh. 17But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18Shun immorality. Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 6:12-14 Perversion of Humanness: Brotherly love acknowledges there is a lawful purpose for all things which God has created, but using the body for immorality (including hatred, greed and unchristian lawsuits) is perverting and downgrading that which God made to be the residence of the Holy Spirit. The last section does connect to the beginning admonition concerning unchristian lawsuits. It teaches that Christians who become enslaved to their emotions and feelings and drag one another bodily before heathen tribunals for their ungodly purposes of greed and retaliation are prostituting themselves. When God created man and gave him a human body, it was intended that God's Holy Spirit would dwell with each man in that body.

The apostolic principle, All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. must be understood in its context. When a Christian brother defrauds you, it is lawful (you have the right) to sue him in a civil courtbut such action is not always helpful (or, edifying). Christians are to live above the plane of law in the kingdom of grace. Christians are not to seek their own good, but the good of their neighbors (1 Corinthians 10:24); they are not to look only to their own interest, but also to the interests of others (Philippians 2:4); they are to please their neighbors for their good, to edify them (Romans 15:2). Therefore, the Christian has the responsibility of denying any right he has to build people up in Christ rather than perverting these things to destroy people.

Some ancient Greek philosophers (especially the Gnostics) held that mind and thought were spiritual and holy while material things, including the human body, were impersonal and thus amoral. These philosophers taught that the natural, physical and material processes of life had no moral significance. Suing one another in court over physical and material things would have no moral implications according to this philosophy. Apparently some of the wise Christians of Corinth had decided to practice the philosophy of the Gnostics.

Paul had twice listed ways in which material things, including the human body, might be perverted (1 Corinthians 5:9-11; 1 Corinthians 6:7-10) and which would cause the Christian to forfeit his spiritual inheritance. That would include greed and robbery and reviling a brother in the matter of civil law suits. And it would most definitely include sexual promiscuity, which is the first subject in the context of Chapter s five and six.

So, as Paul wrote about Christians suing one another in heathen courts and assuming, like the Gnostics, that they might do as they pleased with material things without sinning, his thoughts were directed back to the subject of sexual promiscuity. Sexual abandon and all forms of unnatural perversion were the norm for most of first century Greco-Roman society. This is evidenced in ancient art and literature. We quote here from William Barclay:

The Greeks always looked down on the body.. That produced one of two attitudes. Either it issued in the most rigorous aceticism in which everything was done to subject and humiliate the desires and instincts of the body. Orand in Corinth it was this second outlook which was prevalentit was taken to mean that, since the body was of no importance, you could do what you liked with it; you could let it sate its appetites. What complicated this was the doctrine of Christian freedom which Paul preached. If the Christian man is the freest of all men, then is he not free to do what he likes, especially with this completely unimportant body of his?
So, the Corinthians argued, in a way that they thought very enlightened, let the body have its way. But what is the body's way? The stomach was made for food and food for the stomach, they went on. Food and the stomach naturally and inevitably go together. In precisely the same way the body is made for its instincts; it is made for the sexual act and the sexual act is made for it; therefore let the desires of the body have their way.

Another element in the heathen culture of Greco-Roman society Paul had to deal with was the matter of religion and human behavior. Heathen gods were what men made them. Naturally, when they disavowed the true God's revelation of his infinitely holy character and exchanged that truth for a lie (Romans 1:18 ff.) they supplied their own human characteristics to gods of their own making. Religion, to the heathen, was, and still is, a way to appease, cajole, and prevail against their gods until the gods are won over to the human's desire to do as he pleases. To the heathen, the human was relatively free to behave as he pleased so long as he did not anger the gods or the civil authorities. He could very easily appease the gods by making the right offerings and observing the superstitious rituals. So long as he paid his taxes, and did not participate in treason or revolution he could please the civil authorities. The Christian doctrine of freedom limited by morality and self-sacrifice was in absolute opposition to heathen selfishness. Thus, Paul sets out to clarify the doctrine of Christian freedom as opposed to the philosophy and practice of heathen permissiveness. It is the teaching of Christ and his apostles that everything God has created is good (Genesis 1:10; Genesis 1:18; Genesis 1:25; Genesis 1:31; Acts 10:15; 1 Corinthians 10:26; 1 Timothy 4:1-5) if used according to the precepts and principles revealed in God's word. There is a created purpose for the human longing for justice so long as it is not allowed to degenerate into a spirit of exploitation, hatred and retaliation. There is a God-ordained purpose for the physical appetite for food so long as it is controlled and not allowed to degenerate into gluttony. There is a God-ordained purpose for the desire for sexual intercourse as long as the desire is not permitted to deteriorate into adultery, fornication and homosexuality. Sexual intercourse was created by God but he never intended it to be casual, amoral and promiscuous. The longings and desires of the human being created for this earthly life have their limitations. They are for the present world order. They are created by God in order to test, discipline and prepare men during this earthly probation for existence in the next life.

