1 Corinthians Chapter 6

1 Corinthians 6:1

Failure to resolve personal disputes

The topic of judgment continued as Paul shifted to another disorder afflicting the Corinthian church. The same laxity in dealing with the immoral brother was found in cases of personal disputes between members which the church refused to adjudicate. It was yet another manifestation of the divisive spirit which racked the congregation.

With the introductory phrase “Do you not know,” Paul pointed toward certain truths which should have prevented the problem in the first place. The phrase recurs six times in this chapter alone. (Outside this letter this construction appears only three other times in the NT.) Paul had used it before (1Co_3:16; 1Co_5:6) and would subsequently use it again (1Co_9:13, 1Co_9:24) to the same effect. The implication that they should have known these things must have painfully hit home to a church enamored with its own wisdom and knowledge. This is speaking of a problem between two Christians. “Dare”: Suing another believer in a secular law court is a daring act of disobedience because of its implications related to all sin – the displeasure of God.

“Having a matter against another”: The phrase in Greek was commonly used of a lawsuit (“go to law”).

“Unjust”: not meaning their moral character, but to their unsaved spiritual condition.

The worldly court is no place to settle a dispute between two Christians. It is a sad situation that they had a dispute serious enough to have to be decided by someone else other than the two of them. It is unthinkable to turn it over to a world court. Believers are to settle all issues between themselves within the church. The fear of the Lord would not be part of the decision in a world court.

 Paul’s chagrin about this issue was great, not only because it further divided the church, but also because it hindered the work of God among the non-Christians in Corinth (cf. 1Co_10:32). Those related by faith needed to settle their disputes like brothers, not adversaries (cf. Gen_13:7-9).

 1 Corinthians 6:2

The first of six do you not know phrases in this chapter (cf. 1Co_6:3, 1Co_6:9, 1Co_6:15-16, 1Co_6:19) concerned the role of saints in judging (cf. Joh_5:22; Rev_3:21). “Judge the world”: Because Christians will assist Christ to judge the world in the millennial kingdom (Rev 2:26-27; 3:21; Dan. 7:22), they are more than qualified with the truth, the Spirit, the gifts, and the resources they presently have in Him to settle small matters that come up among themselves in this present life.

Jesus will be like what we think of the Supreme Court today, and we Christians will be like the lower court under His jurisdiction. We must learn to get along with our brothers and sisters in Christ. If there is something that seemingly is difficult to decide, then other impartial Christians should decide the matter with the Bible as the basis of the verdict. The Bible says that we will reign with Jesus. Those ruling have to judge. You can, also, see how a brother or sister in Christ who is familiar with God's teaching would be better able to come to a satisfactory Biblical verdict.

Paul had probably taught this doctrine in Corinth in the course of his founding the church there, since he cited it as an indisputable proposition.

1 Corinthians 6:3

Since they were going to judge supernatural beings (the fallen angels, 2Pe_2:4; Jud_1:6), surely they should handle mundane matters satisfactorily. “Judge Angels”: The Greek word can mean “rule or govern.” Since the Lord Himself will judge fallen angels (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6), it is likely this means we will have some rule in eternity over holy angels.

Since angels are “ministering spirits” to serve the saints (Heb 1:14), it seems reasonable that they will serve us in glory.

1 Corinthians 6:4

The form of the Greek word (kāthizete, appoint) may be a statement (indicative) or a command (imper.). The NIV has taken it as a command, making the difficult phrase men of little account refer to those in the church not too highly esteemed for their “wisdom”; but Paul considered them more than adequate for the task.

“Appoint” may be indicative which seems more likely in view of 1Co_6:5. If so, the participle translated “men of little account” would be better rendered “men who have no standing” in the church, that is, non-Christians. The sad refrain of 1Co_6:1 to which Paul would refer yet a third time in 1Co_6:6 was thus heard again. This is a difficult verse to translate, as suggested by the widely varying English renderings. But the basic meaning is clear: when Christians have earthly quarrels and disputes among themselves, it is inconceivable that they would turn to those least qualified (unbelievers) to resolve the matter.

The most legally untrained believers, (least esteemed) who know the Word of God and are obedient to the Spirit, are far more competent to settle disagreements between believers than the most experienced unbeliever, void of God’s truth and Spirit.

