1 Corinthians 6:18

18 Flee from sexual immorality! "Every sin a person can commit is outside the body,"^[a] but the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body.

1 Corinthians 6:18 Meaning and Commentary

1 Corinthians 6:18

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 hereby.

1 Corinthians 6:18 In-Context

16 Do you not know that anyone joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For it says, The two will become one flesh.

17 But anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

18 Flee from sexual immorality! "Every sin a person can commit is outside the body," but the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body.

19 Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

20 for you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body.

Footnotes

• [a]. See note at 1 Co 6:12