All things are lawful to me, but all things do not profit; all things are lawful to me, but *I* will not be brought under the power of any.
Paul takes up the claim "all things are lawful for me" and puts it to the test. He does not deny the freedom. He asks two questions of it: does this do any good, and who ends up in control?
The "all things" here are not sins. One writer marks out what Paul is talking about, and the danger hidden inside it.
"All things" — and here he speaks of right things, food and natural relations — are lawful for the Christian. Even so, we have to be careful. Everything may be lawful, but it does not follow that everything is helpful. There is a danger that in using right things we come under their power.
One question is "is it forbidden?" Paul adds a second one. Many things pass the first test and fail the second.
Even so, what is perfectly lawful may not be "helpful" or "profitable" at all. And even a lawful thing can tend to enslave. We must not let anything take power over us. We should stay free instead, as the willing slaves of our Lord and Saviour. How often people say about a disputed point, "But it is not forbidden. What is the harm in it?" The reply has to be another question: is it profitable? We want things that do no harm — but we also want things that do real good.
The second half of the verse guards the first. A freedom that hands control to a habit has stopped being freedom.
There is another safeguard. If all things are lawful to the Christian, he still refuses to let anything take power over him. If that were not so, it would be slavery, not freedom. So he must keep caring for the good of others, and keep his freedom itself intact. The Christian is called to serve others, never to be the slave of a habit, in anything great or small.
Note who is speaking. Paul says "I will not." One writer sees a man guarding himself against a real danger, not an imaginary one.
Paul says that things which are "lawful" to him — things not against Scripture — are not all "expedient," that is, wise. About these same things he at once adds, "All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything" (1 Cor. 6:12). Lawful things can build up a power or influence over a person, and even Paul feared becoming their captive.
The moment of surrender is not dramatic. It is the moment a thing starts giving the orders.
By "all things are lawful, but not all are helpful" (v. 12), he means that there is no difference to him, but he will not allow anything to have power over him. The moment a thing governs him, lust has power over him — even if it is only eating something nice… The Lord has taken up the body as well as the soul, though He has not yet redeemed it out of its present state. So the body is for the Lord, and not for its own lusts.
This restraint is not a return to law. It comes from somewhere else, and it rests on a simple fact: a Christian already has an owner.
Someone may insist that grace has made "all things lawful." Even so, grace has a powerful voice to persuade that person that "all things are not helpful." Grace teaches us the opposite of self-indulgence (Titus 2:11-12)… If "all things are lawful," personal faith still refuses to come under the power of mere "things." The believer has a Master who is supreme. So it is only right that he should let nothing else rule him.
Paul's freedom was real, and he still did not treat it as the deciding factor.
All things are lawful for those who are heirs of everything. But our great care should be to rule our natural desires, not to obey them. Otherwise we stop being free men and become slaves again. The apostle is our pattern here (1 Cor. 6:12). He claimed his personal freedom in the strongest terms, yet he chose to wear the chains of one bought by his Lord and belonging to Him. All things were lawful, but his rights were not his measure. His faith worked through love, and love does not count its rights; it looks for its opportunities.
- Lawful. The things in view are not sins. They are right things — food, natural relations. The danger is in the use, not the thing.
- Profitable. "Is it forbidden?" is only the first question. Ask also whether it does real good, not just no harm.
- Power. A lawful thing can start to govern you. The moment it governs, you are no longer free — that is slavery wearing the name of freedom.
- Master. A Christian already has a supreme Master, so nothing else may take command. Grace teaches this restraint, not rules.
- Love. Paul held his rights but did not let them decide. Love looks past what it may claim to what it can do for others.
Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats; but God will bring to nothing both it and them but the body [is] not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
Some in Corinth used the slogan "all things are lawful" to excuse what they did with their bodies. Paul answers by separating two things they had confused: food, which is temporary, and the body, which belongs to the Lord.
The first half of the verse deals with food. The pairing is mutual, and neither side lasts.
Paul first applies this to food. He deals with it so briefly and dismissively that he settles the question for every godly soul. "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food" — and God will destroy both one and the other. The comparison he then draws is forceful and surprising, and no less true: the two suit each other, and both perish under God's dealing. They are only temporary… Put the stomach in its true and passing place, and the body rises to a position philosophy knew nothing about. It was not made for unholy or casual indulgence; it is for the Lord, and the Lord is for it.
