1 Corinthians 6
Lipscomb1 Corinthians 6:1
Dare any of you,— [The word “dare” implies that the resort to civil courts to settle differences between Christians is wholly inconsistent with the will of Christ, and that even one case would be outrageous.]
having a matter against his neighbor, go to law before the unrighteous,—To neglect or reject the authority of God at one point prepares the way and leads to the setting aside his authority at all points. The Corinthians turned from adherence to the law of God, and became followers of men. They gave up the high regard for morality and palliated the grossest forms of licentiousness. They set aside the leaders of the congregation as the divinely appointed tribunal for deciding differences that might arise among them, and resorted to the tribunals of the heathen, or the government of the unbelievers; and Paul now comes to remonstrate with them for setting aside the divine authority.
and not before the saints?—It was anticipated that Christians would have troubles or differences in their affairs, and Jesus gave (Matthew 18:15-20) rules by which to settle them. The judgment of the saints was obtained when the directions given were followed. Paul regarded it as a daring sin in Christians to neglect the law of Christ and seek the tribunals of the State. This did not conflict with Paul’s own course of appealing to Caesar’s court for protection, when the servants of Caesar were used to persecute him. He appealed to the protection Caesar’s laws guaranteed when those were perverted and abused to punish him by the laws of Caesar. Caesar’s courts are recognized as the courts of unbelievers; the decisions of the church as courts of the believers.
Since the days of the union of “Church and State,” and while believers participate in State affairs, this distinction is lost sight of, and the admonition is disregarded. The decisions of the church are brought into disrepute, because they are so often mere efforts at compromise instead of decisions of justice. Compromise of right, truth, and justice can never command the respect of God or man.
1 Corinthians 6:2
Or know ye not—[A form of expression often used by Paul when he wished to bring to mind important truth, which his readers knew, but disregarded. The knowledge of the great future which was in store for the children of God was the strongest argument against the humiliating degradation to which their appeal to the civil courts to settle their differences had subjected them.]
that the saints—All Christians are called saints whether they live lives of consecration to God or not. They have separated themselves to the service of God and that sanctifies them.
shall judge the world?—What this verse and the next means is a matter of doubt. When, how, and where the saints are to judge the world and angels, is difficult to determine. Macknight holds that the saints are now judging the world through presenting the gospel to it, because by it the world is justified or condemned, as it receives or rejects its teachings. But the judgment here seems to be a deciding, according to that word, who is guilty and who is innocent. Matthew says: “And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that ye who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Matthew 19:28).
Another position occupied by many commentators is that the saints will be associated with Christ when they reign with him and when he judges the wicked. The doctrine, they claim, glimmered faintly to Daniel and came as a message of consolation and hope in the time of national suffering and shame, “and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.” (Daniel 7:18-22). Christ’s people will share his royalty (Romans 8:18; 2 Timothy 2:12); and therefore they will share the government (Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:30), which the Father has committed to the Son (John 5:22). In the great day the saints will intelligently and cordially approve and endorse the sentence pronounced by Christ on the millions on earth. Possibly this approval may be divinely appointed an essential condition, without which sentence would not be pronounced by man upon men, but by men themselves redeemed from their own sins, upon those who have chosen death rather than life. They further claim that it may be that final sentence cannot, according to the principles of the divine government of the universe, be pronounced upon the lost without the concurrence of the saved, that is, without a revelation of the sentence so clear as to secure the full approbation of the saved.
If so, the concurrence of the saved is an essential element in the final judgment; and they may truly be said to judge both men and angels. That the sentence which the saints will pronounce is put into their lips by Christ does not make their part in the judgment any less real; for even the Son says, “I can of myself do nothing: as I hear, I judge.” (John 5:30). As summoned by Christ to sit with him, the saints will approve and endorse the measures of reward to be given to themselves. To appeal to human courts of law was to appeal to men upon whom, as upon all men, they themselves, amid the splendor of the great assize, will pronounce an eternal sentence.
How and when the saints will judge the world seems difficult to determine, but as a truth it is accepted, and the apostle argues that they are competent to judge the differences arising among themselves.
and if the world is judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?—[This appeal is quite intelligible. It may be asked: “What has all this to do with the matter in hand? The rule of the saints is not yet.” The answer is that this judgment of the world is no private privilege arbitrarily bestowed. The saints are to share our Lord’s activity, because they share his mind (1 Corinthians 2:15-16), and this mind is in part already formed in them. Thus of necessity their disputes ought to be referred to them, rather than to courts, since they are competent to judge and adjust their differences.]
