1 Corinthians 6

V1. Quarreling happens to the best of us. But this expression cannot be applied to the family of God. In God’s family quarrels should not happen. And yet that happens. Why? Someone might have cheated you once. I will give you an example. Suppose you have a car and lend this car to a brother. You get your property back clean and undamaged. But yet, in course of time you receive in your letterbox a fine for driving too fast. Fortunately, you could recall that on the day the fine is dated, you lent the car to this brother. Then, with this fine you go to him.

To your astonishment, he doesn’t know what you’re talking about; at least, that is how he responds. But you know for sure that he borrowed your car on the day in question. This matter becomes so intense that you sue him. Of course you don’t give up, do you? And of course you want to get to the bottom of the situation, don’t you? This turns into a situation of two brothers standing before the court to enforce their right. What a bad thing for the testimony of God on earth.

Something like this was reported to Paul by the believers at Corinth. He found it very sad. How dared they? And they actually battled their conflicts out before the unrighteous! It doesn’t say what case it really was about. Therefore you may apply my example to many other cases, whatever believers can quarrel about. As it is said, it is not supposed to happen among children of God. But in case it does, how do you respond? That is the issue here. Paul rebukes them because they went to the worldly-wise judge with their conflicts, instead of consulting the saints, the brothers and sisters.

V2. Do you know why he says this? It’s because the saints, the believers, will judge the world. What is he saying? Shall we judge the world? Yes, that’s what he is saying. Judgment here must be understood in the sense of governing, not of condemning. And if the saints shall judge the world, wouldn’t they then be competent to constitute the smallest law courts?

Just make yourself fully aware of this. You will be competent to – soon, when the Lord will rule the world – reign together with Him. Then you will be competent to know exactly how to deal with all kinds of situations properly. Will you be different then from what you are now? No, you will be the same. There will only be one change and that is the fact, that you don’t have the flesh, your old nature, anymore. And that is just exactly the thing that is still keeping you from responding properly when someone else cheats you.

V3. There is no better advice than what Paul is giving here: Be aware of your future! In future you will even judge angels. Once again, the meaning of this judging is: reigning over angels, thus, telling them what to do. That is quite something, isn’t it? Angels are mighty creatures. Once, one angel killed 185,000 people in one night (Isa 37:36). Angels are beings used by God now to help and protect believers (Heb 1:14). Soon you will tell angels where they should go and what they should do.

What should these mighty creatures think then if you cannot control yourself in the matters of this life, which will be meaningless in future? For that is the issue here: the everyday matters. It is about matters that have no significance at all in themselves, in the future. The question is: how important are they for you? Do you want to, at all costs, claim the part you’re entitled to and what you haven’t received? The angels are watching how you respond to these matters. The best way to determine the value of “matters of this life” is to consider them in the light of the future. That is what Paul is doing here. If you do so, you will get rid of the pain of loss and you will have joy in what you will receive in future, instead.

V4. This section is very practical. It deals with the common things of life. When problems arise between believers about every day things, other believers ought to be able to give solutions. You don’t need to have a special gift or an extraordinary spiritual insight for that. The simplest believer is capable, with the wisdom of God, to deal with such situations.

V5. Paul says that they should be ashamed of themselves. Weren’t they glorying in their many gifts? But in spite of those many gifts, brothers have law courts with each other. In that way they aired out the dirty laundry of the church and it became known to the world. What an embarrassing spectacle. Are the people of the world made jealous to become Christians too by hearing these things? They only speak contemptuously and with gloating about those arguing Christians.

The fact that there are many different churches and denominations is still something that should embarrass us. But it hurts me more when I sometimes read about matters from which it becomes apparent that Christians are also quarreling within their own church or denomination. And in this case, it makes no difference to me in which church or denomination Christians are quarreling.

Where was the brother, who would be capable of judging between his brethren? It must have been a great church at Corinth, for God says to Paul about it: “I have many people in this city” (Acts 18:10). But a large number of believers in a local church is not a guarantee for a healthy spiritual life in that church.

If you think you are a simple brother or sister, then you might have the tendency to follow the crowd easily. But on the other hand, if you have received a certain gift, you might be easily tempted to raise yourself above the crowd, or you might be raised by fellow believers. Neither of them is right. In the church everybody should know his place and task. Paul returns to this at length in 1 Corinthians 12 (1Cor 12:4-30). But the lesson here is that we should not ignore the responsibility to keep a watchful eye for matters that could bring the church into disrepute.

V6. Conflicts between believers are not to be resolved by a worldly judge, but ought to be resolved in the church. So, how simple you might consider yourself – after all, you cannot consider yourself too simple –, you have received the command to help to seek for solutions when there are conflicts in the church about miscellaneous ordinary matters. To be able to do that, the important thing is not the need of having common sense or to have much sensitivity in the first place, but the daily fellowship with the Lord Jesus. Then you will receive the wisdom you need for any case you have to deal with.
Suggestion: This wisdom will, when you’re still young, lead you to consult older and wiser brothers first for a certain matter.

Now read 1 Corinthians 6:1-6 again.

Reflection: Have you ever had a conflict with a brother or sister? How was that resolved? Or do you have a conflict with someone at this moment? How do you think you will resolve that? Or do you know of other believers who are in conflict with each other? What could your task possibly be?

V7. Actually, it was a bad thing that there was no one at Corinth, who could judge in an insignificant dispute. Had there been someone, then the conflict would have been resolved. Unfortunately, there was not such a person and because both brothers who were in conflict, wanted their right, they seek that by consulting an unbelieving judge. What a mess! Still there was another way for the brothers to resolve their conflict and that was if one of them would be willing to be the least. In fact, it is very foolish that believers quarrel about miscellaneous silly things. Why is it that we do not rather want to suffer injustice? We should be willing to allow the other to enjoy his benefits. We should wish him luck!

