1 Corinthians
Chapter 6
Overview
Paul confronts serious problems within the community of Jesus’ followers in Corinth. Some are dragging one another before judges who do not share their faith, while others are treating sexual freedom as if the body had no lasting importance. Paul ties these issues together through one central idea: their new life with God should shape both public disputes and private choices. He moves from lawsuits and injustice to destructive behavior, then explains why the body matters. Freedom, he argues, is not simply permission; it can quietly become another kind of slavery.
1When one of you has a dispute with another believer, how dare you take the case before judges who do not follow God instead of bringing it before God’s people?
2Don’t you know that God’s people will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you not qualified to decide very small cases?
3Don’t you know that we will judge angels? Surely, then, we can judge matters from everyday life.
4So when you have cases about everyday matters, do you appoint as judges people whom the community of believers considers unimportant?
5I say this to make you ashamed. Is there really no wise person among you who can settle a dispute between one fellow believer and another?
6Instead, one believer takes another to court—and does this before people who do not believe!
7The very fact that you have lawsuits against one another already means that you have completely failed. Why not accept being wronged instead? Why not accept being cheated?
8But you yourselves wrong and cheat others—and you do this to fellow believers.
9Don’t you know that people who do wrong will not inherit a place in God’s kingdom? Do not deceive yourselves. This includes people who practice sexual immorality, worship idols, commit adultery, take the passive role in male-male sex, or have sex with males.
10It also includes thieves, greedy people, drunkards, people who verbally abuse others, and swindlers. Such people will not inherit a place in God’s kingdom.
11Some of you once lived that way. But you were washed clean, set apart for God, and put right with him through the name of the Lord Jesus and through the Spirit of our God.
12“I am free to do anything”—but not everything is beneficial. “I am free to do anything”—but I will not let anything control me.
13Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food—but God will bring both to an end. The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality. It is meant for the Lord, and the Lord cares for the body.
14God raised the Lord from the dead, and by his power he will also raise us.
15Don’t you know that your bodies are parts of the Messiah’s body? Should I take parts of the Messiah’s body and make them parts of a prostitute’s body? Absolutely not!
16Don’t you know that anyone who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For God’s Scripture says, “The two will become one body.”
17But anyone who joins himself to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
18Run away from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but a person who practices sexual immorality sins against their own body.
19Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who lives within you—the Spirit you received from God? You do not belong to yourselves,
20because you were bought at a price. So honor God with your body.