This verse does not support the idea that once a person has experienced eternal salvation he will live a life free of gross sin. Normally this is the consequence of conversion thanks to the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. However believers can grieve and quench the Holy Spirit's ministry in their lives. In this letter we have seen that not only were some of the Corinthian saints fornicators before their conversion, but one of them had continued in or returned to that sin (5:1).
Paul's point in this whole section (vv. 1-11) was that genuine Christians should not continue in or return to the sinful practices that mark unbelievers. We should become what we are because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. This appeal runs throughout the New Testament and is latent in every exhortation to pursue godliness. It is especially strong in this epistle. Rather than assuming that believers will not continually practice sin, the inspired writers constantly warned us of that possibility.
This passage does not deal with how Christians should respond when pagans defraud or sue us. But if we apply the principles Paul advocated in dealing with fellow believers, we should participate in public litigation only as a last resort.
This is one of the more important passages in the New Testament on the human body.
Refutation of the Corinthians' false premises 6:12-14
Paul began by arguing against his recipients' distortion of Christian freedom and their misunderstanding of the nature of the body. The influence of Greek dualism on the Corinthians continues to be obvious. He presented his teaching in the form of a dialogue with his readers, the diatribe style, which was familiar to them.
6:12 Paul was and is famous as the apostle of Christian liberty. He saw early in his Christian life and clearly that the Christian is not under the Mosaic Law. His Epistle to the Galatians is an exposition of this theme. He preached this freedom wherever he went. Unfortunately he was always subject to misinterpretation. Some of his hearers concluded that he advocated no restraints whatsoever in Christian living.
Similarly the Protestant reformers fell under the same criticism by their Roman Catholic opponents. The Catholics said that the reformers were teaching that since Christians are saved by grace they could live sinful lives. Unfortunately John Calvin's successor in Geneva, Theodore Beza (1519-1605), overreacted and argued that a true Christian cannot commit gross sin. This assertion led to the conclusion that the basis of assurance of salvation is the presence of fruit in the life rather than the promise of God (e.g., John 6:47; et al.). This view, that a true Christian will not commit gross sin, has become popular in reformed theology, but it goes further than Scripture does. Scripture never makes this claim but constantly warns Christians against abusing their liberty in Christ and turning it into a license to sin.187
Perhaps those in Corinth who were practicing sexual immorality and suing their brethren in pagan courts appealed to Paul to support their actions, though they took liberty farther than Paul did.188
"'Everything is permissible for me' is almost certainly a Corinthian theological slogan."189
"It could have been argued in Corinth . . . that the right course was for a husband to keep his wife 'pure', and, if necessary, find occasional sexual satisfaction in a harlot."190
187See Dillow, pp. 245-69.
188See Robert N. Wilkin, "Are All Things Lawful for Believers?" Grace Evangelical Society Newsletter 4:7 (July 1989):2.
189Fee, The First . . ., p. 251. Cf. 10:23.
190Barrett, p. 145.
In this verse the apostle restated his general maxim but qualified it (cf.
10:23). Legality is not the only test the Christian should apply to his or her behavior. Is the practice also profitable (helpful, admirable, beneficial, expedient, good)? Furthermore even though I have authority over some practice, might it gain control over me? The Christian should always be able to submit to the Lord's control. We should give the Lord, not anyone or anything else, primary control of our bodies.
"Freedom is not to be for self but for others. The real question is not whether an action is 'lawful' or 'right' or even 'all right,' but whether it is good, whether it benefits. . . . Truly Christian conduct is not predicated on whether I have the right to do something, but whether my conduct is helpful to those about me."191
"We have no longer any right to do what in itself is innocent, when our doing it will have a bad effect on others. . . . We have no longer any right to do what in itself is innocent, when experience has proved that our doing it has a bad effect on ourselves."192
6:13-14 The first part of this verse is similar to the two parts of the previous verse.
