In my daily reading, 1 Cor. 4-7, I spent time reading commentaries on the following verse. I wanted some clarity about the emboldened portion of the following verse.
I read several commentaries from the e-Sword Bible app on my iPhone, two of those commentaries are pasted in below: Albert Barnes and Matthew Henry. Both commentaries were edifying, Henry’s is twice as long, but he did cover 9 verses.
Barnes treats only verse 18; Henry, 12-20 of 1 Cor. 6.
LINK to Bible Hub 1 Cor. 6:12 page of Bible commentators: https://biblehub.com/commentaries/1_corinthians/6-12.htm
1 Corinthians 6:18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
[KJV was used because the commentators used it. All bracketed statements, underscoring and emboldening are mine; also, commentaries were divided into smaller paragraphs for ease of reading.]
FROM ALBERT BARNES’ NOTES ON THE BIBLE:
Flee fornication – A solemn command of God – as explicit as any that thundered from Mount Sinai. None can disregard it with impunity – none can violate it without being exposed to the awful vengeance of the Almighty.
There is force and emphasis in the word “flee” φεύγατε pheugate. Man should escape from it; he should not stay to reason about it; to debate the matter; or even to contend with his propensities, and to try the strength of his virtue.
There are some sins which a man can resist; some about which he can reason without danger of pollution. But this is a sin where a man is safe only when he flies; free from pollution only when he refuses to entertain a thought of it; secure when he seeks a victory by flight, and a conquest by retreat. Let a man turn away from it without reflection on it and he is safe. Let him think, and reason, and he may be ruined. “The very passage of an impure thought through the mind leaves pollution behind it.” An argument on the subject often leaves pollution; a description ruins; and even the presentation of motives against it may often fix the mind with dangerous inclination on the crime. There is no way of avoiding the pollution but in the manner prescribed by Paul; there is no man safe who will not follow his direction. How many a young man would be saved from poverty, want, disease, curses, tears, and hell, could these two words be made to blaze before him like the writing before the astonished eyes of Belshazzar Dan. 5, and could they terrify him from even the momentary contemplation of the crime.
Every sin … – This is to be taken comparatively. Sins in general; the common sins which people commit do not immediately and directly affect the body, or waste its energies, and destroy life. Such is the case with falsehood, theft, malice, dishonesty, pride, ambition, etc. They do not immediately and directly impair the constitution amid waste its energies.
Is without the body – Does not immediately and directly affect the body. The more immediate effect is on the mind; but the sin under consideration produces an immediate and direct effect on the body itself.
Sinneth against his own body – This is the FourTH argument against indulgence in this vice; and it is more striking and forcible.
The sense is, “It wastes the bodily energies; produces feebleness, weakness, and disease; it impairs the strength, enervates the man, and shortens life.” Were it proper, this might be proveD to the satisfaction of every man by an examination of the effects of licentious indulgence. Those who wish to see the effects stated may find them in Dr. Rush on the Diseases of the Mind.
Perhaps no single sin has done so much to produce the most painful and dreadful diseases, to weaken the constitution, and to shorten life as this. Other vices, as gluttony and drunkenness, do this also, and all sin has some effect in destroying the body, but it is true of this sin in an eminent degree.
End Barnes Comments
SCRIPTURE PASTED IN FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO REVIEW IT; 1 Cor 6:12-20:
1 Corinthians 6:12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. 14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
1Cor 6:15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. 16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. 17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
1Cor 6:18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
1Cor 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
MATTHEW HENRY’S COMMENTARY ON THE WHOLE BIBLE:
1 Corinthians 12-20:
The twelfth verse and former part of the thirteenth seem to relate to that early dispute among Christians about the distinction of meats, and yet to be prefatory to the caution that follows against fornication. The connection seems plain enough if we attend to the famous determination of the apostles, Acts 15, where the prohibition of certain foods was joined with that of fornication. [See Acts 15:22-35.]
Now some among the Corinthians seem to have imagined that they were as much at liberty in the point of fornication as of meats, especially because it was not a sin condemned by the laws of their country.
They were ready to say, even in the case of fornication, All things are lawful for me. This pernicious conceit Paul here sets himself to oppose: he tells them that many things lawful in themselves were not expedient at certain times, and under particular circumstances; and Christians should not barely consider what is in itself lawful to be done, but what is fit for them to do, considering their profession, character, relations, and hopes: they should be very careful that by carrying this maxim too far they be not brought into bondage, either to a crafty deceiver or a carnal inclination.