1 Corinthians 6:3
Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more, things that pertain to this life?—Some think “we” in this verse refers to the apostles, and not to the saints generally; but the latter clause seems to show that it was written to vindicate the right of the saints to judge the temporal questions that come up between Christians. If so, it must refer to them. Angels are generally understood to mean the fallen angels, demons, as the angels ministering for God hardly need to be judged. Some think the saints are to judge these by preaching the gospel, as the power of Christ through it “should spoil demons of their oracles and idols; should deprive these of their seats and strip them of their domain.” The power of the demon is supposed to have been curtailed, and the demons ceased to dominate persons on earth. These views seem strained and farfetched, hence are unsatisfactory, yet I have nothing better to offer.
1 Corinthians 6:4
If then ye have to judge things pertaining to this life, do ye set them to judge who are of no account in the church?— The meaning of this verse has also been involved in doubt. Does it mean that the least experienced and efficient members of the church shall be set to judge these temporal affairs? This cannot be true as the following verse shows. Some think the question was asked to reproach them for setting heathen tribunals over them.
1 Corinthians 6:5
I say this to move you to shame.—He shames them for leaving the Christian tribunals and going before those notorious for their mercenary character as were the civil.
What, cannot there be found among you one wise man who shall be able to decide between his brethren,—By their course they said this, and it was a slander and a reproach in the church. They boasted of their knowledge and spiritual gifts and acted as if there was not a prudent and intelligent person among them competent to settle their differences.
1 Corinthians 6:6
but brother goeth to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?—[This question was most humiliating. It is the climax. That there should be disputes about property is bad; that they should go to law is worse; that they should do this before unbelievers is extremely humiliating and sinful.] This is the sinful end they had reached.
1 Corinthians 6:7
Nay, already it is altogether a defect in you, that ye have lawsuits one with another.—He insisted that going to law was wholly wrong—a reproach and a shame to the church.
Why not rather take wrong? why not rather be defrauded?—A part of the religion of the church of Christ is to suffer and endure wrong for his sake. [The law of Christ contains principles according to which all such may be set at rest. And the difference between the laws governing worldly courts of justice and that of Christ is the difference of diametrical opposition. Law says, “You shall have your rights”; the law of Christ says, “Defraud not your neighbor of his rights.” The law says, “You must not be wronged”; Christ says, “It is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong.”]
1 Corinthians 6:8
Nay, but ye yourselves do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.—Unless there were efforts to wrong and defraud one another there would be but slight cause for differences among brethren. If each would look to his brother’s interest instead of his own, the occasions of difference would be greatly lessened. The same sin exists today for the same causes. Men are covetous and selfish. They are anxious for more than belongs to them. They look every man to his own things, not to the things of others. (Philippians 2:4).
This leads them to differ and to appeal to the tribunals of Caesar in order to obtain them. Some think there is less wrong in going to law now than in the apostolic days, because the tribunals are somewhat more liable to do justice than then, and because Christians sometimes take part in political affairs. But the latter is only a step further in the wrong prohibited. If Christians cannot appeal to the tribunals of the State to settle differences that arise between them, much less can they manage, control, and participate in the operation of these tribunals.
1 Corinthians 6:9
Or know ye not—[Some of them acted as if the gospel gave license to live in sin, instead of being intended to deliver from its power. All such persons are warned of their fatal mistake. He assures them that one who allows himself the indulgence of any sin cannot be saved.]
that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? —Paul here, as did Jesus when he was appealed to to settle differences between two brothers (Luke 12:14), lays down principles that will remove the causes that produce the contentions about property. Those who act unrighteously in doing his brother wrong, or in going before the tribunals of unbelievers, cannot inherit the kingdom of God, that is, the heavenly kingdom. It is the heritage of these who are faithful as the sons of God in the world.
Be not deceived:—[There was great danger of their being led to think lightly of sins which were daily committed by those amongst whom they were living, hence these words of warning] lest they should think one could inherit the kingdom while practicing the sins mentioned.
