1 Corinthians 6

1 Corinthians 6:12-20 . REFUTATION OF THE ANTINOMIAN DEFENSE OF FORNICATION AS IF IT WAS LAWFUL BECAUSE MEATS ARE SO.

12. All things are lawful unto me--These, which were Paul's own words on a former occasion (to the Corinthians, compare 1 Corinthians 10:23 , and Galatians 5:23 ), were made a pretext for excusing the eating of meats offered to idols, and so of what was generally connected with idolatry ( Acts 15:29 ), "fornication" (perhaps in the letter of the Corinthians to Paul, 1 Corinthians 7:1 ). Paul's remark had referred only to things indifferent: but they wished to treat fornication as such, on the ground that the existence of bodily appetites proved the lawfulness of their gratification.
me--Paul giving himself as a sample of Christians in general.
but I--whatever others do, I will not, &c.
lawful . . . brought under the power--The Greek words are from the same root, whence there is a play on the words: All things are in my power, but I will not be brought under the power of any of them (the "all things"). He who commits "fornication," steps aside from his own legitimate power or liberty, and is "brought under the power" of an harlot ( 1 Corinthians 6:15 ; compare 1 Corinthians 7:4 ). The "power" ought to be in the hands of the believer, not in the things which he uses [BENGEL]; else his liberty is forfeited; he ceases to be his own master ( John 8:34-36 Galatians 5:13 1 Peter 2:16 2 Peter 2:19 ). Unlawful things ruin thousands; "lawful" things (unlawfully used), ten thousands.

13. The argument drawn from the indifference of meats ( 1 Corinthians 8:8 , Romans 14:14 Romans 14:17 ; compare 7:18 Colossians 2:20-22 ) to that of fornication does not hold good. Meats doubtless are indifferent, since both they and the "belly" for which they are created are to be "destroyed" in the future state. But "the body is not (created) for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body" (as its Redeemer, who hath Himself assumed the body): "And God hath raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us" (that is our bodies): therefore the "body" is not, like the "belly," after having served a temporary use, to be destroyed: Now "he that committeth fornication, sinneth against his own body" ( 1 Corinthians 6:18 ). Therefore fornication is not indifferent, since it is a sin against one's own body, which, like the Lord for whom it is created, is not to be destroyed, but to be raised to eternal existence. Thus Paul gives here the germ of the three subjects handled in subsequent sections: (1) The relation between the sexes. (2) The question of meats offered to idols. (3) The resurrection of the body.
shall destroy--at the Lord's coming to change the natural bodies of believers into spiritual bodies ( 1 Corinthians 15:44 1 Corinthians 15:52 ). There is a real essence underlying the superficial phenomena of the present temporary organization of the body, and this essential germ, when all the particles are scattered, involves the future resurrection of the body incorruptible.

14. ( Romans 8:11 ).
raised up--rather, "raised," to distinguish it from "will raise up us"; the Greek of the latter being a compound, the former a simple verb. Believers shall be raised up out of the rest of the dead the first resurrection ( Revelation 20:5 ).
us--Here he speaks of the possibility of his being found in the grave when Christ comes; elsewhere, of his being possibly found alive ( 1 Thessalonians 4:17 ). In either event, the Lord's coming rather than death is the great object of the Christian's expectation ( Romans 8:19 ).

15. Resuming the thought in 1 Corinthians 6:13 , "the body is for the Lord" ( 1 Corinthians 12:27 , Ephesians 4:12 Ephesians 4:15 Ephesians 4:16 , 5:30 ).
shall I then--such being the case.
take--spontaneously alienating them from Christ. For they cannot be at the same time "the members of an harlot," and "of Christ" [BENGEL]. It is a fact no less certain than mysterious, that moral and spiritual ruin is caused by such sins; which human wisdom (when untaught by revelation) held to be actions as blameless as eating and drinking [CONYBEARE and HOWSON].

16. Justification of his having called fornicators "members of an harlot" ( 1 Corinthians 6:15 ).
joined--by carnal intercourse; literally, "cemented to": cleaving to.
one body--with her.
saith he--God speaking by Adam ( Genesis 2:24 , Matthew 19:5 ). "He which made them at the beginning said," &c. ( Ephesians 5:31 ).