One of the principles under which these human longings are to be controlled is that while all things created by God are lawful, all things are not, in certain circumstances, helpful. Some things created by God, under some circumstances, are harmful. And, as Paul clearly says, whatever would enslave a person, under any circumstances, would be harmful. Food, drugs, sexuality, emotions, material possessionsall are lawful, good and helpful if controlled and limited by the revealed principles of God's word. But even these good and helpful things become harmful if man allows himself to be enslaved, possessed and obsessed by them, or when he abuses them beyond the limitations of God's directions. Paul uses the Greek word exousiasthesomai which is translated enslaved and means, more precisely, ruled over by. For the apostle it is Christ who rules over himnot his emotions, not food, not sexuality, and not material possessions. He is a slave to the will of Christ.

These Christians of Corinth, attempting to be sophisticated and follow popular Gnosticism, were apparently teaching that the appetite for sexual intercourse was merely a physical thing like the appetite for food. Paul makes it very clear that these two human functions do not belong in the same category. The statement, Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food is correct, so long as man is not enslaved by food and becomes a glutton. What a man eats, so long as he is not obsessed with food, has no spiritual significance. Jesus and his apostles made that clear: (a) food has no spiritual significance even if it has been sacrificed to an idol, because an idol is not god (see 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; 1 Corinthians 9:1-27; 1 Corinthians 10:1-33); (b) food has no power in and of itself to make a man spiritually clean or uncleanit is the attitude of the heart that makes clean or unclean (cf. Matthew 15:1-20; Mark 7:14-23); (c) human opinions as to which foods may be eaten and which may not is of no spiritual significance (Romans 14:1-4; 1 Timothy 4:1-4; Colossians 2:20-23) until someone attempts to make abstinence or indulgence a test of Christian fellowship. It is clear a man cannot be spiritually defiled by what he eats or what he does not eat, so long as it does no physical harm to the human body. There may be one exception to this in the Christian dispensation (see Acts 15:19-20; Acts 21:25). The human function of eating and digesting food is purely a physical process and has no spiritual significance. It is for this life only. When this life is over neither food or the human stomach, as we know them now, will continue to exist. But the body is different!

It must be clear that Paul is using the word body (Gr. soma) in a sense intended to mean more than flesh and bone and blood. The Greek word in the New Testament which most often means flesh and bone is sarx. Vine's Expository Dictionary says of the New Testament usage of the word soma, or body:

SOMA. is the body as a whole, the instrument of life, whether of man living, e.g., Matthew 6:22, or dead, Matthew 27:52; or in resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15:44; or of beasts, Hebrews 13:11; of grain, 1 Corinthians 15:37-38; of the heavenly hosts, 1 Corinthians 15:40. In Revelation 18:13 it is translated slaves. In its figurative uses the essential idea is preserved.

Sometimes the word stands, by synecdoche, for the complete man, Matthew 5:29; Matthew 6:22; Romans 12:1; James 3:6; Revelation 18:13. Sometimes the person is identified with his or her body, Acts 9:37; Acts 13:36, and this is so even of the Lord Jesus, John 19:40 with John 19:42. The body is not the man, for he himself can exist apart from his body, 2 Corinthians 12:2-3. The body is an essential part of the man and therefore the redeemed are not perfected till the resurrection, Hebrews 11:40; no man in his final state will be without his body, John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:13.