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers.—Much of the idol worship consisted in most degrading forms of debauchery and licentiousness. These sins were encouraged both as acts of worship and by the examples of their idols. [Notice how he distinguishes between fornication and adultery. Though both will exclude from the inheritance, the latter is in many respects the worst crime, because through it the family is broken up, and a third person is irretrievably injured.]
nor effeminate,—[This word occurs in Matthew 11:8; Luke 7:25, where it is applied to clothing, and rendered “soft raiment”—luxurious livers, who pamper their body. Applied to morals, it denotes those who give themselves up to a soft, and indolent way of living; who make self-indulgence the grand object of life. In the classics the word is applied to those who are given up to wantonness and sensual pleasures, or who are kept to be prostituted to others.]
nor abusers of themselves with men,—Those who lie with a male as with a female.
1 Corinthians 6:10
nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. —Christians should heed this warning and be sure that they are guilty of none of these crimes, “for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience.” (Ephesians 5:6). It is difficult for people to realize to what extent these most degrading practices of licentiousness prevailed among the more enlightened classes of the heathens.
1 Corinthians 6:11
And such were some of you:—The Corinthians were noted for their indulgence in all these crimes. Their idols were of the licentious order, and Corinth was noted for its profligacy and crimes. Many of these Christians had been guilty of them before they obeyed the gospel. [The threefold “but” in the clause which follows emphasizes strongly the contrast between their present state and their past, and the consequent demand which their changed condition makes upon them.]
but ye were washed,—They had through faith in Jesus Christ died to sin, had been buried with him in baptism, wherein they were also raised with him to walk in newness of life. [They had washed away their sin exactly as Paul was commanded to do. (Acts 22:16). Their seeking baptism was their own act, and they entered the water as voluntary agents just as Paul did (cf. 2 Timothy 2:21), seeking the forgiveness promised in the gospel, fulfilling the divinely ordained condition, and they actually received the remission of their sins (Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:38).] but ye were sanctified,—They were set apart to a life of holiness. [The crisis, of which their baptism was the concrete embodiment, had marked their transition from the rule of self to the service of God.] but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, —As servants of Jesus Christ they were justified [having passed from the condition of guilty sinners to that of pardoned children of God.]
and in the Spirit of our God.—They were led by the Spirit of God which they had received.
1 Corinthians 6:12
All things are lawful for me;—All things have a lawful use. [It is probable that Paul used these words of himself. Starting from the doctrine taught by Jesus Christ (John 8:32; John 8:36), and proclaimed by the mouth of the apostles (Acts 15:10; James 2:12; 1 Peter 2:16), he declared that the Christian was bound to a service of perfect freedom (Romans 8:2). But this principle needed very careful statement, if the Greeks were not to abuse it. No actions in themselves were unlawful provided (1) that they were in accordance with God’s design in creation; (2) that they were calculated to promote the general welfare of all; and (3) that we were the masters of our own actions, not they of us.]
but not all things are expedient.—It is not always expedient to use them. [The word “expedient” signifies originally the condition of “one who has his feet free”; and hence that which frees from entanglements, helps on, and expedites. Its opposite, that which entangles, is similarly called an impediment. The sense, “serving to promote a desired end of interest, for the sake of personal advantage, as opposed to what is based on principle,” in the modern sense of the word. Hence the meaning here is profitable for others as well as for ourselves. The derivative of the word here used is translated “profit” in the following passages: 1 Corinthians 7:35; Hebrews 12:10; and “profitable” in Matthew 5:29; Matthew 18:6; Acts 20:20.
All things are lawful for me; but I will not be brought under the power of any.—There is a lawful use of all appetites, desires, and lusts; but none of them must obtain the mastery over us. All appetites, passions and lusts are for our good, if properly used and restrained. If they enslave us, they degrade and destroy us. An improper use or direction of the appetites and desires brings evil, not good. [If we sacrifice the power of choice which is implied in the thought of liberty, we cease to be free; we are brought under the power of that which should be in our power.]
1 Corinthians 6:13
Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats:—Food is for the stomach. [Paul now proceeds to explicitly apply these principles to the matter in hand. The language indicates that some argued that if meats were morally indifferent, a man being morally neither the better nor the worse for eating the food which had been offered in an idol’s temple, so also a man was neither better nor worse for fornication. To expose the monstrous error of this reasoning, he draws a distinction between the digestive, nutritive organs of the body and the body as a whole. The body is an essential part of human nature, and in the future the natural body will give place to the spiritual body. The spiritual body is connected with, and has its birthplace in, the natural body, so that the body that we now wear is to be represented by that finer and more spiritual organism in which the righteous are hereafter to be clothed. (1 Corinthians 15:44). The connection of the future body with the physical world and its dependence on material things we do not understand; but in some way it is to carry on the identity of our present body, and thereby it reflects a sacredness and significance of this body.