Paul takes up the claim that everything is permitted. Something allowed can still take command, and food is the plain example.
All things are lawful for the Christian — and here he speaks of right things: food and natural relations. Even so we have to be careful. All may be lawful, but it does not follow at all that everything is helpful. There is the danger that in using right things we come under their power… It is possible to use food and the body for self-indulgence and become a glutton.
The rule is not about the size of the thing but about who is in charge.
By "all things lawful, not all expedient" (v. 12) he means that there is no difference to him. But he will not let anything have power over him. The moment it governs, lust has power over him, even if it is only eating something nice.
"For the Lord" is a claim of ownership. It holds now, even though the body has not yet entered glory.
He has taken up the body as well as the soul, though He has not yet redeemed it out of its present state. It is for the Lord, therefore, and not for its own lusts… It awaits its redemption in the sense of being taken into glory. My soul has the liberty of grace, and my body waits for the liberty of the glory, and all creation waits. Yet the body now belongs to the Lord, and He takes it for Himself, and the Holy Spirit dwells in it as a temple.
The second half of the verse is not a demand but a promise of care.
How precious too are the words, "and the Lord for the body." He has a real concern for the proper well-being of our bodies, not just of our spirit and soul. We may entrust our bodily needs to His own hand with complete confidence, instead of dwelling anxiously on our life or our body (Matt. 6:25).
Read together, the two halves carry both a duty and a comfort.
There is both a responsibility and an encouragement in these words. We are to acknowledge the Lordship of Christ and use our bodies in His service. In doing so we may be sure of His grace and support, as Paul says: "and the Lord for the body." The Holy Spirit lives in the believer's body. How serious, then, to use it for unholy practices.
No philosophy ever gave the body this honour. Christ did.
The honour of the body was never set in its true light until Christ came and proved it. He proved it in His own person as man, and also in ours, redeemed by His blood and indwelt by the Holy Spirit… Even now the Lord does not despise this temple of the Spirit. How much less will He despise it when it is changed into the likeness of His glory? In this body we shall have the portion of our Lord. For "God both raised the Lord and will raise up us by His power."
- Perishing — food and the stomach were made for each other, and God will destroy both. They are temporary equipment, not a model for how to treat the body.
- Permitted — lawful things can still enslave. The moment a favourite food governs you, lust has the power, not you.
- Possessed — the Lord has taken up the body as well as the soul; it is His now, so it is for Him and not for its own desires.
- Promised — the soul already has the liberty of grace; the body still waits for the liberty of glory. God who raised the Lord will raise us by His power.
- Paired — the verse runs both ways. Your body is for Him in service, and He is for your body in care, so you can trust Him with its needs.
And God has both raised up the Lord, and will raise us up from among [the dead] by his power.
Some Corinthians treated the body as disposable, and loose living followed. Paul answers with a fact about the future, not a rule: the God who raised the Lord will raise His people too. That settles what the body is for.
The verse looks like a sudden change of subject. One writer shows why it is not.
The resurrection has a clear moral link with the subject of the previous verse. Some at Corinth wanted to keep the loose habits of their old life. They found support for this, at least in part, in their false views about where their bodies would finally end up. Chapter 15 shows that some had "spiritualised" away the true doctrine of the resurrection. Nothing leads so directly to a false contempt for the body — which is God's workmanship — as unbelief about its coming redemption. Nothing dishonours so directly, in practice, the God who made man in His own likeness.
Another writer states the rule behind it: wrong thinking cannot produce right living.
They were being deceived, and all evil teachings have a knock-on effect in the area of morals. If we think wrong we cannot act right. This throws light on the immorality among them, condemned in 1 Corinthians 5 and 1 Corinthians 6. Because they questioned the resurrection of the body, they had fallen more easily into sins that abuse the body.
Paul credits the raising to God the Father, and that emphasis fits what these chapters are about.