Soma as Paul used it here means man in his total existence in this world. Man is more than body, but he is body. It is through the body that the personality, the spiritual man, functions and operates in relationship to God and his fellow man. It is difficult for people of western culture to think of the body as the person. We tend to think of the body as a group of fleshly organs that will die and decompose in the grave. It is true, Paul spoke this way of the stomach, but to the Oriental (eastern) mind (including the Hebrew) the term body most often was associated with the self. So, in this section, we might correctly paraphrase the apostle by using either the word self or man. Man is both body and soul (or spirit). In the New Testament soul describes man in his thinking, feeling, willing capacities; body describes man as an acting, functioning, personality living in this world in relationship to his Creator and other creatures. The body is the extension of and instrument through which the soul is expressed.

Man was not made for immorality. Man in his totality was made for the Lord. God made man to function and express self or soul in this existence through his body. Thus, the human body has, as it were, a spiritual purpose. In and through our bodies we are to serve and glorify Christ. Man, in his totalitybody and soulwas made to serve and exhibit truth, purity, holiness, and goodness (the character of God). Man was not made with a body to abuse it in selfish, hurtful, degrading and false practices. The stomach was made for good, but man in his totality was made for God. Paul is certainly aware that some men may make their bellies their gods (Romans 16:18; Philippians 3:19) so he is not saying in this text that there is no possibility of sinful abuse of the stomach and food. He is saying the Gnostic philosophy which says the sexual appetite is just like the appetite for food, a totally natural function, is false. He is saying man is not as free to satisfy the sexual desire as he is the desire for food.

The apostle had undoubtedly taught the Corinthians in his earlier visits that the Old Testament legislation about sinful foods had been fulfilled in the Gospel and they were free to eat anything that was not physically harmful. It is certain that he had previously taught them they were free in Christ from all opinions and superstitions of paganism. But now he sets out upon a five-chapter dissertation (ch. 6-10) concerning the limitations of Christian freedom. Clearly, the Corinthians had been twisting his earlier teaching about liberty to mean they were free to be totally abandoned to whatever fleshly appetite they might feel urged. Paul seeks to correct that by a concise and clear statement of the divine purpose for the human body.

1 Corinthians 6:15-20 Purpose of Humanness: The stomach was meant for food, but not for complete dietary abandon. Eating must be controlled. Gluttony is a perversion of the body and a sin. But in eating there is no intimate spiritual involvement with another person. Human sexual organs were meant for sexual intercourse. But they were not made to be given over to complete sexual abandon. Sexuality must be controlled. Sexual promiscuity is a perversion of the body and a sin. But there is more than mere physical function involved in sexual intercourse. In sexual intercourse two beings are spiritually or psychologically joined or united in a mutual purpose.

Paul begins his explanation of the purpose of humanness by declaring that Christians are supposed to have given their bodies (selves, persons) to be united in mutuality with Christ. Christians are to be joined, spirit, soul and body (in totality) to Jesus Christ. They are married to him (Ephesians 5:21-33). For the Christian to engage in sexual intercourse with someone to whom he or she is not married is not only unfaithfulness to the human spouse but is also unfaithfulness to Christ.

