Observation
Setting. Paul is still dealing with disorder inside the Corinthian church (chapters 5–6). Chapter 5 ended with “Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges” (5:12–13). Chapter 6 opens with believers who will not judge their own disputes but take one another before pagan courts. Then Paul returns to sexual immorality — the Corinthian habit of treating the body as if it did not matter.
Who: the Corinthian believers (“brother goes to law with brother,” v6); “the unrighteous” judges outside the church (v1); “the saints” (vv1–2); angels (v3); the unrighteous who will not inherit the kingdom (vv9–10); the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God (v11); a prostitute (vv15–16); the Holy Spirit who is in the believer (v19).
Structure: - vv1–8 — Lawsuits between believers. - vv1–6: why go before the unrighteous? “The saints will judge the world” (v2), even angels (v3) — how much more matters of this life? “I say this to your shame” (v5): is there not one wise man among you? - vv7–8: it is already a defeat to have lawsuits at all. “Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?” (v7). Instead you yourselves wrong and defraud — your own brethren (v8). - vv9–11 — Who will not inherit the kingdom, and who we used to be. “Do not be deceived” (v9); ten kinds of people (vv9–10); then the turn: “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified” (v11). - vv12–17 — The slogans answered. “All things are lawful for me” — but not all things are profitable; I will not be mastered by anything (v12). “Food is for the stomach” — God will do away with both, but the body is for the Lord, and God will raise us (vv13–14). Your bodies are members of Christ; joined to a prostitute = one body (Gen 2:24); joined to the Lord = one spirit (vv15–17). - vv18–20 — Flee, and glorify God. “Flee immorality” (v18); your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit; you are not your own; bought with a price; “therefore glorify God in your body” (vv19–20).
Repeated words, with counts: - “Do you not know” ×6 — vv2, 3, 9, 15, 16, 19 (four of them “Or do you not know,” vv2, 9, 16, 19). Paul keeps appealing to what they already know. - “body / bodies” ×8 — vv13 (×2), 15, 16, 18 (×2), 19, 20 (all in vv13–20). - “God” ×7 — vv9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 19, 20; “Lord” ×5 — vv11, 13 (×2), 14, 17. - “go to law / law courts / lawsuits” ×5 — vv1, 2, 4, 6, 7; “judge / judged / judges” ×4 — vv2 (×2), 3, 4. - “brother(s) / brethren” ×4 — vv5, 6 (×2), 8. - “members” ×3 — v15 (×3); “Christ” ×3 — vv11, 15 (×2). - “but” ×10 — vv6, 11 (×3), 12 (×2), 13 (×2), 14, 18 — three of them carry the turn in v11. - “neither … nor” — ten kinds of people in vv9–10 (“neither” once, “nor” nine times). - “lawful” ×2 — v12; “inherit” ×2 — vv9, 10; “joins” ×2 — vv16, 17; “prostitute” ×2 — vv15, 16; “immorality” ×2 — vv13, 18 (plus “the immoral man,” v18); “wrong(ed)” ×2 — vv7, 8; “defraud(ed)” ×2 — vv7, 8; “unrighteous” ×2 — vv1, 9; “this life” ×2 — vv3, 4; “raise(d)” ×2 — v14.
Compare 5:11: six of the ten names in 6:9–10 already appear in 5:11 — immoral, covetous, idolater, reviler, drunkard, swindler.
Contrasts: the unrighteous ⟷ the saints (v1). Judging the world and angels ⟷ unable to settle the smallest matters (vv2–4). Be wronged ⟷ do wrong (vv7–8). “Such were some of you” ⟷ “but you were washed” (v11). Lawful ⟷ profitable; free ⟷ mastered (v12). Food and stomach that God will do away with ⟷ the body that God will raise (vv13–14). One body with a prostitute ⟷ one spirit with the Lord (vv16–17). Every other sin is outside the body ⟷ the immoral man sins against his own body (v18). Your own ⟷ bought with a price (vv19–20).
Commands: do not be deceived (v9); flee immorality (v18); glorify God in your body (v20). The questions of v7 work as commands too.
Shape of the chapter: a courtroom (1–8), a mirror (9–11), a debate (12–17), a sanctuary (18–20). It begins with men claiming their rights and ends with the news that they are not their own.
