19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples 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 honor God with your bodies.
Civil Disputes: Believers embroiled in lawsuits against each other are told to let committees of believers settle the disputes, rather than pagan courts. “Even men of little account” who are in the church could settle such “trivial cases fairly. (1-5).
What disturbs Paul is the fact of the suits in the first place. They show that believers are actually trying to cheat and wrong each other! It would be better to be cheated than to be a cheater (6-8)!
1 If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? … 5 I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? 6 But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers!
7 The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? 8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters.
God’s Kingdom; 6:9-11. God’s kingdom is more than a place or time. It is a relationship with God, in which he is free to act in and through us. Paul says flatly that no one who habitually practices sin can enter into this experience. But Christ has cleansed us from what we were to live new lives as citizens of his kingdom.
9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers 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.
Immorality; 6:12-20. Paul now restates a principle developed in Romans 6:15-27. A believer can do anything. But our body is designed to serve and glorify God. Thus we choose to serve righteousness, not sin.
Sexual immorality is particularly abhorrent to Paul. Jesus lives within each believer. Our body is a temple of God, won at the price of Christ’s own blood, and must be committed to uses which honor God. No wonder Paul is so troubled when sexual sins are simply ignored by the members of the Corinthian fellowship!
12 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial.”I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant 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. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not 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 whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples 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 honor God with your bodies.
