1 Corinthians 6:20
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What does 1 Corinthians 6:20 mean?
For ye are bought with a price
Not with gold and silver, but with the precious blood of Christ,
as the whole church, and all the elect of God are. This proves
them to be the Lord's, not only his redeemed ones, being ransomed
by a price from the bondage of the law, sin, Satan, and the
world; but his espoused ones, and which is chiefly designed here;
for one way of obtaining and espousing a wife among the Jews was
by a price F16;
``a woman (they say) is obtained or espoused three ways; (Pokb) , "by silver", by a writing, and by lying with; by silver, the house of Shammai say, by a penny, and the value of a penny; the house of Hillel say, by a "pruta", and the value of a "pruta": how much is a "pruta?" the eighth part of an Italian farthing.''That is, be it ever so small a price, yet if given and taken on the account of espousals, it made them valid; and it was an ancient rite in marriage used among other nations F17 for husband and wife to buy each other: Christ, indeed, did not purchase his church to be his spouse, but because she was so; but then his purchasing of her with his blood more clearly demonstrated and confirmed his right unto her, as his spouse; he betrothed her to himself in eternity, in the everlasting covenant of grace; but she, with the rest of the individuals of human nature, fell into sin, and so, under the sentence of the law, into the hands of Satan, and the captivity of the world; to redeem her from whence, and by so doing to own and declare her his spouse, and his great love to her, he gave himself a ransom price for her; which lays her under the greatest obligation to preserve an inviolable chastity to him, and to love and honour him.
Therefore glorify God in your body and in your
spirit,
which are God's; by "God" is here meant more especially the Lord
Jesus Christ, by the price of whose blood the bodies and souls of
his people are bought, which lays the obligation on them to
glorify him in and with both; and contains a very considerable
proof of the deity of Christ; who is "glorified", when all the
perfections of the divine nature are ascribed to him; when the
whole of salvation is attributed to him, and he is looked unto,
received, trusted in and depended on as a Saviour, and praise and
thanks are given unto him on that account; and when his Gospel is
embraced and professed, and walked worthy of, and his ordinances
submitted to, and his commandments kept in love to him: and he is
to be glorified both in body and spirit; "in body", by an outward
attendance on his worship, and a becoming external conversation;
by confessing and speaking well of him; by acting for him, laying
out and using time, strength, and substance, for his honour and
interest; and by patient suffering for his name's sake: "in
spirit", which is done when the heart or spirit is given up to
him, and is engaged in his service, and when his glory lies near
unto it; the reason enforcing all this, is because both are his;
not only by creation, but by his Father's gift of both unto him;
by his espousal of their whole persons to himself; and by his
redemption of both soul and body from destruction: the Vulgate
version reads, "bear" or "carry God in your body", and leaves out
the next words, "and in your spirit", which are God's; and which
also are left out in the Ethiopic and in the Alexandrian copy,
and some others.
F16 Misn. Kiddushin, c. 1. sect. 1.
F17 Servius, in Virgil. Georg. l. 1. lin. 31.