The body of the aged is very different from that of the newborn babe, but there is a continuity that links them together and gives them identity. So the future body may be very different from and yet the same as the present.
At the same time, the organs which serve for the maintenance of the natural body will be unnecessary and out of place in the future body, which is spiritual in its origin and in its maintenance. There is therefore a difference between the organs of nutrition and that body which is part of our permanent individuality, and which by the power of God is to be made into an everlasting body. The digestive organs have their use and their destiny, and the body as a whole has its use and destiny. The two differ from one another; and if we argue from one to the other we must keep in view this distinction. By eating we are not perverting the digestive organs of the body to a use not intended for them; but we are putting them to the use God meant them to serve.]
but God shall bring to nought both it and them.—Both the food and the stomach—the appetite for food—are to perish. They end with our earthly being. [They serve a temporary purpose, like the house in which we live, or the clothes we wear.]
But the body is not for fornication,—This is not its lawful use. [There is a vital difference between the satisfaction of hunger and the gratification of the sexual appetite. The latter is only possible in the bonds of matrimony. Fornication is an abuse of the body, a defilement of Christ’s member, an insult to the Lord himself, whose property is not only taken by theft from him, but handed over to a harlot. This is very plain speaking on the part of the apostle. But it is just; and if it was necessary in those days, it is equally necessary now.]
but for the Lord;—[Here lies the true purpose of the body.] It is for the service of the Lord, who has an appropriate use and sphere for it. [It is destined to be the vehicle of spiritual faculties and the efficient agent of the Lord’s purposes. It was through the body of the Lord that the great facts of our redemption were accomplished. It was the instrument of the incarnation, and of the manifestation of God among men, of the death and resurrection by which we are saved. And as in his body Christ was incarnate among men, so now it is by means of the bodily existence and energies of his people on earth that he extends his kingdom among men.] And to this great end it should be used instead of abused, and destroyed by fornication.
and the Lord for the body:—[The Lord dwells in and acts and provides for the body. He thus sustains and keeps it from vanity and sin and corruption. It would be a wicked thing to tear away our body from that sacred connection and give it over to licentiousness.]
1 Corinthians 6:14
and God both raised the Lord, and will raise up us through his power.—The body, unlike the belly, has an eternity before it, and as evidence of this Paul says: “And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” (Romans 8:10-11). If the appetites, passions, and lusts are held in proper restraint and used as is good, then the Spirit of God will dwell in and be with us, and God, who raised Jesus, will by his Spirit raise us up to reign with him. [“Will raise up us” here stands in contrast with “shall bring to nought” in verse 13.
1 Corinthians 6:15
Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ?— Their bodies, with the Spirit of God dwelling in them, are the members of the body of Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:27). [This solemn truth, that there is a real community of spiritual life between Christ and the true believer, is employed here to remind them of the restrictions placed upon their liberty. The body of the Christian is Christ’s, nay in a sense, it is a part of himself (Ephesians 5:30), so that the same Spirit which possessed Christ is the same which possesses the Christian. It is in Christ that he seeks to live, and it is the consuming desire of his heart that Christ would use his body to the accomplishment of his purposes even as he used his own body while on earth.]
shall I then take away the members of Christ, and make them members of a harlot?—Sexual intercourse is the act that the Bible recognizes as making man and woman one. When a man who is a member of the body of Christ is guilty of fornication he [forms this union in an unlawful way and] makes the member of Christ one with a harlot.
God forbid.—[If the Christian is as truly a member of Christ’s body as were the hands and feet and eyes he wore on earth, the mind shrinks, as from blasphemy, from the very thought of being joined to a harlot as is done by one guilty of fornication.]