 1 Corinthians 6:5-6

No doubt the statement in 1Co_6:5 reddened some of the wise Corinthians’ faces. Now Paul is saying, can't you see how silly this is? What he is trying to make them realize, is that Christians should sit down together and talk it out, with a third party, if necessary. Pray together and let God decide the outcome. Certainly a part of Paul’s concern in this issue was the harmful effect such legal wrangling would have on the cause of the gospel in Corinth (1Co_9:23). Paul is saying that to go before a civil court to settle an argument between two Christians, gives Christianity a black eye. If Jesus Christ is King of Peace, why is there this problem too difficult to settle?

Such conduct as suing a fellow believer is not only a sinful shame, but a complete failure to act obediently and righteously.

Christians who take fellow Christians to court suffer moral defeat and spiritual loss even before the case is heard, and they become subject to divine chastening.

Hebrews 12:3 "For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds."

Such lawsuits certainly did not glorify God (1Co_10:31-33). 

1 Corinthians 6:7-8

Because their greed dishonored God, Paul concluded that the important issue was lost before the case had begun. “Why … not … take wrong”: The implied answer is because of the shameful sin (v.5), and the moral defeat (v.8) that result from selfishness, a willingness to discredit God, His wisdom, power, and sovereign purpose, and to harm the church and the testimony of Christ’s gospel.

“Defrauded”: Christians have no right to insist on legal recourse in a public court. It is far better to trust God’s sovereign purposes in trouble and lose financially, than to be disobedient and suffer spiritually.

Jesus taught if someone sued you for your coat; give them your cloke also. He, also said to turn the other cheek, if someone slapped you on one cheek. He taught give to him that asks of you. Where have they sidetracked His teaching "forgive him that asks of you"? We know that Jesus taught that vengeance was His. We are to return good for the evil done unto us. These things are what make us a Christian. We are to kill them with kindness. What if you are the loser? It will just store up forgiveness for you in heaven, if you forgive the wrong he has done unto you.

He therefore said that mundane loss was preferable to the spiritual loss which the lawsuits produced. Paul is shaming them here. It is bad to do wrong to someone of the world, but it is terrible to do wrong to a brother in Christ.

He is referring to those who sue their brothers in Christ being as guilty of the same misconduct they are suing to rectify. As it was, the Corinthian lawsuits seemed not to have been so much a matter of redressing wrong or seeing justice served as a means for personal gratification at the expense of fellow believers. This was “body life” at its worst!

In these next two verses this catalog of sins, though not exhaustive, represent the major types of moral sin that characterize the unsaved.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Paul’s third reminder (Do you not know… cf. 1Co_6:2-3) was probably meant to complement the thought of 1Co_6:4, but it also illustrated the gap which existed between the Corinthians’ future position and their present practice. The wicked would have no share in God’s future kingdom because they were not related to Christ, the Heir (cf. Mar_12:7). “Not inherit the kingdom”: The kingdom is the spiritual sphere of salvation where God rules as king over all who belong to Him by faith. All believers are in that spiritual kingdom, yet are waiting to enter into the full inheritance of it in the age to come. People who are characterized by these iniquities are not saved.

While believers can and do commit these sins, they do not characterize them as an unbroken life pattern. When they do, it demonstrates that the person is not in God’s kingdom. True believers, who do sin, resent that sin and seek to gain the victory over it. (see Romans 7:14-25)

Fornicators are all who indulge in sexual immorality, but particularly unmarried persons.

Idolaters are those who worship any false god or follow any false religious system.

Adulterers are married persons who indulge in sexual acts outside their marriage.

Effeminate … nor abusers of themselves are homosexuals or sodomites, terms referring to those who exchange and corrupt normal male-female sexual roles and relations. Tranvestism, sex changes, and other gender perversions are included.

Genesis 1:27 "So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

Deut 22:5 “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so [are] abomination unto the LORD thy God.”

Sodomites are so called because the sin of male-male sex dominated the city of Sodom. This sinful perversion is condemned always, in any form, by Scripture. (Lev 18:22; 20:13; Rom. 1:26-27; 1 Tim 1:10)

Paul is saying here, you are wrong if you think that just being baptized into Jesus will save you. You cannot go back into sin, and commit the sins the world is guilty of, and not be judged. He is saying, if you were really saved, you would not have the desire in your heart to commit these sins that the world is guilty of. Paul speaks of the unrighteous as a whole; he does not separate out those who are pretending to be Christians for special privileges. I am sure these types of sins are mentioned here, because of the worship of Aphrodite in this area, and also because most of the false worship was of a sensual nature.