The person who joins with a prostitute (male or female) in sexual intercourse does more than perform a physical function. Two people who join in sexual intimacy undeniably unite psychologically or spiritually in a mutual purpose. Those who do so as married people are fulfilling a good spiritual purposethe will of God. Those who do so outside the marriage bonds are fulfilling a mutual, spiritual purpose of rebellion against the will of God. If we translate (or paraphrase) Paul's use of the word body by using the word person or self, he would be saying, Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one person with her? Sexual intercourse is the point in human relations at which two persons (not just fleshly bodies) are united in the ultimate human intimacy. There can be no other intimacy in human relations as deeply spiritual or as psychologically binding. Two thus joined become one! Legally, of course, there is more to marriage than the act of sexual intercourse. Spiritually and psychologically there is more to marriage than sexual intercourse. But both legally and spiritually, sexual intercourse is the act that consummates a marriage. A person who unites sexually with a prostitute (or in an act of adultery or fornication) is not legally married to the prostitute. Paul is not setting forth some technical law by which a person who joins in sexual intercourse to a harlot must forever after consider himself legally married to her. In fact, there are any number of persons, legally married having also consummated their marriage sexually, who are not one in other areas of marriage. Paul is saying here, with all the emphasis possible, that sexual intercourse is more than a physical function. Certain physical functions of the human body are instinctive and amoral. That is, when these functions operate they are neither good nor badman has no moral control over them one way or another. They operate whether he chooses for them to do so or not. Digestion is such an amoral physical function. With sexual intercourse that is not so. Man has been given moral choice and control over sexual intimacy. The Greek word de (translated but in 1 Corinthians 6:17) is a conjunctive particle marking the super addition of a clause, whether in opposition or in continuation, to what has preceded, and it may be variously rendered but, on the other hand, and, also, now, etc. We think 1 Corinthians 6:17 is a clause in continuation of what has preceded and not in opposition. Therefore, Paul is likening the intimateness of the Christian's relationship to Christ to that of two persons engaged in sexual intercourse. The Christian joins himself intimately to Christ by choice. So the person who joins himself intimately (sexually) to another person does so morallyby choice. A Christian who joins intimately (sexually) with a prostitute has taken the body (person) purchased by the sinless blood of Christ, which has been intimately joined to Christ and made a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, and joined it in rebellion against the will of Christ and the desecration of his glory. God created man to glorify his Son. Man was not given a human body to use as an instrument of rebellion. So Paul exhorts these Christians to make deliberate choice and take deliberate action to keep from sinning with their bodies. Because of modern connotations, the RSV translation Shun for the Greek word pheugete in 1 Corinthians 6:18 is not strong enough. The KJV and the ASV give it the more emphatic translation, Flee fornication. The Greek word porneia, translated fornication, may also be used generically for all immorality. No human being can begin to fulfill God's purpose for having created him until he is willing to flee from all immorality.

The statement Every other sin which a man commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against his own body must be interpreted in this context. Paul is clearly teaching these Corinthians that sexual intercourse is more than a mere physical action. Divine revelation teaches that sexual intercourse is an intimate, spiritual and psychological union of personalities, much like the spiritual union of a Christian to Christ (it is, indeed, a marriage). He is not saying that other sins have no spiritual causes or consequences. He is simply saying that other sins do not unite one person with another in such a life-affecting way as fornication. The student should immediately read Proverbs 5:8-11; Proverbs 6:24-32; Proverbs 7:24-27. The spiritual intimacy of the sexual relationship, when perverted contrary to the will of God, results in the destruction of the personality; especially is the person inhibited from the spiritual goals for which God created him. This may be documented today from the experiences and files of counseling psychiatrists and clergymen.

A physical function of the body is temporary. It is of the flesh and will perish with the flesh. The use of some physical functions, however, is a spiritual matter. The use of most physical functions is a matter of moral choice. To use any physical function contrary to the revealed will of its Creator is immoral. All sins abusing the physical organs are outside the most intimate part of our personality except sexual abuse. Sexual sin is against the deepest recesses of the person inside! This is a solemn warning to those sophisticates of the world today who would seduce mankind with the ancient Gnostic philosophy that sexual intercourse is merely a physical function and may be practiced without obedience to the word of God.

In some way, when a human being gives his body to sexual intimacy with another being, he gives it as a residence to the personality of that other person. When sexual intimacy is given contrary to the will of God the body becomes a residence of the spirit of harlotry and prostitution. God wants man to give his or her body for the residence of the Holy Spirit. This is what a person vows to do when becoming a Christian. The whole man (which is what Paul means in his use of the Greek word soma, or body) is not to perish like food and the human stomach. Sexual promiscuity treats the whole man as if it were to perish! Sexual promiscuity destroys that which is eternal in manlove, faithfulness, honesty, orderliness, and righteousness. It is no accident that God symbolizes idolatry and unbelief as harlotry in the Old Testament, Sexual promiscuity and prostitution are so irresponsible, so exploitative, so degrading and dehumanizing in attitude and action. They treat the human body as a thing. That is why Paul said every other sin which a man commits is outside the body but the sexually promiscuous person sins against his own body.