Here the resurrection is spoken of with exclusive reference to the Father: "God raised the Lord." And this is natural. What is at stake all through these correcting sections of the letter is the glory of God. His "called" and "chosen" ones have forgotten it. He has been shamed by the disorder in His house and by the wrongdoing of His own children. Reminding them of His mighty acts and of His purpose still to be fulfilled will correct and restore them. He who raised the Lord will also raise us up by His power. Christ Himself is called the power of God, and it is through Jesus that we shall be raised up at His coming. That power works by the same "Spirit of our God" whom Paul credited in verse 11 with their present blessings: by that Spirit God will raise His chosen in that day.
A raised body is a valued body. Nobody saw that value until Christ came.
The honour of the body was never seen in its true light until Christ came and proved it. He proved it in His own person as man, and in ours too — redeemed by His blood and indwelt by the Holy Spirit... Even now the Lord does not despise this temple of the Spirit. How much less will He despise it when it is changed into the likeness of His glory? In this body we shall share our Lord's portion.
Teaching about the soul alone can feed pride. Resurrection does not.
It is not merely that our spirits go to be with the Lord in heaven; our bodies will be raised like His at His coming... For if death shows man's weakness, resurrection displays God's power... The immortality of the soul is easily twisted to feed man's pride; the resurrection is not. It exalts God, humbles man, and, where it is held in faith, delivers from present ease and self-indulgence.
The promise to raise us up is not about everyone who has died. Commentators mark off a raising that belongs to Christ's own.
The resurrection of the saints (the "first resurrection") takes place at Christ's coming. As it is said, "Each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ." This resurrection is completely different from the resurrection of the wicked. There will be a resurrection both of the just and of the unjust, but on different principles. The just have life in Christ... The body is the Lord's as well as the soul. Christ will do for the bodies of the saints what He has already done for the soul.
Verse 14 is the third of seven reasons Paul gives in this chapter for a pure life.
You can clearly trace these seven motives to holiness — precious, powerful, and complete — in the chapter. 1. Saints are going to judge angels and the world. 2. They are washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. 3. They are going to be raised up. 4. Meanwhile their very bodies are members of Christ. 5. Being joined to the Lord, they are one spirit. 6. The saint's body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. 7. He is not his own, but bought with a price!
- Power — God acted on Christ's body, and He will act on ours. Paul corrects a shamed church by pointing to what God has done and what He still purposes.
- Power over doctrine — the Corinthians explained resurrection away. Wrong thinking about the body's future led to wrong use of the body now.
- Power over the body — a body that will be raised is not disposable. Christ proved its honour in His own person and in ours.
- Power over pride — talk of the soul alone can flatter a man. Resurrection exalts God, humbles man, and loosens the grip of self-indulgence.
- Power at His coming — Paul promises the first resurrection. Then Christ finishes for the body what He has already done for the soul.
Do ye not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then, taking the members of the Christ, make [them] members of a harlot? Far be the thought.
Paul has just told the Corinthians that the body was never made for immorality but for the Lord. Now he presses the point with a question. If your body belongs to Christ as one of His members, what happens when you join it to a prostitute?
The question is not asking for information. It is a rebuke, and by now Paul has used it again and again.
And further than this, they were proclaiming their own ignorance. Verse 2 begins with, "Do you not know?" Five times before the chapter ends we meet that question again. Like many other carnal believers the Corinthians did not know nearly as much as they thought they did. If truth governs US, we really know it. Mere intellectual knowledge does not count.
Paul does not say your spirit is a member of Christ. He says your body is.
It is not merely that our spirits go to be with the Lord in heaven; our bodies shall be raised like His at His coming... Not our souls but our bodies are declared to be members of Christ. Those who talk only of the soul may claim higher ground. But it is never really so in practice or in theory. On the contrary, the immortality of the soul is easily twisted to feed man's pride. The resurrection is not like that. It exalts God and humbles man. Where it is held in faith, it also delivers us from present ease and indulgence. Of this the Holy Spirit is the pledge, who joins us to the Lord and makes our bodies members of Christ. So we can see how monstrous sexual immorality is.
The body is not yet what it will be. Yet Paul speaks of it in the present tense. A Christian cannot split himself into a holy soul and a free body.