In the book of James, it says faith without works is dead. We also see in the 6^th chapter of Hebrews the consequences of getting back into these sins after you have made a commitment to God.

The wicked would one day be judged by the saints (1Co_6:2) on the basis of their works (Rev_20:13) which would condemn them. Yet the saints were acting no differently.

The word adikoi (“the wicked”) in 1Co_6:9 was used in 1Co_6:1, there translated “the ungodly.” The verb form adikeite (“do wrong”) however, was used in 1Co_6:8 to describe the Corinthians’ behavior. Their future role should have radically affected their practice in the present (cf. 1Jn_3:3). If they thought otherwise, Paul warned, they were deceived (cf. 1Co_5:11; Rev_21:7-8; Rev_22:14-15). One thing we must note here is that the sins mentioned in verse 9 were sins of the body and seemed to be classed together. The sins in verse 10 are also bad sins, but sins that happen outside the body. They are not sex sins. These are still sins, but do not include the Holy Spirit {which dwells inside of us} in their act of sin.

“Thieves … covetous” are both guilty of the same basic sin of greed. Those who are covetous desire what belongs to others, thieves actually take it.

Revilers are people who try to destroy others with words.

Extortioners are swindlers and embezzlers who steal indirectly, taking unfair advantage of others for their own financial gain.

The list of offenders was similar to that noted earlier (1Co_5:10-11), which no doubt corresponded to problems in Corinth and in other large cities of the day (cf. Eph_5:3-6). Homosexuality and male prostitution, for example, were especially characteristic of Greco-Roman society. Plato lauded homosexual love in The Symposium (181B). Nero, emperor at the time Paul wrote this letter, was about to marry the boy Sporus (Suetonius Lives of the Caesars 6. 28), an incident bizarre only in its formality, since 14 of the first 15 Roman emperors were homosexual or bisexual. 

1 Corinthians 6:11

Some (but not all) the Corinthian Christians had been guilty of the sins listed in 1Co_6:9-10, but God had intervened. They were washed… by the Spirit (cf. Tit_3:5), sanctified in the Son (cf. 1Co_1:2), and justified before God (cf. Rom_8:33). This fact of justification was an appropriate thought for those judicially carping Corinthians. Though not all Christians have been guilty of all those particular sins, every Christian is equally an ex-sinner, since Christ came to save sinners. Some who used to have those patterns of sinful life were falling into those old signs again, and needed reminding that if they went all the way back to live as they used to, they were not going to inherit eternal salvation, because it would indicate that they were never saved.

“Washed” refers to new life through spiritual cleansing and regeneration.

“Sanctified” (set apart) is what results in new behavior, which a transformed life always produces. Sin’s total domination is broken and replaced by a new pattern of obedience and holiness. Though not perfection, this is a new direction.

“Justified” refers to a new standing before God, in which the Christian is clothed in Christ’s righteousness. In His death, the believer’s sins were put to His account and He suffered for them, so that His righteousness might be put to an account, so that we might be blessed for it.

“By the Spirit”: The Holy Spirit is the agent of salvation’s transformation.

Everyone who ever lived has sinned and come short of the glory of God. Praise God, if we repent, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and wash us in His precious blood. We are saved by the grace of God. We are washed in his blood and set aside for his purpose. We are justified {just as if we had never sinned}. The Christians standing around God's throne in heaven are clothed in white robes, washed in the blood of the Lamb. When He saves us, we become a new creature in Christ. 

1 Corinthians 6:12

Failure to practice sexual purity

The theme of legality continued as Paul turned to another problem troubling the Corinthian assembly. This problem was the issue of freedom from the Old Testament Law in the area of sexual relationships. Paul addressed this issue in the manner of a dialogue, the diatribe style, familiar to his readers. This also enabled him to prepare them for both his subject matter and his approach in the rest of the letter, which concerned answers to questions and objections they had raised.

First I want to give the definition of “expedient”: “Based on or marked by a concern for self-interest rather than principle”, which is self explanatory. The definition of “power” can mean influence or is a measure of a person's ability to control the environment around them, including the behavior of other persons. In this case, Paul refused to be influenced by either others around him or Satan.

This is probably one of the most controversial Scriptures in the Bible. First of all, we must remember who Paul is writing this to. They are still very much caught up in the regulations of their Jewish upbringing. Paul is saying, we are not obligated to keep the letter of the law, because Jesus fulfilled the law for us. Even in the Old Testament, we read that to obey is better than sacrifice.

