1 Corinthians 6
1 Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbor, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?
2 Don’t you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
3 Don’t you know that we will judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?
4 If then you have to judge things pertaining to this life, do you set them to judge who are of no account in the assembly?
5 I say this to move you to shame. Isn’t there even one wise man among you who would be able to decide between his brothers?
6 But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers!
7 Therefore it is already altogether a defect in you that you have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?
8 No, but you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that against your brothers.
9 Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals,
10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortionists, will inherit God’s Kingdom.
11 Some of you were such, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God.
12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are expedient. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be brought under the power of anything.
13 “Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods,” but God will bring to nothing both it and them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
14 Now God raised up the Lord, and will also raise us up by his power.
15 Don’t you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!
16 Or don’t you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, “The two,” says he, “will become one flesh.”
17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.
18 Flee sexual immorality! Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
19 Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
20 for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
1 Corinthians 6 Commentary
Chapter Overview
First Corinthians 6 continues Paul’s concern for conduct that contradicted the church’s confession. In verses 1–8, believers were taking one another before secular courts over ordinary disputes. Paul does not deny the proper role of civil courts or excuse fraud. He rebukes Christians who damaged one another and exposed the church’s divisions rather than seeking wise reconciliation. Their lawsuits revealed failed spiritual judgment and an unwillingness to suffer loss for love.
Verses 9–11 move from warning to gospel identity. Paul names patterns incompatible with inheriting God’s kingdom, then reminds the Corinthians, “Some of you were such.” The decisive words are “washed,” “sanctified,” and “justified.” Christianity does not attach a religious label to unchanged lives. God cleanses guilt, sets people apart, and declares them righteous through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Their past no longer has to define their future.
In verses 12–20, Paul answers slogans that separated bodily behavior from spiritual life. Christian freedom is not permission to obey every desire. The body belongs to the Lord, will be raised, is joined to Christ, and is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Sexual conduct therefore has spiritual meaning. Because believers were bought at a price, their bodies are neither disposable nor beyond accountability. Christians must reject enslaving appetites and glorify God in embodied life.
Key Themes
Paul begins with one believer taking another “before the unrighteous.” The phrase does not mean every non-Christian judge was personally corrupt; it contrasts outsiders with the saints. Corinthian courts could become arenas for status and rivalry. The deeper issue was why brothers treated each other as opponents to defeat rather than family to reconcile.
The saints’ judging the world and angels points to believers sharing in Christ’s future reign and verdict. Paul gives few details, so the passage should not support elaborate hierarchies of heavenly authority. His argument is practical: people destined for such responsibility should develop wisdom to settle ordinary matters justly and without favoritism.
Paul’s repeated question, “Don’t you know?” exposes a gap between theological knowledge and practiced wisdom. The Corinthians prized insight, eloquence, and spiritual status, yet they could not resolve basic conflicts. Biblical maturity is not measured only by what a person can discuss. It is also seen in listening carefully, telling the truth, accepting correction, protecting the weak, and seeking outcomes that preserve both justice and fellowship.
Verse 7 says that the lawsuits were already a defeat, regardless of who won the judgment. A favorable verdict could not erase the deeper failure of greed, retaliation, or broken brotherhood. “Why not rather be wronged?” echoes Jesus’ teaching about refusing revenge in Matthew 5. Paul is not commanding victims to remain in danger or conceal abuse. He is confronting believers who valued property, pride, and victory more than love and were willing to commit further wrong to recover what they believed was theirs.
Paul then warns that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom. The list in verses 9–10 includes sexual immorality, idolatry, adultery, same-sex sexual conduct, theft, greed, drunkenness, abusive speech, and exploitation. The list is representative rather than exhaustive. Its purpose is not to create a ranking of especially shameful people, but to overturn deception: persistent rebellion must not be renamed harmless merely because a culture, congregation, or individual finds it convenient. Some terms in verse 9 are debated, especially those translated here as “male prostitutes” and “homosexuals.” Yet Paul’s sexual ethic is not limited to one exploitative arrangement. He grounds it in the male-and-female “one flesh” pattern of Genesis 2, union with Christ, and the body’s belonging to the Lord. Christians should state this conviction without mockery, hostility, selective outrage, or denial of anyone’s dignity.
“Some of you were such” is one of the chapter’s most hopeful statements. Paul neither minimizes the Corinthians’ former lives nor traps them inside those histories. The gospel creates a genuine break with old identities and allegiances. This does not mean every temptation disappears immediately, but it means sin is no longer the believer’s unquestioned master. Paul develops the same truth in Romans 6: those united with Christ are called to present themselves to God as people brought from death to life.
The three descriptions in verse 11 reveal different dimensions of salvation. “Washed” pictures cleansing from defilement; “sanctified” means set apart as God’s holy people; “justified” announces a right standing granted through Christ. Paul does not present these as human achievements. They occur “in the name of the Lord Jesus” and “in the Spirit of our God.” Moral transformation flows from grace received, not from an attempt to earn grace through moral performance.
“All things are lawful for me” was probably a Corinthian slogan or a distorted conclusion drawn from Christian freedom. Paul answers it with two tests: Is it beneficial, and will it master me? Freedom that harms others or produces bondage has betrayed its own name. Galatians 5 likewise teaches that freedom is not an opportunity for the flesh but a calling to serve one another through love.
“Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods” reduces bodily appetites to biological functions. Paul rejects treating sex like hunger. Food and digestion belong to the present order, but the body is “for the Lord,” and God will raise it. Resurrection gives dignity and accountability to bodily life, as Romans 8 and 1 Corinthians 15 further explain.