Chapter theme (my words): I am not who I was. Washed, set apart and declared right with God by Jesus and His Spirit, I belong to Him — body included. So I settle my quarrels like family, I run from sexual sin instead of reasoning with it, and I use this bought body to honor the One who paid for it.
Interpretation
Lawsuits among believers (vv1–8). Guzik says “unrighteous” (v1) is meant “in a religious sense, not a moral sense”: the judges were not necessarily bad judges, “but they were not Christians.” Paul himself appealed to Roman courts (Acts 25:10–11), and Romans 13 gives the state real authority, so Guzik does not read this as a ban on all legal action, or on criminal matters going to the state. Sproul draws the same line from Jesus’ teaching: “there is still a legitimate place for the role of the state, the role of church courts,” but personal ethics are governed by “mercy, not vengeance.” Henry: “Christians should never engage in law-suits till all other remedies have been tried in vain.” The issue is believers airing family quarrels before the world; the church should provide wise arbitration (v5).
What does “the saints will judge the world … we will judge angels” mean (vv2–3)? Daniel saw judgment “passed in favor of the saints” (Dan 7:22); Jesus promised the Twelve thrones (Matt 19:28). Henry takes it of the saints as “assessors to Christ” at the last day — “They are not partners in their Lord’s commission, but they have the honour to sit by, and see his proceeding against the wicked world, and approve it.” Guzik: we will share “in some sense or another,” and the angels in view are the evil ones. Either way, if that is our destiny, a property dispute is beneath us.
“Why not rather be wronged?” (vv7–8). Guzik reads v7 as aimed at the injured party: “Just by going to court against your brother, you already lose.” Paul is not telling him to suffer wrong instead of confronting the problem, but instead of bringing the dispute before unbelievers. Henry limits it to matters of small consequence: “In matters of great damage to ourselves or families, we may use lawful means to right ourselves.” Then v8 turns to the one doing wrong — you yourselves defraud, and do it to your brothers.
Who will not inherit the kingdom (vv9–10)? Guzik’s key point: Paul describes “those whose lives are dominated and characterized by these sins,” not a believer who stumbles and fights back — though “a lifestyle of sin begins with single acts of sin.” Sproul: “true regenerate Christians fall into these sins,” but it “should be a radical exception to Christian behavior,” and impenitence is what puts a man outside the church. “Do not be deceived.”
The two words in verse 9. NASB “effeminate” (malakoi) and “homosexuals” (arsenokoitai). Guzik holds that together they address homosexual practice generally, not only exploitative or commercial forms; other interpreters argue for narrower readings, and the debate in the scholarship is real. Guzik’s pastoral balance deserves notice: “Christians err when they excuse homosexuality, and deny that it is sin, but they also err just as badly when they single it out as a sin God is uniquely angry with.” The greedy and the drunkard are named in the same breath — and all of them are things to be repented of, not identities that put anyone beyond grace.
“Such were some of you” (v11). The turning point of the chapter. Three aorist verbs, each introduced by a strong “but”: - washed — cleansed from the filth of sin (Titus 3:5; Acts 22:16); - sanctified — set apart as God’s own (Heb 10:10); - justified — declared righteous, acquitted (Rom 3:24; 5:1).
All three are God’s work, “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” — Father, Son and Spirit together, as Guzik notes. Henry: “All who are made righteous in the sight of God are made holy by the grace of God.” Guzik: “God can take the kind of people described in 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 10 and make them into the kind of people described in 1 Corinthians 6:11!”
“All things are lawful for me” (vv12–14). Guzik and Henry both read this (and “food is for the stomach”) as Corinthian slogans — Christian freedom twisted into license. Paul answers twice: not everything is profitable, and “I will not be mastered by anything.” The wordplay (exestin / exousiazō) says: everything may be within my rights, but I refuse to come under the rights of anything. Sproul: Christ “calls us to the royal liberty of slavery to him.” Then Paul breaks the food–sex comparison: God will do away with stomach and food, but He will raise the body (v14).