Paul's final explanation of and argument for the purpose of humanness concerns the human self or person (the whole man) as a potential residence of the Holy Spirit of God Almighty. Actually, it is presupposed by the apostle that God's Spirit had already taken residence in the bodies of these Corinthian Christians. Just what does Paul mean by the question, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? What is the phenomenon known as the indwelling of the Holy Spirit?
Let us first consider what, according to other New Testament passages, it cannot mean; (a) it cannot mean the power to perform miracles; that is specified in the New Testament as the baptism of the Holy Spirit and was promised only to apostlespassed on by the apostles to selected Christians of the first century only by the laying on of the hands of the apostles; some (e.g. John the Baptist) who were said to be full of the Holy Spirit never worked a miracle so far as we know; (b) it cannot mean supernatural illumination that enables those who have it to understand the scriptures; all men are created with the capacity to read human language and understand without divine illumination; the apostles were given, supernaturally, a revelation of the New will of God, but they delivered it to the whole human race in human language (see our comments on 1 Corinthians 2:1 ff.) and all sinners are expected to hear and read those apostolic words and believe before the Holy Spirit comes to abide with them; faith comes by hearing the word of Christ (Romans 10:17); there would be no point in preaching, no point in sinners reading the Bible, no point even in printing Bibles if every non-Christian must wait until he is sure he has the Holy Spirit in him before he can understand the revealed will of God.

The coming of the Holy Spirit of God and Christ to take residence in the human being involves more than understanding, acknowledging and obeying the revealed will of the Holy Spirit in the scriptures. Apparently, it is a supranatural action on the part of God but mystical to man (that is, a spiritual reality neither apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence). The difference between those who will not be raised to eternal life with Christ and those who will is the indwelling presence of Christ's Spirit (cf. Romans 8:1-11). The coming of Christ's Spirit to reside in us is not something we earn or merit by our perfect obedience, but it is initiated by God's Spirit because of his grace when we give him welcome by our love and faith.

Having said it is mystical to man, however, does not preclude the fact that we can understand, acknowledge in faith, and obey the directions revealed by the Holy Spirit providing the instrumentality through which God chooses to initiate his supranatural residence in people. God's action may be mystical, but the directions through which he promises to act are not mystical. The Bible clearly teaches that faithful and loving response to the commandments of God, in any dispensation of time, will be acceptable as an invitation for the Holy Spirit to take up residence within a human being (cf. Psalms 51:10-12; John 14:15-24; John 15:1-11; Acts 2:38; Acts 5:32; Romans 8:5; Ephesians 3:17; 1 John 3:24; 1 John 4:12, etc.). So then, the way God's Spirit dwells in a person is by a person's intelligent, willing, loving submission to what God says by the Holy Spirit in the revealed Word so that what he thinks, determines, and feels is under the direction of the Spirit through the Word. In other words, the instrument or vehicle or channel through which the Holy Spirit enters and resides in our bodies (or persons) is his revealed and written Word. Apart from that process he will not function residentially in usnot initially and not continually. Clearly, Paul has been teaching from the very first of this epistle that the apostolic gospel is the exclusive matrix within which these Corinthians must be living in order to be assured of the communion (residence) of God's Spirit. God's Spirit does not reside within a person outside the communion of his Word. Christ stands at the door and knockshe will not force his way in to sup (reside) with any who are not believing and repenting (cf. Revelation 3:19-20).

The apostle turns metaphorically to the well known practice of slavery to show the emphatic subservience of the purchased one to his purchaser. It would be a familiar experience in the first century. The slave in the Greco-Roman world was chattel, purely and simply. Slaves were bought and sold as property, and masters held total sovereignty over them. Slaves gave total allegiance and obedience to their masters lest they be punished or slain without any appeal to civil courts or magistrates. The only purpose for a slave was to serve his master's willtotally. For slaves who were purchased by good and beneficent masters, this could mean protection, security, dignity and even happiness (see the letter to Philemon). Paul preached and wrote a great deal about the good and beneficent Master, Jesus Christ. He always considered himself, and all other Christians, as having yielded both soul and body in slavery to Christ (cf. Romans 6:15-23). Since Christ has purchased all men through his vicarious atonement (cf. Acts 20:28; Hebrews 9:12; 1 Peter 1:18-19; Revelation 5:9), they are expected to yield, by faith, and be his slaves for righteousness. If Christ has paid our ransom, he owns us. He actually owns us twicefirst by right of having created us and second by right of having redeemed us.