Sexual union cannot be dismissed as a surface bodily act. Paul quotes Genesis because intimacy joins persons with relational and covenantal meaning, even when they deny it. Joining Christ’s members to prostitution is therefore a profound contradiction. Sexual sin is not beyond forgiveness; verse 11 denies that. It must be recognized, fled, and brought under Christ’s restoring lordship.
“Flee sexual immorality” requires decisive distance rather than experimentation with temptation. Calling it sin “against his own body” emphasizes its inward, unitive character; it does not make other sins harmless to the body. Sexual sin uses the body in a union contradicting its belonging to Christ. The answer is not contempt for the body, but a higher view of its purpose.
The temple image is personal and communal. Each believer’s body is inhabited by the Spirit, while the church together is God’s temple, as 1 Corinthians 3 teaches. “You are not your own” does not erase personhood or authorize leaders to control people. Believers belong to the God who redeemed them at the price of Christ’s death, so bodily holiness responds gratefully to costly grace.
Important Verses and Questions
Does 1 Corinthians 6 forbid Christians from ever using a court? It directly addresses private disputes between believers who were wronging one another and bypassing the church’s wisdom. Criminal acts, abuse, threats, child endangerment, and serious harms must not be concealed as “church matters.” Courts may also be needed for protection, legal clarity, or defending others. Paul condemns selfish litigation, not reporting crime or every lawful appeal.
What disputes should a church help resolve? Paul’s “smallest matters” suggests ordinary financial, property, or relational conflicts rather than criminal prosecution. Mature mediation can establish facts, acknowledge wrong, make restitution, and reach fair agreements. It must never pressure vulnerable people to surrender legal rights or protect influential offenders.
What does it mean that believers will judge angels? It likely refers to redeemed people sharing in Christ’s final victory and rule, possibly over fallen angels. Paul gives no timetable or procedure. His argument moves from greater to lesser: those entrusted with such a future role should cultivate wisdom for present decisions.
Why would Paul tell someone to accept being wronged? He is exposing the spiritual cost of insisting on personal victory at any price. Voluntarily absorbing a limited loss can sometimes protect peace, display generosity, and end retaliation. This principle must be applied with discernment. It does not require enabling repeated exploitation, refusing boundaries, abandoning dependents’ needs, or remaining silent when another person could be harmed.
Does verse 9 say that anyone who commits one listed sin cannot be saved? No. Verse 11 explicitly says that some Corinthians had practiced these very sins and had been washed, sanctified, and justified. The warning concerns an unrepentant pattern treated as compatible with allegiance to Christ. Believers may stumble seriously, but the gospel calls them to confession, forgiveness, and a changed direction rather than denial and settled self-deception.
How should Christians understand “All things are lawful”? It cannot mean that idolatry, injustice, or sexual immorality have become morally acceptable, because Paul condemns them in the same chapter. The phrase is best read as a Corinthian claim, perhaps about matters they considered permissible. Paul limits freedom through benefit, mastery, belonging to Christ, love for others, and God’s purpose for the body. Permission is never the Christian’s only question.
Why does Paul say, “Flee,” rather than merely “resist”? Some temptations are best opposed by leaving the setting, ending access, changing routines, and seeking immediate help. Joseph’s flight in Genesis illustrates this kind of wisdom. Fleeing may include digital boundaries, accountability, avoiding secrecy, ending an illicit relationship, or seeking pastoral and professional support. It is not cowardice to stop placing oneself where desire repeatedly overcomes judgment.
What does it mean to glorify God in the body? It means honoring God through sexual faithfulness, sobriety, honest work, rest, care, service, worship, and respect for others. Stewardship must not become vanity or condemnation of illness and disability. The body’s value rests in creation, redemption, the Spirit’s presence, and resurrection—not appearance or usefulness.
Practical Applications
Seek reconciliation before escalating ordinary conflicts. Speak directly, listen to the other person, involve wise and impartial believers when needed, and document agreements clearly. Do not use “keeping peace” to avoid truth, but do not turn every disagreement into a contest for public vindication. The guidance of Matthew 18 can help churches pursue correction in measured stages.
Build trustworthy processes for mediation. Churches should identify mature people who understand Scripture, confidentiality, power differences, finances, and safeguarding. Mediators must disclose conflicts of interest and recognize when a matter belongs with law enforcement, legal counsel, licensed professionals, or civil courts. Spiritual language must never be used to hide evidence or coerce a weaker party.
Remember your new identity when confronting old patterns. Shame says, “This is all you will ever be,” while presumption says, “Grace makes change unnecessary.” Verse 11 rejects both. Confess honestly, receive Christ’s cleansing, accept practical accountability, and take repeated steps consistent with being washed, sanctified, and justified.
Test every claimed freedom by its fruit. Ask whether a choice benefits others, strengthens faith, preserves clear judgment, and remains under voluntary control. Entertainment, substances, spending, food, technology, work, and sexuality can all become masters. A habit that cannot be refused without distress deserves honest attention and, when necessary, skilled help.
Treat sexual holiness as discipleship of the whole person. Avoid both permissiveness and humiliation. Teach God’s design positively, protect people from coercion, support those resisting temptation, provide pathways for confession, and make restoration possible. 1 Thessalonians 4 connects sanctification with learning to control the body in holiness and honor rather than exploiting others.
Glorify God through embodied service. Your body is not merely a source of appearance, appetite, productivity, or pleasure; it is a gift through which you can pray, work, welcome, protect, give, endure, and love. Because Christ paid the price of redemption and the Spirit dwells within, ordinary bodily faithfulness becomes an act of worship.