Members of Christ, one flesh, one spirit (vv15–17). The believer’s body is a member of Christ. Sexual union creates a “one flesh” bond (Gen 2:24) — Guzik: “In the Biblical understanding of sex, there is no such thing as ‘casual sex.’” But the one who joins himself to the Lord is “one spirit with Him.” Spurgeon: “Intimate association creates conformity.”
Flee (v18). Not “resist,” not “manage” — run. Guzik’s model is Joseph (Gen 39:12); Clarke (in Guzik): “reason not, but FLY!”; Henry: “Other vices may be conquered in fight, this only by flight.” Guzik reads porneia broadly, to include sexual gratification apart from one’s spouse, pornography included. Not a worse sin than all others, Guzik says, but one with “a unique effect on the body.”
Temple and price (vv19–20). Naos is the inner sanctuary. In 3:16 it is the church; here, each believer’s body. “You are not your own … bought with a price”: the language of the market, the price the blood of Christ (1 Pet 1:18–19). The KJV’s “and in your spirit, which are God’s” is probably a later addition (Guzik).
Word study (Greek): - unrighteous — adikos (G94): unjust; outside God’s righteousness (vv1, 9). - judge / go to law — krinō (G2919): to judge, decide; middle voice “go to law” (vv1, 6). - law courts — kritērion (G2922): a tribunal or case; only vv2, 4 and James 2:6. - defeat — hēttēma (G2275): a loss, a failure (v7; Rom 11:12). - be wronged / wrong — adikeō (G91): to act unjustly, injure (vv7, 8). - defraud — apostereō (G650): to rob, withhold what belongs to another (vv7, 8; 7:5; Mark 10:19). - deceived — planaō (G4105): to lead astray, make to wander (v9; 15:33). - inherit — klēronomeō (G2816): to receive as an heir (vv9, 10). - effeminate — malakos (G3120): literally “soft” (Matt 11:8); figurative here. - homosexuals — arsenokoitēs (G733): “male” + “bed”; only here and 1 Tim 1:10. - washed — apolouō (G628): to wash off, wash away (v11; Acts 22:16). - sanctified — hagiazō (G37): to set apart as holy (v11). - justified — dikaioō (G1344): to declare righteous; a courtroom acquittal (v11). - lawful — exesti (G1832): it is permitted (v12). - profitable — sympherō (G4851): to bring together for good, be advantageous (v12). - mastered — exousiazō (G1850): to exercise authority over (v12; 7:4). - do away with — katargeō (G2673): to render idle, abolish (v13; 15:26). - joins — kollaō (G2853): to glue, cleave (vv16–17; Matt 19:5). - prostitute — pornē (G4204): a harlot (vv15–16). - flee — pheugō (G5343): run away, escape (v18; 10:14; 2 Tim 2:22). - immorality — porneia (G4202): sexual immorality of every kind (vv13, 18). - temple — naos (G3485): the sanctuary itself, where God dwells (v19; 3:16). - bought — agorazō (G59): to purchase in the marketplace (v20; 7:23). - price — timē (G5092): value, honor, price (v20). - glorify — doxazō (G1392): to honor, show the worth of (v20).
Key insights to carry (from the Deep Dive): 1. The case is lost before it is heard — hēttēma: having lawsuits at all is the defeat (v7). 2. Future judges, present failures — those who will judge angels can settle the smallest matters (vv2–3). 3. Paul speaks to both men — “be wronged” to the injured, “you yourselves wrong” to the guilty (vv7–8). 4. Mercy first, not courts never — Sproul and Henry both keep a place for lawful courts. 5. The list is a mirror, not a weapon — neither excuse any sin on it nor single one out. 6. “Such were” is past tense — washed, sanctified, justified are finished acts of God (v11). 7. My rights must not become something else’s rights over me — lawful, but not mastered (v12). 8. You become one with what you join — the same verb for the prostitute and the Lord (vv16–17). 9. Some sins are beaten only by running — “this only by flight” (Henry); Joseph’s cloak. 10. The sanctuary, not the courtyard — naos, and the reason is the price (vv19–20).