What they will be in their final transformation they already are in truth. They should have known this also. For the faith which unites us to the living and ascended Lord does not separate us from ourselves. If we are redeemed, our bodies belong to our Redeemer as surely as our souls do, even though they are not yet shaped into what they will be... It was, then, a foolish idea to suppose that the soul and body could be under different rules. Both are the Lord's, though each has its proper functions and its own relation to the other... So the apostle, who stood jealously on the honour of his position as a man in Christ, exclaims, "Shall I then take the members of Christ...?" — and answers his own question with an instant and forceful denial.
Paul does not answer with a rule. He answers by naming what the believer now is to Christ.
The relationship the Christian now has with Christ settles the question at once. "Do you not know," says the apostle, "that your bodies are members of Christ?" This determines the whole matter. Once you see what the believer has become through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it becomes obvious how unfitting it is to use the body to indulge lusts. For "he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him" (1 Cor. 6:15-17).
The man writing had once persecuted Christians. What the Lord said to him then is the truth he now applies to purity.
Moreover, our bodies are members of Christ, and he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. The Apostle learned something of this great truth at his conversion. The Lord said to him, "Why are you persecuting Me?" To touch the bodies of the saints was to touch Christ. All sin is solemn. But sin against the body is especially solemn, for the Holy Spirit lives in that body, and it belongs to God.
Paul's horror at the thought is not the end. It turns into a positive instruction.
Now note what these facts imply. How can we make the members of Christ the members of a prostitute? Again, how can I treat my body as if it were only my own? We are not our own. We belong to Another, spirit and soul and body. So "glorify God in your body" is the word for us. The whole idea of the unconverted is to gratify and glorify themselves in and through their bodies. Let it be ours to gratify and glorify God.
- Known — the repeated "do you not know" is a reproach. The Corinthians held the truth in their heads, but it did not govern them.
- Joined — the Holy Spirit joins the believer to the Lord as one spirit, and makes the body itself a member of Christ.
- Claimed — what the body will be at the resurrection, it already is now. A redeemed man cannot run his soul by one rule and his body by another.
- Personal — at his conversion Paul learned that to touch the bodies of the saints is to touch Christ. So impurity is not just dirty; it is disloyal.
- Glorify — the conclusion is not just "keep away." Those who are not converted use their bodies to glorify themselves; the believer uses his to glorify God.
Do ye not know that he [that is] joined to the harlot is one body? for the two, he says, shall be one flesh.
Paul answers the Corinthians' loose living with a question, not a lecture. Do they not already know what joining a body to a prostitute does — and what the words God spoke at creation say about it?
Paul does not argue the point so much as recall it. He asks whether they have forgotten what was true of man and woman from the beginning — and forgetting it costs a Christian double.
Had they forgotten that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female? He did it so that by a natural union they, though two, might be one only in His eyes. Sexual immorality is nature without God. It is therefore sin, like every other act of self-willed forgetfulness of God. But in a Christian it is doubly sin; for what he does, he does as a member of Christ's mystic body.
No promise and no intention are needed for this union. The joining is physical, and God's word at creation says what it makes.
How terribly wrong to take the members of Christ and make them the members of a prostitute! In practice it denies what is true. In practice the joining of two bodies together makes them one, as God declared when He created the woman for the man.
Paul quotes the words God spoke over the first marriage. He does not cancel them. He uses them to show where they belong, and what a believer's body has cost.
The union of bodies is shameful outside marriage. Inside marriage God would have it honourable — honourable in all things (Heb. 13:4). Scripture urges even the married seriously, as it warns the immoral solemnly. But God uses that union, and means it, to remind the Christian of his own blessed privilege: he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him — not one flesh. This is so because he has received the Holy Spirit. So impurity is a sin not only against his own body, but against the Trinity and the price paid.
The shock of the verse depends on what the body is. Paul has just said it belongs to Christ, and the city he wrote to made the warning urgent.
Scripture calls our bodies, not our souls, members of Christ… The Holy Spirit is the pledge of this. He joins us to the Lord and makes our bodies members of Christ. So we see how monstrous sexual immorality is. What a shameful contradiction of such closeness — indeed union — is impurity with a prostitute! It was all the more necessary to press this on a city known above every other for loose living. Beyond that, the pagan world in general treated sexual immorality as a neutral act like eating, not as a sin in itself.