I Samuel 15:22 "And Samuel said, Hath the LORD [as great] delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey [is] better than sacrifice, [and] to hearken than the fat of rams." Hearken: (To give heed to)

Obeying is an act of our own free will. We obey, because we know that it will please God, and we want to please Him. Sacrifice, for the Jews had been an obligation, and not a choice. Paul is saying, I am not obligated to do any particular thing, or not do it. I choose to please God, so as an act of my own free will, I obey God's laws.

These new Christians were still sacrificing, and keeping the old Mosaic Law, from obligation. They were still technical in their form of religion and did not understand fully the sacrifice of Jesus. Paul, I believe is just saying, I am not under the law of obligation but I am a free agent to operate my own will in a way pleasing unto God. Paul is not saying that he has a license to sin without the punishment for sin. He is saying that he is a free-will agent. He chooses for himself, with the benefit of his conscience.

He, also, is saying that he refuses to become servant to sin. Paul refuses to live by a set of manmade rules any longer. The condition of his soul is between him and God. A Christian has Christ dwelling within them, and they no longer have the desire in their hearts to sin. This is what Paul is saying. If Christ, within me makes the decisions, there is no law against that.

Galatians 3:21: "[Is] the law then against the promises of God? God forbid for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law."

Read the 6th chapter of Romans where Paul fully explains this.

The issue of the limits of liberty (1Co_6:12) was developed later by Paul in chapters 8-10. To a degree this subject also colored the discussion on public worship in chapters 11-14. The question of a Christian’s relationship to food (1Co_6:13) was taken up in 1Co_8:1-13. The resurrection of Christ (1Co_6:14) was expounded in 1Co_15:1-58. The church as the body of Christ (1Co_6:15) was enlarged on in 1Co_12:1-31. The sanctity of sex (1Co_6:16), about which Paul quoted Gen_2:24 on the divine establishment of marriage, occupied his attention in 1Co_7:1-40.

The words, everything is permissible for me, had apparently become a slogan to cloak the immorality of some in Corinth. The statement was true but it required qualification. Paul qualified liberty with the principle of love applied to both neighbor and self (cf. Mar_12:31). Liberty which was not beneficial but detrimental to someone else was not loving (1Co_8:1; 1Co_10:23) and was to be avoided. So too, liberty which became slavery (I will not be mastered by anything) was not love but hatred of self.

1 Corinthians 6:13-14

Food for the stomach and the stomach for food was another slogan by which some Corinthians sought to justify their immorality. They reasoned that “food” was both pleasurable and necessary. When their stomachs signaled hunger, food was taken to satisfy them. So too, they argued, sex was pleasurable and necessary. When their bodies signaled sexual desire, they needed to be satisfied. But Paul drew a sharp line between the stomach and the body. Meats … belly”: Perhaps this was a popular proverb to celebrate the idea that sex is purely biological, like eating. The influence of philosophical dualism may have contributed to this idea since it made only the body evil; therefore, what one did physically was not preventable and thus inconsequential. Because the relationship between these two is purely biological and temporal, the Corinthians, like many of their pagan friends, probably used that analogy to justify sexual immorality. “The body … The Lord”: Paul rejects the convenient justifying analogy. Bodies and food are temporal relations that will perish.

In the spirit, all believers make up the body of Christ. Our body is the dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. My belly, along with my body, should not be my God, because they will perish and the real me will live in my new spiritual body that Jesus will provide me. If the body is such a temporary thing, we should not elevate it to godhood.

The body (sōma) in this context (cf. 2Co_12:3) meant more than the physical frame; it referred to the whole person, composed of flesh (the material) and spirit (the immaterial; cf. 2Co_2:13 with 2Co_7:5). The “body,” therefore, was not perishable but eternal (1Co_6:14), and it was not meant for sexual immorality (porneia) but for union with the Lord (1Co_6:15-17), which is reciprocal (cf. Eph_1:23). The eternality of the body, the future destiny of the individual, was made certain by Christ’s resurrection (1Co_6:14; cf. 1Co_15:20). The 15th chapter of this same book of Corinthians goes into great detail about this very thing. We know that the body of the Lord Jesus

Christ died on the cross. That body was buried, and the third day He arose from the grave. There is a physical body, and there is a spiritual body. The physical body must die for the spiritual body to live. This mortal must put on immortality. Because Jesus rose from the grave, all those who put their faith in Jesus shall rise, also. Read more on this at I Thessalonians chapter 4: verses 1-12.

