1 Corinthians Chapter 6.

1 Corinthians Chapter 6.

The chapter divides into two parts:

           

First of all, Christians must not use secular courts to settle their disputes with one another.  They are to avoid lawsuits with one another. He shows the true principle of Christian conduct. 6:1-8.   

Secondly, Christians must flee every form of immorality.  As they belong to the kingdom of God, the body is not for fornication. 6:9-20.

           

Lawsuits.  The Greeks loved to engage in litigation.  Paul is shocked that they settled their disputes before heathen tribunals.  He argues the thing is obviously improper and shocking.  The saints were qualified to deal with such matters, for God has destined that they deal with great issues.  The Christ-like spirit is ready to suffer wrong than appeal to heathen courts.

           

6:4. "Who are of no account in the Church." R.V.  This means outsiders, men who count for nothing in the Christian community. N.E.B.  "One wise man."  A reproof to the Church that boasted of its wisdom, 6:5.

           

Paul's final argument is that such lawsuits were a sign of failure, loss and defeat.  So the principle of Christian love is lost and the bond of brotherhood broken.  A bird's eye view of the problems at Corinth suggests that the remedy was a greater measure of mutual love.

           

"Flee Fornication."  6:9-11.  In relation to God's kingdom these verses preface the warning to flee fornication, but are also closely linked with the previous topic of lawsuits.  The Christian calling demands moral consistency, for Christians must act worthily of their calling.  Men cannot do wickedness and presume upon God's grace, which in no way lowers the moral standards of His kingdom.

           

A moral impossibility.  The unrighteous can never come into the possession of the Kingdom.  This has a pointed reference to those who defraud fellow-members of the Christian Community.  Paul names a list typical rather than complete, the kind of men who shall not inherit the Kingdom.  Some we have met before in the Epistle.  This list supplements that given in chapter 5.  Both lists are typical rather than exhaustive.

           

A Miracle of Grace.   The pagan world, especially the cities, were steeped in vice.  Such had been some of the Corinthian Converts.  But that was now past for them, as they had a thorough and complete deliverance.  Paul describes this deliverance in a threefold manner and the three verbs are in the aorist tense. The repetition of this tense, show they refer to the same event.

           

"Were washed."   R.V. Has middle voice, "you washed away your sins." Acts.22:16; (see also Titus 3:5; Eph 5:26-27).

           

"Sanctified."  Consecrated to God.  This is a status or standing before God.   But it has ethical implications and demands a distinct cleavage from immoral living.  A people set apart to God can have no truck with wickedness.  God's people are called to holiness.

           

"Justified."  Acquitted and vindicated, but it is a status or relationship before God, which becomes a power for righteousness in our lives.  The apostle expresses in comprehensive terms our moral deliverance. 

           

The last part of verse 11 should be taken along with the three verbs.  "Through the Name of the Lord" expresses the ground, for into His Name they were baptized as believers.  The words, "and the Spirit of our God" points to the inward and effective aspect of Regeneration.  The Holy Spirit makes effective the saving work of Christ in our experience.  These two lines of truth are not to be separated.

           
 "The Body is not for Fornication."  6:12-20. This passage provides an example for diatribe.  Paul meets the arguments of a libertine or antinomian.  The libertine argues "all things are lawful to me." v.2.  "Meats for the belly and the belly for meats." v.13.  "Every sin that a man doeth is without the body." v.18.  The first may have been words that Paul himself had used with reference to the eating of foods, the keeping of days and other such things.

           

The Corinthians were now misusing this slogan to justify their loose moral living.  Paul replies that there is a professed freedom which is really a new slavery.  The Corinthians may have argued that sexual immorality was a physiological function such as eating food and had no ethical significance.  They insisted that, since this was so, fornication does not damage the spiritual life.  Paul's little sermon that they flee fornication is centred around the thought that the body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

           

First proof.  God will raise us up by His power.  The body then, in the purpose of God, is a permanent and essential part of the personality.  Thus writing of the resurrection of the body, he writes, "will raise up."

           

Second proof.  The body is a member of Christ.  Paul uses the word body as meaning person or personality.  Body means more than the physical organism of flesh and blood, for such does not inherit the kingdom of God, 15:50.  Paul writes of the person or personality which animates the physical organism.  In Hebrew thought the personality is not complete without the body, hence the necessity of resurrection.  Note the warning contained in the R.V. of 6:15.

           

In 6:16, "one flesh" describes the means by which the fornicator is united with the harlot, whilst "one spirit" explains how the believer (including his body) can be a member of Christ.  The word "spirit" signifies the human personality in its Godward relations, and "body" signifies the personality in its exterior and physical relationships.  However, the body is an essential part of the human personality.  The libertine argues every sin is outside the body and cannot damage our union with Christ.  Paul replies that he who commits fornication does sin against his very own body, which is a real and essential feature of his personality.

           

Third proof.  The body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit.  In chapter 3 the Church had been described as such, and here the believer's body.  The presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in "your body," that is, "in you," is the pledge of God's purpose concerning us and the demand for personal consecration.

           

Fourth proof.   "You are brought with a price."  We belong to Him who purchased us at great cost.  He purchased us so that we should wholly belong to Him.  "Therefore glorify God in your body."  Note that the final words of the A.V. are omitted in the R.V.  No man can glorify God in his body and indulge in loose moral living.