It contains a statement that is true, and it may have been a Corinthian slogan, but a qualifier follows. Food is not a matter of spiritual significance for the Christian, except that gluttony is a sin. As far as what we eat goes, we may eat anything and be pleasing to God (Mark 7:19). He has not forbidden any foods for spiritual reasons, though there may be physical reasons we may choose not to eat certain things. Both food and the stomach are physical and temporal. Paul may have referred to food here, not because it was an issue, but to set up the issue of the body and sexual immorality. However, gluttony and immorality often went together in Greek and Roman feasts. So gluttony may have been an issue.193 As food is for the stomach, so the body is for the Lord.
"Not only are meats made for the belly, but the belly, which is essential to physical existence, is made for meats, and cannot exist without them."194
The same is not true of the body and fornication. Paul constructed his argument like this.
191Fee, The First . . ., p. 252.
192Robertson and Plummer, p. 122.
193Keener, p. 57.
194Robertson and Plummer, p. 123.
Proposition 1:
Part 1: Food is for the stomach [A, B], and the stomach is for food [B, A].
Part 2: God will destroy the stomach [B] and the food [A].
Proposition 2:
Part 1: The body is for the Lord [A, B] (not for sexual immorality), and the Lord is for the body [B, A].
Part 2: God has raised the Lord [B], and He will raise us [A] (by His power).
One might conclude, and some in Corinth were evidently doing so, that since sex was also physical and temporal it was also irrelevant spiritually.195 However this is a false conclusion. The body is part of what the Lord saved and sanctified. Therefore it is for Him, and we should use it for His glory, not for fornication. Furthermore the Lord has a noble purpose and destiny for our bodies. He is for them in that sense.
The Lord will resurrect the bodies of most Christians in the future, all but those that He catches away at the Rapture (1 Thess. 4:17). The resurrection of our bodies shows that God has plans for them. Some in Corinth did not believe in the resurrection, but Paul dealt with that later (ch. 15). Here he simply stated the facts without defending them.
"The body of the believer is for the Lord because through Christ's resurrection God has set in motion the reality of our own resurrection. This means that the believer's physical body is to be understood as 'joined' to Christ's own 'body' that was raised from the dead."196
Arguments against participating in prostitution 6:15-17
Building on the preceding theological base, Paul argued against participating in fornication with prostitutes. The Corinthians had not correctly understood the nature of sexual intercourse or the nature of Christian conversion.
6:15 Another rhetorical question affirmed the truth. As we are members of Christ's body, so our bodies are members of Him. This is not just clever wordplay. Our physical bodies are just as much a part of Christ—united with Him in a genuine spiritual union—as we are part of the mystical body of Christ, the church. However, Paul was not speaking here of the believer's union with Christ by becoming a member of His mystical body, the church (12:12-26). He was metaphorically speaking of our individual union with Christ's physical body.
195Barrett, p. 147.
196Fee, The First . . ., p. 258.
When a Christian has sexual relations with a prostitute, he or she takes what belongs to God and gives it to someone else. This is stealing from God. When a Christian marries, this does not happen because God has ordained and approves of marriage (cf. 7:14). He permits us to share our bodies with our lawful mates. Taking a member of Christ and uniting it to a harlot also involves the Lord in that immoral act. Paul's revulsion at the thought of this comes through graphically in his characteristic me genoito (lit. "May it not happen!").
"Sex outside of marriage is like a man robbing a bank: he gets something, but it is not his and he will one day pay for it. Sex within marriage can be like a person putting money into a bank: there is safety, security, and he will collect dividends. Sex within marriage can build a relationship that brings joys in the future; but sex apart from marriage has a way of weakening future relationships, as every Christian marriage counselor will tell you."197
6:16 Paul urged his readers not to think of sexual intercourse as simply a physical linking of two people for the duration of their act. God views intercourse as involving the whole person, not just the body. It is the most intimate sharing that human beings experience. A spiritual union takes place. Sexual relations affect the inner unseen conditions of the individuals involved very deeply. This is what is in view in the reference to two people becoming "one flesh" in Genesis 2:24. Consequently it is improper to put sexual relations on the same level of significance as eating food.
6:17 Compared to the union that takes place when two people have sex, the person who trusts Christ unites with Him in an even stronger and more pervasive oneness. This is an even stronger spiritual union. Consequently it is a very serious thing to give to a prostitute what God has so strongly united to Christ.
