Judge Righteously, Flee Sexual Immorality, and Glorify God in Your Body
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) , Public Domain · Translation notes · Reference sources
Paul rebukes believers for taking one another before unbelieving courts. He argues that the saints will judge the world and angels, so they should be able to handle ordinary disputes within the church. Their lawsuits already reveal defeat, and they should rather suffer wrong than defraud one another.
Paul warns that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God and lists representative sins that characterize such unrighteousness. He then reminds the Corinthians that some of them once lived this way, but they were washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.
Paul addresses Corinthian slogans about freedom and bodily appetite. He counters by teaching that not everything permissible is beneficial, that believers must not be mastered by anything, and that the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, who will also raise the body.
Paul argues from union with Christ, Genesis covenant language, and temple theology. Believers’ bodies are members of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit. Therefore they must flee sexual immorality and glorify God in their bodies, because they have been bought with a price.
Biblical Theology
Christ is central throughout the chapter. Believers are washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their bodies are members of Christ. Their union with him defines sexual ethics. His resurrection guarantees the future of the body, and his redemptive purchase establishes his rightful claim over the believer’s embodied life.
Paul addresses two visible manifestations of Corinthian worldliness: lawsuits among believers and sexual immorality. He begins by exposing the shame of Christians taking one another before unbelieving courts, a practice that reveals both ecclesial immaturity and failure to grasp the saints’ eschatological dignity...
The chapter presents the church as a holy people who must handle internal matters in a way fitting for those destined to reign and judge with Christ. It also frames the body in covenantal terms. Believers do not own themselves, but belong to God by redemption, indwelling, and union with Christ. Therefore bodily conduct is covenantally significant.
The chapter presents the church as a holy people who must handle internal matters in a way fitting for those destined to reign and judge with Christ. It also frames the body in covenantal terms. Believers do not own themselves, but belong to God by redemption, indwelling, and union with Christ...
Genesis 2:24
Daniel 7:22
Exodus 19:5-6
Romans 6:12-13
Paul rebukes believers for taking one another before unbelieving courts. He argues that the saints will judge the world and angels, so they should be able to handle ordinary disputes within the church. Their lawsuits already reveal defeat, and they should rather suffer wrong than defraud one another.
Those who will one day judge the world must learn to resolve their conflicts within the body of Christ.
Biblical Theology
The people of God are called to live according to their future identity in Christ’s kingdom, demonstrating wisdom, unity, and humility in present relationships.
The saints who will judge the world cannot find anyone wise enough to settle disputes among brothers? Going before unbelievers brings shame — better to accept wrong than to litigate in pagan courts.
Saints judging the world and angels echoes Dan 7:22 ('judgment was given to the saints of the Most High') — the eschatological role of God's people in the coming kingdom...
Fulfillment: Daniel 7:22; Deuteronomy 17:8-12; Exodus 18:13-26
1 If any of you has a grievance against another, how dare he go to law before the unrighteous instead of before the saints!
2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?
3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!
4 So if you need to settle everyday matters, do you appoint as judges those of no standing in the church?
5 I say this to your shame. Is there really no one among you wise enough to arbitrate between his brothers?
6 Instead, one brother goes to law against another, and this in front of unbelievers!
7 The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means that you are thoroughly defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?
8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, even against your own brothers!
Paul warns that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God and lists representative sins that characterize such unrighteousness. He then reminds the Corinthians that some of them once lived this way, but they were washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.
Those transformed by the gospel leave their old life behind and live as people washed and justified in Christ.
Biblical Theology
The transforming power of the gospel creates a new people who leave behind their former patterns of sin and live as citizens of God’s kingdom.
The vice list ends with the decisive 'but you were washed' — the Corinthians' past does not define them. Justification, sanctification, and washing are accomplished facts in the name of Christ and by the Spirit.
'Such were some of you, but you were washed, sanctified, justified' echoes Ezek 36:25-27 (God washing and giving a new spirit) and Isa 1:18 (sins as scarlet, washed white)...
Fulfillment: Ezekiel 36:25-27; Isaiah 1:18; Jeremiah 31:33-34
9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,
10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Paul addresses Corinthian slogans about freedom and bodily appetite. He counters by teaching that not everything permissible is beneficial, that believers must not be mastered by anything, and that the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, who will also raise the body.
Because the body belongs to the Lord and will be raised, it must not be ruled by sin.
Biblical Theology
Christian freedom is governed by allegiance to Christ and the future resurrection of the body.
All things are lawful — but not all are helpful. The body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord. Because God raised Christ and will raise us, bodily life matters eschatologically.
The body raised for the Lord fulfills Gen 2:7 (God breathed life into man) and Ezek 37:14 (the Spirit restores bodily life) — the resurrection of Christ establishes the body's ultimate destiny, overturning the Gnostic devaluation of material existence.
Fulfillment: Genesis 2:7; Ezekiel 37:14; Isaiah 26:19
12 “Everything is permissible for me,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything.
13 “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” but God will destroy them both. The body is not intended for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
14 By His power God raised the Lord from the dead, and He will raise us also.
Paul argues from union with Christ, Genesis covenant language, and temple theology. Believers’ bodies are members of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit. Therefore they must flee sexual immorality and glorify God in their bodies, because they have been bought with a price.
Because believers are united to Christ, their bodies must not be joined to sin.
Biblical Theology
Union with Christ transforms how believers understand their bodies, calling them to holiness in all physical relationships.
The member of Christ cannot also be joined to a prostitute — the one-flesh union of Gen 2:24 is desecrated. Joining to the Lord is a deeper one-spirit union that makes sexual immorality a desecration of union with Christ.
Union with a prostitute making one body echoes Gen 2:24 ('the two shall become one flesh') — the marriage union's theological depth is inverted in sexual immorality...
Fulfillment: Genesis 2:24; Ezekiel 36:27; Deuteronomy 10:20
15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!
16 Or don’t you know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”
17 But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit.
Redeemed bodies indwelt by the Spirit must glorify God.
Biblical Theology
Redemption through Christ establishes a new identity in which the believer’s body becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit and an instrument for God’s glory.
Flee sexual immorality — your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.
The body as temple of the Holy Spirit (Exod 25:8 'let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them') — the Spirit's indwelling in the believer's body is the new-covenant fulfillment of the tabernacle/temple...
Fulfillment: Exodus 25:8; 1 Kings 8:10-11; Deuteronomy 7:8
18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
20 you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.