The person who yields himself to become a slave of Christ has no rights of his own. He does not belong to himself but to Christ. The only rights a Christian has are those granted him in the revealed will of his Master, Jesus Christ (and that is in the Bible). Any attitude or action not found in Christ's revealed will is not permissible for the Christian. See New Life Through Accepting Jesus-' Death in Learning From Jesus, by Seth Wilson, pgs. 495-503, College Press.

We who have yielded to the redemption he obtained for us are his body here on earththe channels through which he works. We are instruments of his for accomplishing righteousness in the earth. Jesus, instead of being limited to one physical body as when he was here on earth, now acts through the bodies of his people in whom he lives. You will always find in the Bible that God works through a human body in this world. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:1-18). The Son came in a human body to offer himself as a perfect sacrifice (Hebrews 10:5-10). It was in a body that man sinned; it is in a body that we sin. It was in a body that the Son of man came to earth; it was in a body that he conquered sin which had conquered us. It was in a body that he died and rose again, and now, by his Spirit, he comes to live within the body of his people. Satan always works in this world through a body also. The only way he can thwart God's purposes is to get a body surrendered to his use, available for his diabolic power and ugly purposes. This is the question of choice in a Christian's life: shall he take that which has been purchased by Christ and made an instrument of the body of Christ, and give it to some unworthy use?that body, the means through which God's will is to be done, and yield it to the rebellious purposes of Satan? If he does, he becomes one with the devil. But if he is yielded to the Lord's Spirit, he is one with the Spirit of Christ. The same Spirit which enabled Jesus Christ to live day by day in a human body and never deviate from the will of God, never yield to all the tremendous temptations of the devil, will live in us and through us as our Strengthener, too. Joined to Christ, we are able to glorify God in the body. Joined to the devil, we glorify sin in our bodies.

Thus, Paul closes his exhortation (temporarily) against the seductive Gnostic sophistry that since the body is merely physical and every physical hunger (including the sexual hunger) an amoral, uncontrollable animal instinct, there is no moral guilt in sexual promiscuity. The Gnostic sophistry tried to ignore the sins of fornication, adultery and homosexuality by calling them simply physical functions like eating food. Paul replies that the human body was created for the Lord's purpose, its destiny is to be resurrected for the Lord's purpose, therefore, human bodies are members of God's personhood. To prostitute a human body for physical purposes only (especially in sexual promiscuity like animals) would be to take what belongs to God and use it for the devil. The bodies of Christian people belong to Christ even more surely by their having professed to accept Christ's redemption. Christians have been sanctified, body and soul, to glorify Christ by yielding up their bodies (and souls) in service to righteousness.
It is a fundamental doctrine of the New Testament. We cannot go to heaven if we do not yield to it. The old Gnostic sophistry is flooding the earth again today and has even washed over the gunwales of the ship of Zioncarnality threatens to sink the church today. Christians must insist on the sacredness of the human body and its sanctification to the will of God, no matter how unpopular the doctrine may be.

Applebury's Comments

Sins Against the Body (12-20)

Text

1 Corinthians 6:12-20. 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 any. 13 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall bring to nought both it and them. But the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body: 14 and God both raised the Lord, and will raise up us through his power. 15 Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? shall I then take away the members of Christ, and make them members of a harlot? God forbid. 16 Or know ye not that he that is joined to a harlot is one body? for, The twain, saith he, shall become one flesh. 17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 19 Or know ye no that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own; 20 for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body.

Commentary

All things are lawful for me.All things must be understood in the light of the context in which it is used. It cannot be assumed that Paul is suggesting that there is a place for such a thing as fornication. This and all other sins are proscribed by divine edict. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Therefore, I assume that Paul means that there is a lawful purpose for all things which God created, and that purpose is not to be perverted through sin. That's why Paul declares that he will not be brought under the authority of anything. For example, there is a purpose for the appetite for food, but that appetite is not to be allowed to degenerate into the sin of gluttony. There is a divine purpose in sex, but the desire related to it is not to be perverted into the sins of fornication and adultery. God intended man to follow His instruction as to the purpose and use of food, sex, and all other powers with which man is endowed. Clear and specific regulations on all these matters are given in the Word of God for man's own good.

