1 Corinthians 6:18

With vehement abruptness P. turns from exposition to exhortation. “ Flee fornication” other sins may be combated; this must be fled, as by Joseph in Potiphar's house. φεύγετε the opposite of κολλᾶσθαι (1 Corinthians 6:16). The parl [987] φεύγετε ἀπὸ τ. εἰδωλολατρείας of 1 Corinthians 10:14 shows “the connexion in Cor [988] between impurity and idolatry” (Ed [989] : cf. the lists of sins in 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Corinthians 5:11.) Ἡ πορνεία contradicts Christ's rights in the body (1 Corinthians 6:13-17) and severs the committer from Him; P. has now to say that this is a sin against the nature of the human body: “Every act of sin (ἁμάρτημα) which a man may possibly do, is outside of the body; but the fornicator (ὁ πορνεύων) sins against his own body”. The point of this saying lies in the contrasted prepositions ἐκτὸς and εἰς : all bodily sins “defile the flesh” (2 Corinthians 7:1), but other vices those of the κοιλία, e.g. look outside the body; this in its whole essence lies within our physical nature, so that, while it appropriates the person of another (1 Corinthians 6:16), it is a self-violation. Hence transgressions of the Seventh Commandment are “sins of the flesh” and “of the passions” par éminence. They engage and debauch the whole person; they “enter into the heart,” for “they proceed out of the heart” and touch the springs of being; in the highest degree they “defile the man” (Mark 7:20 ff.). That inchastity is extreme dishonour is realised in the one sex; Christianity makes it equally so in the other.

[987] parallel.

[988] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[989] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2