17. one spirit--with Him. In the case of union with a harlot, the fornicator becomes one "body" with her (not one "spirit," for the spirit which is normally the organ of the Holy Spirit in man, is in the carnal so overlaid with what is sensual that it is ignored altogether). But the believer not only has his body sanctified by union with Christ's body, but also becomes "one spirit" with Him ( John 15:1-7 , 17:21 , 2 Peter 1:4 ; compare Ephesians 5:23-32 , John 3:6 ).

18. Flee--The only safety in such temptations is flight ( Genesis 39:12 , Job 31:1 ).
Every sin--The Greek is forcible. "Every sin whatsoever that a man doeth." Every other sin; even gluttony, drunkenness, and self-murder are "without," that is, comparatively external to the body ( Mark 7:18 ; compare Proverbs 6:30-32 ). He certainly injures, but he does not alienate the body itself; the sin is not terminated in the body; he rather sins against the perishing accidents of the body (as the "belly," and the body's present temporary organization), and against the soul than against the body in its permanent essence, designed "for the Lord." "But" the fornicator alienates that body which is the Lord's, and makes it one with a harlot's body, and so "sinneth against his own body," that is, against the verity and nature of his body; not a mere effect on the body from without, but a contradiction of the truth of the body, wrought within itself [ALFORD].

19. What? know ye not? &c.--Proof that "he that fornicates sinneth against his own body" ( 1 Corinthians 6:18 ).
your body--not "bodies." As in 1 Corinthians 3:17 , he represented the whole company of believers (souls and bodies), that is, the Church, as "the temple of God," the Spirit; so here, the body of each individual of the Church is viewed as the ideal "temple of the Holy Ghost." So John 17:23 , which proves that not only the Church, but also each member of it, is "the temple of the Holy Ghost." Still though many the several members form one temple, the whole collectively being that which each is in miniature individually. Just as the Jews had one temple only, so in the fullest sense all Christian churches and individual believers form one temple only. Thus "YOUR [plural] body" is distinguished here from "HIS OWN [particular or individual] body" ( 1 Corinthians 6:18 ). In sinning against the latter, the fornicator sins against "your (ideal) body," that of "Christ," whose "members your bodies" are ( 1 Corinthians 6:15 ). In this consists the sin of fornication, that it is a sacrilegious desecration of God's temple to profane uses. The unseen, but much more efficient, Spirit of God in the spiritual temple now takes the place of the visible Shekinah in the old material temple. The whole man is the temple; the soul is the inmost shrine; the understanding and heart, the holy place; and the body, the porch and exterior of the edifice. Chastity is the guardian of the temple to prevent anything unclean entering which might provoke the indwelling God to abandon it as defiled [TERTULLIAN, On the Apparel of Women]. None but God can claim a temple; here the Holy Ghost is assigned one; therefore the Holy Ghost is God.
not your own--The fornicator treats his body as if it were "his own," to give to a harlot if he pleases ( 1 Corinthians 6:18 ; compare 1 Corinthians 6:20 ). But we have no right to alienate our body which is the Lord's. In ancient servitude the person of the servant was wholly the property of the master, not his own. Purchase was one of the ways of acquiring a slave. Man has sold himself to sin ( 1 Kings 21:20 , Romans 7:14 ). Christ buys him to Himself, to serve Him ( Romans 6:16-22 ).

20. bought with a price--Therefore Christ's blood is strictly a ransom paid to God's justice by the love of God in Christ for our redemption ( Matthew 20:28 , Acts 20:28 , Galatians 3:13 , Hebrews 9:12 , 1 Peter 1:18 1 Peter 1:19 , 2 Peter 2:1 , Revelation 5:9 ). While He thus took off our obligation to punishment, He laid upon us a new obligation to obedience ( 1 Corinthians 7:22 1 Corinthians 7:23 ). If we accept Him as our Prophet to reveal God to us, and our Priest to atone for us, we must also accept Him as our King to rule over us as wholly His, presenting every token of our fealty ( Isaiah 26:13 ).
in your body--as "in" a temple (compare John 13:32 , Romans 12:1 , Philippians 1:20 ).
and in your spirit, which are God's--not in the oldest manuscripts and versions, and not needed for the sense, as the context refers mainly to the "body" ( 1 Corinthians 6:16 1 Corinthians 6:18 1 Corinthians 6:19 ). The "spirit" is incidentally mentioned in 1 Corinthians 6:17 , which perhaps gave rise to the interpolation, at first written in the Margin, afterwards inserted in the text.