God shall bring to naught both it and them.Some things have a time limit set for their usefulness. Food and the stomach have such a limit, that is, they are limited to this life. The body has an eternal purpose, however, for in it we are to serve and glorify the Lord in this life, and in the end He will raise up our mortal bodies which shall be changed into the likeness of the body of Christ's glory (Philippians 3:20-21). This subject is discussed at length in chapter fifteen.

not for fornication, but for the Lord.God intended that man should have a family and that children should be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. But the sins of immorality defeat the purpose of the Lord. We can glorify God in the body here by acting as Christians, and, in the glorified body of the resurrection, we can serve Him eternally.

the Lord is for the body.The Lord provided for all the needs of man in the beginning. He provided food, work, mental and spiritual activity, and gave him woman as his counterpart in every regard. The Lord set wonderful powers in the body. He created it with remarkable recuperative powers when disease strikes, and many other things too numerous to mention. The Lord is also for the body so far as its eternal destiny is concerned. In the grace of God, there is provision to conquer death, for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

your bodies are members of Christ.This is a spiritual relationship, for he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17). By using the facts of the marriage relationship, the apostle is pointing out the nature of the sin of immorality. The twain shall become one flesh. The rule applied as well to immoral relationships of which some of them were guilty. Shall I take away the members of Christ, and make them members of a harlot? An utterly abhorrent thought. Yet this is exactly what some of them were doing. What an awful sin to so pervert the divine purpose of the body and destroy its relationship to the Lord. Therefore, Paul says, Flee fornication.

he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.There are two ways as indicated in this context in which this is done. The sin of fornication takes the body that belongs to Christ and makes it a member of the harlot. That is a sin against the body for, although it will raised from death, it will not be made to conform to the body of His glorya wonderful promise for saints only. Fornication is also a sin against the body because it is intended to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. Obviously, this can not be while the body is given over to sin.

Paul is not discussing the fact that sin can bring disease and death to the body. Bad as this is, the greater sin against the body is severing it from its holy purpose in relation to Christ and the Holy Spirit. Other sinsfor example, idolatrycould destroy this relationship too, but they are outside of the body, that is, they do not affect the body in the same way.

your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.The fact that God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit dwells in the saints is clearly taught in the Bible. God is said to abide in them who keep His commandments. Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him (John 14:23). No man hath beheld God at any time: if we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit (1 John 4:12-13). We know that God is in us because of what He has revealed through His Spirit in the inspired Word.

Paul speaks of Christ living in him. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me (Galatians 2:20). The Holy Spirit strengthens the inward man through equipping him with the whole armor of God so that Christ may dwell in the heart of the Christian through faith (Ephesians 3:16-17).

A number of passages mention the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you (Romans 8:11).

The real problem is to determine what is meant by the facts so clearly stated that God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit dwell in the Christian. One needs to be on guard here, for many fantastic claims that cannot be substantiated by Scripture or practical reason have been made through the ages since the Bible was written. Whatever may be implied, it does not mean power to perform miracles, for this power was given to the apostles when they were baptized in the Holy Spirit and to those upon whom they laid hands. It does not mean illumination that enables one to understand the Word, for God created man with the capacity to understand thought in speech and writing. God spoke through the apostles and caused them to write in a manner that can be understood without any further aid of divine illumination. By this understandable Word, of course, He sheds light on many things we need to know. But we must observe the correct rules of interpretation in order to benefit from the light of the Word (Psalms 119:105). It is clearly implied in every instance where it is mentioned that the one in whom the Spirit dwells is under obligation to live such a life of purity as to reflect glory on God. It implies the necessity of keeping God's commands to love one another, to be crucified to the world, to overcome Satan by using the armor of God, and to flee from fornication which is a sin against the body. In other words, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit calls for a holy life before God.