This verse and the next stand as a pair. Together they give Scripture's own definition of union.
The Word explains what union with Christ is: "He who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her. For, as it is written, 'The two will become one flesh.' But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him" (1 Cor. 6:16-17). In Scripture, union is the making of two into one. Two pictures from ordinary life teach us union with Christ: marriage and the human body.
Commentators differ over how far to press the passage. One writer holds that union is not the subject here at all. For him the point is "the Spirit as the source and character and power of our connection with Christ, in contrast with 'two shall be one flesh'" (J. A. Trench).
Because the bond is real, no one can walk away as though nothing had happened. Paul's principle brings a lasting obligation, and it limits what human law can settle for a believer.
But a man cannot sin lightly and then act as if he had not sinned, especially in the way mentioned here. So he took on the duty of paying her bride price and taking her as his wife. Paul lays down the principle: "Do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, 'The two will become one flesh.'"… We are bound to obey the governing authorities where they do not conflict with the authority of God. Even so, the law of the land cannot guide the conscience of the believer or of the church.
- Joined. Scripture's own word for union is "joined." Union means the making of two into one. That is why a passing act never stays in the past.
- One flesh. God said it at creation. The joining of two bodies makes them one, whether anyone intends it or not.
- One spirit. The believer is already joined to the Lord — one spirit with Him, because he has received the Holy Spirit. Impurity contradicts that.
- Not yours. Your body is a member of Christ, and a price has been paid for it. So impurity sins against God Himself, not only against your own body.
- No excuse. A culture may treat it as neutral, and the law may permit it. Neither settles the conscience of a Christian.
But he that [is] joined to the Lord is one Spirit.
Paul answers sexual sin not with a rule but with a fact about who the believer now is. The verse just before speaks of a union of bodies; against it he sets a closer union — one spirit.
One writer sets two statements side by side, as two announcements from the same God:
God long ago said, "The two shall become one flesh." Now He makes a second declaration: the spiritual oneness of the Lord and His redeemed. Creation and its ordinances are a standing picture of grace. The woman is both from the man and for the man. The believer is both from the Lord and for the Lord.
Another writer notes the change of word. Marriage supplies the pattern, and the pattern points higher:
That union serves to remind the Christian of his own blessed privilege: he who is joined to the Lord is not one flesh, but one spirit. This is so because he has received the Holy Spirit. So this shows that impurity is a sin not only against his own body, but against the Trinity and against the price paid. "So glorify God in your body."
One writer names the bond itself, and what it makes of the body:
Our bodies are the members of Christ. Here is another truth of great importance. If union in the flesh made two people one body, then the one united to the Lord is one spirit. The Spirit whose fullness is in Christ is the same Spirit who dwells in me and unites me to Him. Our bodies are His temples. What a mighty truth when we think of it!
One writer draws a conclusion from this. A phrase many people use turns out to be missing from Scripture:
Union with Christ comes by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. You may search Scripture for the common thought "united to Christ by faith," but you will not find it. There is no such thought there. "He who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him"; and "your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God."
Which Christ is the believer joined to? One writer answers: not Christ as He was here on earth.
It is not a question of joining Him in flesh when He was here below. No doubt He took flesh and blood, but this is not the link of union. As long as Christ was here, there could not be union. Something might point forward to this high privilege, but God could not yet give it righteously. Now He can, and He has brought us into it. That is why the Holy Spirit is connected with it. It is not merely by faith, but by the Holy Spirit.
Such closeness invites a wrong conclusion, and one writer marks the limit. He also points out that the verse sets "spirit" against the "body" of the verse before:
The previous verse shows that this does not point exactly to the Holy Spirit, since the term "one spirit" stands in contrast to "one body." Of course, it is by the Holy Spirit that we are one spirit with the Lord. Adopt the idea put forward in such teaching, and how close one comes to deifying the saints!
One writer points to the moment Paul himself learned this. At his conversion he found that attacking Christians was attacking Christ:
Our bodies are members of Christ, and he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. The Apostle learned something of this great truth at his conversion. The Lord said to him, "Why are you persecuting me?" To touch the bodies of the saints was to touch Christ. All sin is serious. But sin against the body is especially serious, for the Holy Spirit lives in that body, and it belongs to God.
