1 Corinthians 6
1 Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?
When you feel you’ve been wronged by a brother you should try to have the matter settled in the church and not in an outside court.
2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent {to} {constitute} the smallest law courts?
3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life?
4 So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church?
5 I say {this} to your shame. {Is it} so, {that} there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren,
6 but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?
We will judge the world – during the millennium when Christ returns.
Then, we will judge angels too.
So we must learn to judge righteously now.
7 Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?
What an interesting concept! What a life transforming thought! Why not rather be wronged or defrauded?
Also consider Pr 19:11.
Pr 19:11 A man's discretion makes him slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook a transgression.
Most people get really upset when someone wrongs them or cheats them. But the Christian perspective is that if someone wrongs or defrauds you then you don’t need to get all bent out of shape about it. Leave it in God’s hands. Let Him take revenge. Or better still, like Jesus, pray that God will forgive them.
How much better church life would be if we all lived to that standard!
8 On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. {You do} this even to {your} brethren.
In this church, people were doing wrong to others – even to their own brothers in Christ.
Because such people exist, we need to be on guard – just because a person comes to our church it doesn’t mean that we should trust them. We should not naïvely allow ourselves to be taken advantage of, but if we do get taken advantage of then we need to let go and be at peace about it.
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,
10 nor thieves, nor {the} covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
Those who wrong or defraud others (and do other bad things) will not inherit the kingdom of God.
When the Bible says, "Do not be deceived," we should pay careful attention. If we don’t pay careful attention, we might end up being deceived.
When I say, "Pay careful attention," I mean that we should go over the list carefully and examine ourselves to determine whether we belong to any of these categories. Am I a fornicator? Am I an idolater? And so on. If we habitually practice even one of these things then we will go to hell, no matter what we believe.
A thief takes someone’s money or possessions through stealth. A swindler takes someone’s money or possessions through deception.
Paul now switches subjects and goes on to discuss the next topics of this chapter. The first topic deals with how we use our time. The second deals with whether it is okay for a believer to continue to visit prostitutes. Possibly there were some people in the church of Corinth who had the habit of visiting prostitutes, and then became believers, but wanted to continue to visit prostitutes, and they wanted to know if that was okay.
12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.
Paul’s position is this: we shouldn’t do something just because it is allowed. We should do it if it is spiritually profitable too.
Further, we should not let anything master us to the point where we must have it.
Now these are very general principles that apply in many areas. Paul told Timothy that a good soldier doesn’t spend too much time on other things. So we must be careful about what hobbies we have and how much time we have if we want to serve God. Particularly, we must develop a sense of urgency regarding getting done for the kingdom of God.
Some people spend a lot of time preparing their food so that it is very tasty. Paul’s word to them is that we should not spend too much time on that. We don’t have to do away with it but we need to keep it under control.
13 Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.
The body is for food, but not for immorality – specifically, not for joining with a prostitute.
Both food and the body will be done away with.
The Lord is for the body – that is, God gives you good health.
14 Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power.
Further, God will also give us an immortal body.
Jesus didn’t raise Himself. The Father raised Him. The Father will also raise us up too.
God confirms that He will raise us by giving us the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. Since the Holy Spirit is in us we must not make Him uncomfortable by sinning with our body.
15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!
16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body {with her?} For He says, "THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH."
17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit {with Him.}
18 Flee immorality. Every {other} sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
What kind of contact with the opposite sex is okay? Is touching a person’s skin just as bad as kissing? Is blood transfusion in the same category as kissing? Is sexual intercourse equivalent to blood transfusion? Just what kind of contact is impermissible and why?
Apparently, only sexual intercourse is impermissible. But why?
Sexual intercourse results in a new creation. Is that what distinguishes it from the other kinds of contact mentioned above?
When we were born again, God put His spiritual seed (the Holy Spirit) in us, and we became one in spirit with Him. This is just like how when a man joins himself to a woman he puts his fleshly seed in her and becomes one flesh with her. She becomes the temple of his seed just as we become the temple of the Holy Spirit.
If you join what is Holy and what is sinful then you are contaminating what is Holy. It’s like putting a pure white garment in dirty water.
As a member of the church, you are not your own, but your body belongs to Christ, and you are also one spirit with Him. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit. But if you make yourself one flesh with the prostitute then you are one with the prostitute. These are mutually exclusive things.
The payment did cost God something very precious to Him
Glorify God in your body – especially by not joining it to a prostitute.
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