The apostle is using metaphorical language when he says, Your body is a temple. A temple was a dwelling place for God. Pagans made a literal thing of this by making idols and setting them up in their temples. God's presence in the midst of ancient Israel was represented by the cloud that covered the tent of meeting and filled the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34-35). Metaphorical language, it should be remembered, does not lessen the importance of the lesson that Christians are to conduct themselves in a manner that shows their awareness of the presence of God at all times. What a difference this would make in the life of the church today!

We may get some help in understanding indwelling by an interesting explanation Paul presents in Romans 7:15-20. He describes himself before he became a Christian by saying that he found himself doing things that he despised. Many a sinner has done the same thing. What caused him to do it? He says it was sin that dwelleth in me. Sin became the tyrant that caused him to obey its will. He, of course, was responsible for letting sin have such control. But the point is, he was doing what Satan wanted him to do. That is what indwelling meant in that case.

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit, then, may mean the intelligent, willing, loving submission to what God says by the Holy Spirit in the revealed Word so that what one thinks, determines, and feels is under the direction of the Spirit through the Word. That, of course, will require the Christian to read and search the Bible to know what it actually says and to conduct himself in accordance with the divine instruction. It is the Word that was revealed to the apostles through the Holy Spirit that is to direct the life of the follower of Christnothing mystical about this, but it is practical and understandable.

ye were bought with a price.That price is the blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19; Ephesians 1:6; Romans 3:25). Then the Christian belongs to God and is under obligation to serve Him.

glorify God therefore in your body.Instead of serving sin and sinning against the body by robbing it of its rightful place in God's plan for His creatures, you are to prove by your conduct that you belong to God and that His Spirit dwells in you.

Summary

The Corinthian church had failed to settle the problems between themselves; they were guilty of bringing their differences before non-Christian courts with the result that the church was brought into disrepute.
The apostle's amazement at such conduct is expressed in his question, Dare any of you who has a case against another take it to court before the unjust instead of settling it before the saints? That they were qualified to settle matters that belong to this lifethat is, things that belong to the lowest courtsis indicated by the fact that the saints are destined to judge not only the world but also angels. Since this is so, why should they go before those who are not even a part of the church but are a part of the group to be judged by the church to have such completely discredited persons settle their differences? They should have been ashamed. Surely there was some wise person among them who was capable of deciding between brethren so that brethren wouldn-'t have to go to court before unbelievers.
This meant just one thing: The church was suffering defeat in its purpose and mission. It would have been better for them to suffer wrong or be defrauded. Actually they were being unjust and were defrauding their brethren. Paul reminds them that the unjustand it seems that this takes in both those in the church and those outside as wellshall not inherit the kingdom of God. In order that they might understand exactly what he meant, Paul presented a list of various types of sinners who will inherit the heavenly kingdom. Then he adds, Some of you used to be such sinners. As Christians, their conduct should be different. Therefore, he says, But you got yourselves washed, you were sanctified, you were justified. They had submitted to baptism and had gotten their sins washed away in the blood of Christ. As a result, the Lord had separated them from their sins and God, the Judge, had pardoned their guilt. The pardon was granted in the name of Christ within the limits set by the Spirit of God. Christ removes the guilt; the Holy Spirit, through the inspired apostles, reveals the terms of pardon.
Continuing the discussion of their failures in duty, Paul now considers the law of expediency in relation to the use of the body. Instead of glorifying God in the body, some were using the body as an instrument of sin. There is a limit placed on things that are called lawful. God's lawful purpose of things He created and powers He gave man can be abused. Paul argues that there is a lawful purpose for food and leaves the reader to imply the very evident conclusion that gluttony and drunkenness are sinful since they bring one under the power of food and drink. Hastening to the real issue, he says that immorality is an abuse of the body which was made for the service of the Lord, Since your bodies are members of Christ, it is unthinkable that you should make them members of a harlot. The law that makes the two one flesh applies in such a case also, but the one who serves the Lord becomes one spirit in relation to Him.
The urgent command is given: Flee immorality. Always assume the attitude of one running away from this sin because fornication is a sin against the body which God intended to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. Since Christians are bought with the price of the blood of Christ, they are to glorify God in the body. Indwelling of the Spirit in relation to the Christian implies the necessity of living a holy lifeone separated from sin.