Paul expressed his argument in a chiasm.
A Your bodies are members of Christ's body.
B So they must not be members of a prostitute's body.
B' Joined to a prostitute your members become one body with her.
A' Joined to Christ your members become one spirit with Him.
The reason participating in prostitution is wrong 6:18-20
Sexual immorality is wrong, Paul concluded, because it involves sinning against one's body, which in the case of believers belongs to the Lord through divine purchase.
197Wiersbe, 1:589.
6:18 In conclusion, believers should flee from fornication (porneian). Joseph is a good example to follow (Gen. 39:12). Fornication is more destructive to the sinner than other sins because the people who engage in it cannot undo their act. Gluttony and drunkenness hurt the body as well, but they involve excess in things morally neutral, and abstinence may correct their effects.
Fornication is also an especially serious sin because it involves placing the body, which is the Lord's (vv. 19-20), under the control of another illegitimate partner (cf. 7:4).198 No other sin has this result. All other sins are outside or apart from the body in this sense. "Every sin that a man commits is outside the body," could be another incorrect Corinthian slogan that Paul proceeded to correct (cf. vv. 12, 13).
"Does God then forbid the restoration of fallen leaders? No.
Does He leave open the possibility? Yes. Does that possibility look promising? Yes and no. If both the life and reputation of the fallen elder can be rehabilitated, his prospects for restoration are promising. However, rehabilitating his reputation, not to mention his life, will be particularly difficult, for squandering one's reputation is 'a snare of the devil' (1 Tim. 3:7), and he does not yield up his prey easily."199
6:19 Another rhetorical question makes a strong, important statement.
Previously Paul taught his readers that the Corinthian church was a temple (naos; 3:16). The believer's body is also one. The Holy Spirit is really indwelling each of these temples (Rom. 8:9; cf. Matt. 12:6; 18:15-20;
28:16-20; Mark 13:11; John 14:17, 23).200 He is a gift to us from God (cf.
1 Thess. 4:8). He is the best gift God has given us thus far. Consequently we have a moral obligation to the Giver. Moreover because He indwells us we belong to Him.
6:20 Furthermore, God has purchased (Gr. agorazo) every Christian with a great price, the blood of Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:24-25; Eph. 1:7; et al.). So we belong to Him for a second reason. In view of this we should glorify God in our bodies rather than degrading Him through fornication (cf.
Rom. 12:1-2). Usually the New Testament emphasis is on redemption leading to freedom from sin (e.g., Gal. 3:13; 4:5; Rev. 5:9; 14:3), but here it is on redemption leading to faithfulness to God. Even our physical bodies are to be faithful to the Lord with whom we are joined.
"The reason to glorify God in the body and not engage in sexual immorality is rooted in a new way of understanding the self."201
198Fee, The First . . ., p. 262.
199Jay E. Smith, "Can Fallen Leaders Be Restored to Leadership? Bibliotheca Sacra 151:604 (October-December 1994):480.
200See Sweeney, p. 629.
201Cousar, "The Theological . . .," p. 99.
"What Paul seems to be doing is taking over their own theological starting point, namely, that they are 'spiritual' because they have the Spirit, and redirecting it to include the sanctity of the body. The reality of the indwelling Spirit is now turned against them. They thought the presence of the Spirit meant a negation of the body; Paul argues the exact opposite: The presence of the Spirit in their present bodily existence is God's affirmation of the body."202
Paul's solution to the problem of the lack of discipline (chs. 5—6) was the same as his solution to the problem of divisions in the church (1:10—4:21). He led his readers back to the Cross (6:20; cf. 1:23-25).
Incest was one manifestation of carnality in the church (ch. 5), suing fellow believers in the public courts was another (6:1-11), and going to prostitutes was a third (6:12-10).
Nevertheless the underlying problem was a loose view of sin, a view the unbelievers among whom the Corinthian Christians lived took. In this attitude, as in their attitude toward wisdom (1:10—4:21), their viewpoint was different from that of the Apostle Paul and God. God inspired these sections of the epistle to transform their outlook and ours on these subjects.