Cross-references: Gen 2:24; 39:7–21; Dan 7:22; Matt 5:39–40; 18:15–17; 19:5, 28; Mark 10:19; Luke 6:27–36; Acts 22:16; 25:10–11; Rom 1:24–32; 3:24; 6:12–23; 12:1; 13:3–4; 1 Cor 3:16–17; 5:11–13; 7:4, 23; 10:14; 15:26, 33; Gal 5:19–21; Eph 5:5; 1 Thess 4:3–8; 1 Tim 1:10; 2 Tim 2:22; Titus 3:3–7; Heb 10:10; 13:4; James 2:6; 1 Pet 1:18–19; 2:23.
Application
Command to obey — settle it like family. “Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?” (v7). Some of the men I walk with carry real injuries — money taken, trust broken, sometimes by a brother in Christ. Paul does not say the wrong does not matter. He says winning against a brother before the world can cost more than the loss. I can take it to wise believers, and I can hand the rest to God, who judges justly (1 Pet 2:23). And if I am the one in verse 8, I need to make it right this week.
Promise to trust — “Such were some of you.” This is the verse I want every man I serve to read slowly. Were. Past tense. The list in vv9–10 reads like a roll call of the men around our table — the drinking, the sexual sin, the stealing, the using — and of me. Then come three words God has already spoken over everyone in Christ: - Washed. The stain is gone, not just covered over. You are not dirty. - Sanctified. You are set apart — God’s own property now, not your addiction’s. - Justified. The Judge has ruled in your favor because of Jesus. The case is closed.
None of these is a reward for a clean streak. They are done “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” When the enemy reads you your old record, answer with God’s verdict.
For the men I walk with — identity before effort. Recovery that starts with “I have to stop” runs out of gas. Paul starts with who you are (v11), whose you are (vv15, 19), and what you cost — “bought with a price” (v20). You don’t fight to become clean; you fight because you are clean and you won’t go back to the mud.
Warning to heed — “I will not be mastered by anything.” “All things are lawful for me” is the voice of every addiction: I’m free; I can handle it. Is this thing serving me, or am I serving it? Anything that has me is my master — and I already have One.
Command to obey — flee. “Flee immorality” (v18). Not debate it, not see how close I can get, not test my strength — Joseph ran (Gen 39:12). For a man fighting sexual addiction, fleeing is planned ahead: filters on the phone, the device out of the bedroom, the route that avoids the old places, the brother I text before — not after — I’m in trouble. Running is not weakness. It is obedience.
Example to follow — this body is a sanctuary. “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you … you are not your own” (v19). For a man getting out of prison, in treatment, or failing to illness — your body is not trash and not a cell. God lives there, and He intends to raise it (v14). That changes what I put into it, what I let it do, and how I rest it and work with it.
Questions for the table (from the Deep Dive): 1. Is there a brother I am holding something against — money, a broken promise, an injury — and how would Paul have me settle it? (6:1–8; Matt 18:15) Why not rather be wronged? Settle it like family, before the world is watching. 2. When have I been the one in verse 8 — the one who wronged or cheated a brother and expected grace to cover it? (6:8–9) Paul speaks to both men; the defrauder stands next to the list in verse 9. 3. Read verses 9–10 slowly. Which names would have described me? What does “such were some of you” say to that man? (6:9–11; Titus 3:5) Washed, sanctified, justified — past tense, God’s work, not my streak. 4. What “All things are lawful for me” do I tell myself? What has started to master me? (6:12; Rom 6:16) Freedom that enslaves is not freedom; I already have a Master. 5. What does fleeing look like for me this week — specifically, ahead of time, and with whom? (6:18; Gen 39:12; 2 Tim 2:22) Not resisting, not testing, not reasoning: running, like Joseph. 6. If my body is a sanctuary God bought, what changes in how I use it, feed it, rest it, and work with it? (6:19–20; Rom 12:1) Spurgeon: chastity, temperance, industry — the body glorifying God.
Worship. The Judge has already ruled over me — washed, sanctified, justified. The Spirit lives in this body, and the price was the precious blood of Christ. I am His.
Prayer. Father, thank You that I am washed, sanctified and justified in the name of Jesus and by Your Spirit — not by my record. Such was I, and You made me new. Give me the humility to settle my quarrels like a brother and the courage to flee what I cannot flirt with. Break anything that has started to master me. I am not my own; I was bought with the blood of Your Son. Take this body and use it for Your glory — and keep the men at our table in the same grace. Amen.