1 Corinthians 6:16
Or know ye not that he that is joined to a harlot is one body?—When a man takes a woman unto himself they become one flesh.
for, The twain, saith he, shall become one flesh.—”Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24). [That these words refer originally to marriage does not lessen their appropriateness here. For they teach that the union of the sexes in the marriage relation was divinely ordained at the creation of the race, in order to unite husband and wife so closely that in them even personal distinction should in some respects cease. Intercourse with harlots desecrates this divine relation to a means of sin. Therefore in a Christian, it robs Christ of a member of his own body in order to place it in union with one utterly opposed to him, a union so close that they are one flesh.]
1 Corinthians 6:17
But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.— [To be united in one spirit to Christ and at the same time to be united to impurity is impossible.] To be one with Christ in spirit and at the same time in body with a harlot would make the Lord one with the harlot. This is the outrage of such a course of sin. A man marries a good woman; they are one flesh; he afterwards commits adultery and thus becomes one with a harlot; does not that make the wife one with the harlot? Has a Christian woman the right to become one with a harlot by living with a husband that is guilty of adultery? Fornication or adultery justifies a husband or wife in putting away the guilty party. Does it not go further and demand it? Has a Christian husband or wife the right to live with one guilty of adultery?
1 Corinthians 6:18
Flee fornication.—In view of the great sin, flee from it, keep out of the way of temptation to commit it.
Every sin that a man doeth is without the body;—Other sins are without or apart from the body. [That is, all other sinful acts which affect the body approach it from without and affect particular members. They require some motive or weapon other than the body. The body is the subject.]
but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.—[Fornication takes the body as a whole and makes it the instrument of sin. It joins the body of sinful union to a body of death, so that it becomes one flesh with the condemned harlot, thereby severing itself from the life in Christ, and thus it strikes directly at the body’s future state. When a man and woman are united in marriage according to God’s law, there is no such alienation from the Lord’s body, and consequently no sin. This view is confirmed by the fact that the word here translated “sinneth” means to “go astray,” to “miss the mark”; so the words “sinneth against his own body” imply the running counter to the object for which the body was created.] The oneness of the body of two persons that cohabit is more than a formal union. How much of the real nature and being of a man does a woman partake of in intercourse with him and especially in carrying children begotten by him in her womb with a circulation of blood through her whole body, and how much he is affected by her will likely never be definitely determined, yet there is more in becoming one than we usually think. So a man guilty of fornication sins against his own body.
1 Corinthians 6:19
Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God?—The body of a Christian is a temple or a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, it is therefore a terrible thing to make a temple of God one with a harlot. [What has before been asserted of the church as a whole (1 Corinthians 3:16) is now asserted of every member of it, and the Christian’s body is the most sacred thing on earth, and every dishonor to it is an insult to him who has chosen it for his dwelling place.] Three epochs are marked by the word temple. In the Old Testament it means the material temple, the sign of localized worship and a separate people (Exodus 20:24; Deuteronomy 12:5; Deuteronomy 12:11; Deuteronomy 12:13-14); in the Gospels Jesus uses it of his own body (John 2:19-21); here it is used of every baptized believer, sanctified by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
and ye are not your own:—[Christians do not belong to themselves, even if they could commit fornication without personal contamination or self-violation. Christianity makes unchastity dishonor both sexes. There is no double standard of morality. The plea here is to Christians to be clean as members of Christ’s body.]
1 Corinthians 6:20
for ye were bought with a price:—Man had sinned and was under the sentence of death. Jesus interposed and gave his life to secure a respite from the sentence and to open the way by which he might return to the favor of God and enjoy eternal life. The only way man can come to appropriate the cleansing efficacy of the blood of the Son of God is to come by faith and take the laws given by Jesus Christ into the heart and let them control and govern his life. Those who accept this offer of mercy are bought, redeemed, purchased.
glorify God therefore in your body.—Inasmuch as they had been redeemed by Jesus Christ, he exhorts them that they should with their bodies glorify him. Live so as to honor him, and not through fornication defile the temple of God by making it one with a harlot. [We should so use the body as to please and do the service of God. To glorify God is to exalt and honor him as worthy of the highest praise and most faithful service. Our only and supreme desire should be to know the will of God that we may do it. For we show forth his praise by obedience to his law. “The heavens declare the glory of God” in obedience to the law of creation, and much more do men glorify him by willing obedience to “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” This being so, what a profanation it is when we take this body, which is built to be his temple, and put it to uses which it were blasphemous to associate with God! Let us rather find our joy in realizing the ideal set before us, in keeping ourselves pure as a temple of God and in glorifying him in our body.]