All things are lawful for me, says he, but I will not be brought under the power of any, 1Co_6:12. Even in lawful things, he would not be subject to the impositions of a usurped authority: so far was he from apprehending that in the things of God it was lawful for any power on earth to impose its own sentiments.
Note, There is a liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, in which we must stand fast. But surely he would never carry this liberty so far as to put himself into the power of any bodily appetite. Though all meats were supposed lawful, he would not become a glutton nor a drunkard. And much less would he abuse the maxim of lawful liberty to countenance the sin of fornication, which, though it might be allowed by the Corinthian laws, was a trespass upon the law of nature, and utterly unbecoming a Christian.
He would not abuse this maxim about eating and drinking to encourage any intemperance, nor indulge a carnal appetite: “Though meats are for the belly and the belly for meats (1Co_6:13), though the belly was made to receive food, and food was originally ordained to fill the belly, yet if it be not convenient for me, and much more if it be inconvenient, and likely to enslave me, if I am in danger of being subjected to my belly and appetite, I will abstain.
But God shall destroy both it and them, at least as to their mutual relation.
There is a time coming when the human body will need no further recruits of food.” Some of the ancients suppose that this is to be understood of abolishing the belly as well as the food; and that though the same body will be raised at the great day, yet not with all the same members, some being utterly unnecessary in a future state, as the belly for instance, when the man is never to hunger, nor thirst, nor eat, nor drink more. But, whether this be true or no, there is a time coming when the need and use of food shall be abolished.
Note, The expectation we have of being without bodily appetites in a future life is a very good argument against being under their power in the present life. This seems to me the sense of the apostle’s argument; and that this passage is plainly to be connected with his caution against fornication, though some make it a part of the former argument against litigious law-suits, especially before heathen magistrates and the enemies of true religion.
These suppose that the apostle argues that though it may be lawful to claim our rights yet it is not always expedient, and it is utterly unfit for Christians to put themselves into the power of infidel judges, lawyers, and solicitors, on these accounts. But this connection seems not so natural. The transition to his arguments against fornication, as I have laid it, seems very natural: But the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body, 1Co_6:13. Meats and the belly are for one another; not so fornication and the body.
ONE: The body is not for fornication, but for the Lord. This is the first argument he uses against this sin, for which the heathen inhabitants of Corinth were infamous, and the converts to Christianity retained too favourable an opinion of it.
It is making things to cross their intention and use. The body is not for fornication; it was never formed for any such purpose, but for the Lord, for the service and honour of God. It is to be an instrument of righteousness to holiness (Rom_6:19), and therefore is never to be made an instrument of uncleanness.
It is to be a member of Christ, and therefore must not be made the member of a harlot, 1Co_6:15. And the Lord is for the body, that is, as some think, Christ is to be Lord of the body, to have property in it and dominion over it, having assumed a body and been made to partake of our nature, that he might be head of his church, and head over all things, Heb_2:5, Heb_2:18.
Note, We must take care that we do not use what belongs to Christ as if it were our own, and much less to his dishonour.
TWO: Some understand this last passage, The Lord is for the body, thus: He is for its resurrection and glorification, according to what follows, 1Co_6:14, which is a second argument against this sin, the honour intended to be put on our bodies:
God hath both raised up our Lord, and will raise us up by his power (1Co_6:14), by the power of him who shall change our vile body, and make it like to his glorious body by that power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself, Php_3:21.
It is an honour done to the body that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead: and it will be an honour to our bodies that they will be raised. Let us not abuse those bodies by sin, and make them vile, which, if they be kept pure, shall, notwithstanding their present vileness, be made like to Christ’s glorious body.
Note, The hopes of a resurrection to glory should restrain Christians from dishonouring their bodies by fleshly lusts.
THREE: A third argument is the honour already put on them: Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? 1Co_6:15.
If the soul be united to Christ by faith, the whole man is become a member of his mystical body. The body is in union with Christ as well as the soul. How honourable is this to the Christian! His very flesh is a part of the mystical body of Christ.
Note, It is good to know in what honourable relations we stand, that we may endeavour to become them.
But now, says the apostle, shall I take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid. Or, take away the members of Christ?
Would not this be a gross abuse, and the most notorious injury?