- Joined — the contrast. The same God who said the two become one flesh now says something closer: joined to the Lord, one spirit. Marriage is the picture; this is the reality it pictured.
- Joined — by whom. The bond is the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit whose fullness is in Christ now dwelling in the believer.
- Joined — when. While Christ was here on earth, this union could not exist. Now God gives it righteously, and He gives it by the Spirit.
- Joined — how far. The union is real, but it does not blur creature into Creator. "One spirit" answers to "one body." Push it further and you end up making saints into gods.
- Joined — so what. Because the body is a member of Christ, impurity touches Christ Himself. The chapter's answer to lust is not a rule but an identity: glorify God in your body.
Flee fornication. Every sin which a man may practise is without the body, but he that commits fornication sins against his own body.
Paul has just told the Corinthians that their bodies are members of Christ, and now he gives the shortest possible instruction on impurity: run. That command raises two questions. Why run instead of fight? And how does this sin reach the body as no other sin does?
The verb itself carries the strategy. One writer says the answer is not to hold any ground at all:
"Flee fornication." In this one is not told to fight, but to keep far from it, as Joseph fled from the wife of Potiphar. Other sins may not involve the body in this way, but this is sin against one's own body.
This is not cowardice. Another writer draws out the same rule, and adds that the man who ran was no weakling:
Also, His way for us always makes us feel our own weakness. Our prayer can never be, "Lead us into temptation," so we must never act as if it were. Whenever we can escape without being disloyal, we are to run rather than face it. "Flee also youthful lusts." "Abstain from the passions of the flesh." Run, as Joseph ran; and there was probably no braver man.
Paul does not say other sins are small. He says they are outside the body, while this one turns inward:
He wanted them to avoid sexual sin with everything in them, because this sin is unlike any other. It is against the body itself, while other sins stay outside it. How dreadful then to think not merely of the body so misused, but the Christian's body, temple of the Holy Spirit as it is!
Another writer says this sin robs the body of its own dignity, and compares it to two things:
We must not treat this sin as harmless, or even as a small offence. We should dread it and avoid it like a disease, because it stains both soul and body. Other sins stain us only in part. This one stains us fully, because it takes what God has claimed for Himself and puts it to a use He condemns. So it wrongs the body itself. It strips the body of its true honour as an instrument of worship, and drags it down again into the service of sin. It is, therefore, morally, what idolatry is spiritually.
Earlier in the chapter Paul contrasts food and the stomach — both passing — with the body, which is for the Lord. That contrast lifts the body far above what human thinking had given it:
If the stomach is put in its true and passing place, the body is lifted to a height that human philosophy never knew. God did not form it for impure or careless indulgence. It is for the Lord, and the Lord is for it.
God claims the body rather than throwing it away, so the body also has a future. That future changes how we live now:
Paul calls our bodies, not our souls, members of Christ. People who talk only about the soul may claim to be on a higher level. But it is never really so in practice or in theory. In fact, the immortality of the soul is easy to twist into human pride. The resurrection is not. It lifts God up and humbles man, and where faith holds it, it frees us from soft living and self-indulgence.
Just before this command, Paul says that the one joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. That union is what makes impurity so out of place:
Another truth linked to this matters greatly. If two people become one body by a bodily union, then the person joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. The Spirit whose fullness is in Christ is the same Spirit who dwells in me and unites me to Him. Our bodies are His temples. What a mighty truth when we think of it!
The body is God's temple and something He bought. One writer says two duties follow:
What God lives in is His, not ours. He does not rob us of the ownership that is naturally ours, but that ownership is swallowed up in the higher honour of our calling. Our bodies are His temple — ours, therefore, only as ourselves are His... So the Christian has a double duty toward his own body. He is to manage and rule it with watchfulness and godly firmness, as he would a restless and stubborn animal. And he is to hold it in honour.
One writer notes that freedom stops the moment an appetite starts to rule:
The moment it rules him, it has power over him — even if it is only eating something nice.
- Flee. Where escape is possible without disloyalty, retreat is the command — Joseph ran, and he was not a timid man.