Bodies of believers and the Lord have an eternal relationship that will never perish. He is referring to the believer’s body to be changed, raised, glorified and made heavenly.

 1 Corinthians 6:15-17

So too the work of the Spirit (cf. 1Co_12:13) has affected Christians’ present destiny and joined them to Christ (1Co_6:15). Could a Christian practice immorality without grieving Christ? (cf. 1Co_12:26) Never! This verse above is speaking of how bad it is for a Christian to commit a sin of the body, because it includes the house of the Holy Spirit in that sin. We Christians are the temple of the Holy Spirit. All of us are individual parts making up the body of Christ. You can see from the following Scriptures that we are one with Christ. Christ is the head, and we are the body.

Romans 12:5 "So we, [being] many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another."

I Corinthians 12:12 "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also [is] Christ."

I Corinthians 12:27 "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular."

Therefore when a believer commits a sexual sin, it involves Christ with a harlot. Therefore you can easily see why it would be important not to involve the temple of the Holy Spirit in the act of a body sin.

The union of two people involves more than physical contact. It is also a union of personalities which, however transient, alters both of them (1Co_6:16). Paul quoted Gen_2:24 (The two will become one flesh) not to affirm that a man and a prostitute are married but to indicate the gravity of the sin (cf. Eph_5:31-32). Paul supports his point in the previous verse by appealing to the truth of Genesis 2:24 that define the sexual union between a man and a woman as “one flesh.” When a person is joined to a harlot, it is a one flesh experience; there Christ spiritually is joined to that harlot. The words “Shall be” are translated “shall become”.

A Christian’s union with Christ likewise affects both him and the Savior, and one cannot act without affecting the other. These two Scriptures above should be studied carefully by those who would make husband and wife one in the spirit. The Scriptures say that husband and wife are one in the flesh, not the spirit. All Christians, whether male or female, are one in spirit with the Lord Jesus Christ. Husband and wife relations on this earth are in the flesh. In heaven, it will not be that way. There is no marrying or taking in marriage in heaven.

Further strengthening the point, Paul affirms that all sex outside of marriage is sin; but illicit relationships by believers are especially reprehensible because they profane Jesus Christ who believers are one. This argument should make such sin unthinkable.

 1 Corinthians 6:18

Corinthian Christians, when faced with immorality, should respond as did Joseph (Gen_39:12) — they should run. Flee from sexual immorality. Immorality was a unique sin but not the most serious (cf. Mat_12:32). It was, however, an offense against the sinner and those with whom he was related.

It is possible that the statement All other sins a man commits are outside his body (the word “other” is a translator’s addition and is not represented by any word in the Gr. text) should be taken as a third slogan (cf. 1Co_6:12-13) bandied about by some in Corinth. There is a sense in which sexual sin destroys a person like o other, because it is so intimate and entangling, corrupting on the deepest human level. But Paul is probably alluding to vereral disease, prevalent and devastating in his day and today. No sin has greater potential to destroy the body, something a believer should avoid because of the reality given in verses 19-20.

Fornication, in the verse above, includes all sorts of harlotry. This includes all unnatural sex acts and it also includes acts not with the spouse that God has chosen for you. The Aids patients are finding out the hard way what this type of sin brings on. Not all Aids patients are committing this sin, but this is one of the major ways of transmitting this disease.

If so, then Paul’s rejoinder (he who sins sexually sins against his own body) is a straight-forward denial. The Greek construction is similar to that in 1Co_6:13.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Among those grieved was the Holy Spirit who indwells every Christian (who is in you; cf. 1Co_12:13; 1Jn_3:24). A Christian’s body belongs to the Lord (v.13), is a member of Christ (v.15), and is the Holy Spirit’s temple.

Think about this. Every act of fornication, adultery or any other sin is committed by the believer in the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, where God dwells. In the Old Testament, the High Priest only went in there once a year, and only after extensive cleansing, lest he be killed.

Also God the Father is grieved, for He seeks honor (Mat_5:16), not shame, from those who are bought at a price (cf. 1Co_7:23), that price being “the precious blood of Christ” (1Pe_1:19). When Jesus paid the price for our sin on the cross, He bought us and paid in full for us. I have used the following Scripture numerous times, but it seems to say exactly what I want to say on this.

Galatians 2:20 "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

If Christ is in me, then I should treat my body as if it is His temple. I should allow nothing into the temple of God that would defame it in any way.