Would it not be dishonouring Christ, and dishonouring ourselves to the very last degree?
What, make a Christ’s members the members of a harlot, prostitute them to so vile a purpose!
The thought is to be abhorred. God forbid. Know you not that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with hers?
For two, says he, shall be one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit, 1Co_6:16, 1Co_6:17. Nothing can stand in greater opposition to the honourable relations and alliances of a Christian man than this sin.
He is joined to the Lord in union with Christ, and made partaker by faith of his Spirit. One spirit lives and breathes and moves in the head and members. Christ and his faithful disciples are one, Joh_17:21, Joh_17:22.
But he that is joined to a harlot is one body, for two shall be one flesh, by carnal conjunction, which was ordained of God only to be in a married state.
Now shall one in so close a union with Christ as to be one spirit with him yet be so united to a harlot as to become one flesh with her? Were not this a vile attempt to make a union between Christ and harlots?
And can a greater indignity he offered to him or ourselves? Can anything be more inconsistent with our profession or relation?
Note, The sin of fornication is a great injury in a Christian to his head and lord, and a great reproach and blot on his profession. It is no wonder therefore that the apostle should say, “Flee fornication (1Co_6:18), avoid it, keep out of the reach of temptations to it, of provoking objects. Direct the eyes and mind to other things and thoughts.”
Alia vitia pugnando, sola libido fugiendo vincitur – Other vices may be conquered in fight, this only by flight; so speak many of the fathers.
FOUR: A fourth argument is that it is a sin against our own bodies.
Every sin that a man does is without the body; he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body (1Co_6:18); every sin, that is, every other sin, every external act of sin besides, is without the body. It is not so much an abuse of the body as of somewhat else, as of wine by the drunkard, food by the glutton, etc. Nor does it give the power of the body to another person. Nor does it so much tend to the reproach of the body and render it vile.
This sin is in a peculiar manner styled uncleanness, pollution, because no sin has so much external turpitude [depravity] in it, especially in a Christian.
He sins against his own body; he defiles it, he degrades it, making it one with the body of that vile creature with whom he sins. He casts vile reproach on what he [his] Redeemer has dignifies [dignified] to the last degree by taking it into union with himself.
Note, We should not make our present vile bodies more vile by sinning against them.
FIVE: The fifth argument against this sin is that the bodies of Christians are the temples of the Holy Ghost which is in them, and which they have of God, 1Co_6:19. He that is joined to Christ is one spirit. He is yielded up to him, is consecrated thereby, and set apart for his use, and is hereupon possessed, and occupied, and inhabited, by his Holy Spirit.
This is the proper notion of a temple – a place where God dwells, and sacred to his use, by his own claim and his creature’s surrender. Such temples real Christians are of the Holy Ghost. Must he not therefore be God? But the inference is plain that hence we are not our own. We are yielded up to God, and possessed by and for God; nay, and this is virtue of a purchase made of us:
You are bought with a price. In short, our bodies were made for God, they were purchased for him. If we are Christians indeed they are yielded to him, and he inhabits and occupies them by his Spirit: so that our bodies are not our own, but his. And shall we desecrate his temple, defile it, prostitute it, and offer it up to the use and service of a harlot? Horrid sacrilege! This is robbing God in the worst sense.
Note, The temple of the Holy Ghost must be kept holy. Our bodies must be kept as his whose they are, and fit for his use and residence.
SIX: The apostle argues from the obligation we are under to glorify God both with our body and spirit, which are his, 1Co_6:20. He made both, he bought both, and therefore both belong to him and should be used and employed for him, and therefore should not be defiled, alienated from him, and prostituted by us.
No, they must be kept as vessels fitted for our Master’s use. We must look upon our whole selves as holy to the Lord, and must use our bodies as property which belongs to him and is sacred to his use and service.
We are to honour him with our bodies and spirits, which are his; and therefore, surely, must abstain from fornication; and not only from the outward act, but from the adultery of the heart, as our Lord calls it, Mat_5:28.
Body and spirit are to be kept clean, that God may be honoured by both. But God is dishonoured when either is defiled by so beastly a sin. Therefore flee fornication, nay, and every sin. Use your bodies for the glory and service of their Lord and Maker.
Note, We are not proprietors of ourselves, nor have power over ourselves, and therefore should not use ourselves according to our own pleasure, but according to his will, and for his glory, whose we are, and whom we should serve, Act_27:23.
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