- Because it strikes inward. Other sins stay outside the body. This one takes what God claimed for Himself and puts it to a use He condemns.
- Because God claims you. The body is not for impurity but for the Lord, and the Lord for it — a dignity human philosophy never reached.
- Because you are joined. The same Spirit whose fullness is in Christ dwells in you and unites you to Him.
- Because you are owned. The body is God's temple and God's purchase, so it must be both firmly governed and held in honour.
Do ye not know that your body is [the] temple of the Holy Spirit which [is] in you, which ye have of God; and ye are not your own?
Paul is writing to believers in Corinth about sexual immorality, and he argues not from rules but from a fact they already had: the Spirit of God lives in their bodies. This raises two questions — who owns the body, and what follows from God living in it.
The verse does not open with new information. It opens with a rebuke shaped like a question, and it is not the only one in the chapter.
This verse is another precious display of grace. The words "Do you not know?" repeated six times in this chapter, were meant as reminders of the great things the Corinthians had been taught, but which they were letting slip. A terrible danger for us also!
Knowing a truth and being governed by it are not the same thing.
And further than this, they were proclaiming their own ignorance. Verse 2 begins with "Do you not know?" We meet that same question five more times before the chapter ends. Like many other worldly believers, the Corinthians did not know as much as they thought they did. If truth governs us, we really know it. Mere intellectual knowledge does not count.
Paul could have said the soul or the spirit. He named the body — and that choice controls how far the claim reaches.
The Spirit of God lives in our body so that His character shows in the way we live. Notice that He does not call our spirits or souls His temple, but our bodies. So "You are not your own" is not only about our spiritual life. It covers our bodies too.
The Spirit lives in each believer, and He also lives among believers gathered together. These two are not the same thing.
The Spirit of God makes a clear difference between His living in one person and His living among believers together... Without the blood of Christ that has cleansed us, we would call it a shameful idea for the Holy Spirit to live in our poor bodies as His temple. But His testimony is to the value of that blood.
The Spirit's presence in a human body is not something God had always done. It waited for a finished work.
God did not live with Adam in the Garden of Eden, even before he sinned. God did not dwell with Abraham, though He visited him, and Abraham was called "the friend of God"... Now that redemption is finished, He comes to live in each believer. He also lives among His people, gathered together by the Holy Spirit. His presence in us is more than conversion. Those washed in the blood of Jesus become the dwelling place of God.
Ownership sounds like a loss of freedom. Read the other way, it is the only freedom there is.
Moreover, we are not our own, but were bought with a price — the blood of Christ offered for us... Our true liberty is to belong to God. Everything we do for ourselves is stolen from the One who bought us for Himself. Everything a slave was, or earned, belonged to his master; he did not own himself. So it is with the Christian. Outside of that, he is the wretched slave of sin and of Satan.
Paul is confronting a sin that strikes the body itself — the very thing God has claimed.
He would have them avoid sexual sin above all, because it is unlike every other sin. It is a sin against the body itself, while other sins are outside the body. How dreadful, then, to think of any body used that way — and worse, the Christian's body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit! It is His temple not because we dedicated it to Him, but because He Himself lives in us. God gave Him to us, because Christ bought us with His blood.
Taking the fact seriously changes behaviour without anyone needing to police it.
Let me take hold of this truth with power, and I will shrink from sin of every kind. I will hold on to the holiness that fits a Guest like this. I will seek not to grieve Him, but to encourage Him. I am not my own.
- Reminded — "Do you not know?" runs six times through this chapter. Paul is not teaching new truth. He is recovering forgotten truth, and truth only counts when it rules your life.
- Purchased — the price paid was the blood of Christ, and it bought the body, not just the soul. Living for yourself is theft from the One who owns you.
- Indwelt — God never lived in Adam or Abraham. He lives in believers now only because redemption is finished and the blood has washed them clean.
- Bodily — the temple is the body. So the claim covers every physical act, not just the spiritual side of life.
- Guarded — sexual sin gets special mention because it strikes the body itself, the very place God has claimed. Grasp who lives there, and you shrink from sin of every kind.
for ye have been bought with a price glorify now then God in your body.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.