To be able to do that, you should conquer yourself first, for it is hard to respond like that. We are all eager to have the things we think to be entitled to. It is not our nature to be willing to be the least. However, we have a great example in the Lord Jesus. He never demanded His rights, but endured injustice and let Himself be wronged. He knew that it was not the time to claim His own rights. And He knew exactly what His rights were. Yet He waited – and He is still waiting – on the time of His Father. It is really true: every injustice you suffer here voluntarily will be compensated by the Father at His time.

V8. If you can work up the courage to suffer injustice or to rather be defrauded, you will also be kept from defrauding another person. Paul had to blame the Corinthians that they themselves were wronging and defrauding others and even their brothers. This is how we believers are by nature. Our sense of righteousness can be strong if our own interest is at stake. We then, so-called, fight for our rights, which we after all have, while in fact we are wronging our brother or are defrauding him.

V9-10. Paul takes it seriously. When you are doing wrong it means that you are like the unrighteous. And an unrighteous person cannot enter the kingdom of God, just as little as fornicators can and all other doers of awful sins, which Paul summarizes in verse 10. That’s quite something Paul is saying here. He ranks a person, who wrongs his brother, with the doers of those awful sins. He empowers his words by saying: “Do not be deceived!”

It is about inheriting the kingdom of God. In that kingdom there is no room for any sinner. Only people who have broken with their sinful past and now want to live for God, belong there. In case you drop back in old sins, you should immediately confess it and break with it again.

V11. It is necessary for you to be reminded occasionally of what you were in the past. At the same time you are also reminded of everything that happened to you, namely, you are:
1. “washed”,
2. “sanctified” and
3. “justified”.

First: Your sins are washed away through the blood of the Lord Jesus. All that was wrong has disappeared.

Second: You are sanctified, which means that God has separated you for Himself to live for Him. You had to be washed, for when you were living in sin, God couldn’t use you.

But there is yet one more thing. You are, third, also justified. God not only separated you from the world to live for Him, but He also connected you to Himself. You may and can be very close to Him.

You understand that these wonderful things didn’t happen because you are so great. God could do that “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God”. Only because of Who the Lord Jesus is to God and because of the work He has accomplished, could God deal with us like that. And the Spirit of God, Who dwells in you, assures you that God has dealt with you like that.

V12. The connection between verse 11 and verse 12 is as follows. In verse 11 you see that God has delivered you from the chains of sin in which you were imprisoned. When you were not yet washed etcetera, you were not free. You might have thought you were, but now you can see that you were a slave of sin then. You were living under obligations that you imposed on yourself or that others imposed on you.

That belongs to the past now. You can do everything now. That’s what is said, even twice: “All things are lawful for me.” That is true. Only, both times something is added. That is not to limit your freedom, but to practice it properly. The first addition is: “But not all things are profitable.” Just examine yourself if it’s helpful if you want to do something that is in fact not sinful or wrong in itself. When I think of our children or of other young people, it is possible that because of something I do, I give a bad example to them, even though it is something that’s not wrong for me. Pay attention that Paul is speaking in the ‘I’ form here. It’s about how you and I practice Christian freedom in our daily life.

The second addition is: “I will not be mastered by anything.” If you don’t practice this freedom properly, you will fall back under a law. You will notice that things that are quite helpful, will take control over you. Could I really do something without becoming addicted to it? For when I become addicted to something, I am not in control anymore, but I am controlled.

V13a. Here Paul speaks about food. Many people let their stomach lead them. Food, delicious and much, is very important to many people. Food is something that is lawful. God supplies us with food to nurture our body. You may enjoy your food with thanksgiving to God (1Tim 4:3). But here the application is also: how do you practice it and how important is it in your life?

With Isaac and Esau for example, their ‘appetite for something delicious’ did not turn out well. They didn’t deal with food properly. Esau sold his birthright for one plate of lentil stew (Gen 25:29-34). Of Isaac you read that “he had a taste for game”. Because of his love for savory food, he decided to, against the will of God, grant Esau the blessing of the firstborn (Gen 25:28; 27:3-4). Here you have some examples of people who couldn’t say: ‘I will not be mastered by anything.’ They had no self-control anymore and they did things they later regretted.

Food is for the stomach and the stomach for the food, but God will do away with both of them. That hasn’t got anything to do with the annihilation of man. Everyone will always exist, whether in heaven or in hell. The issue here is that in heaven food and stomach will be of no use anymore.

V13b. The Corinthians draw the wrong conclusion that it wouldn’t be important to take care of the body. It seems they use their body for immorality. In the world around us, everything is about sex. What Paul is saying here to the Corinthians, is also topical for us. Because of the influence of Christendom, matters like fornication were clearly considered as something bad. But the influence thereof is now disappearing at a very fast pace in the West. With a lot of young people and also among older people, sexuality has been degraded to a consumption product. In our Western world, the truth of God, also regarding marriage and sexuality, has been generally jettisoned.

We are dealing with a generation that doesn’t know anything at all about what the Bible says about marriage and sexuality. Their thoughts and talk about it and what they’ve often already done with it in practice, prove that as to these things they have often completely gotten off track. It is necessary that young people (and of course also older people) who are converted and have become believers in the Lord Jesus, are taught from the Bible about the functioning of their body.

The Corinthians hadn’t been converted for very long. Some of them had been living in all kinds of awful sexual immoralities (verses 9-11). They lived in the midst of their compatriots, who were and still are in the habit of living like that. Therefore they were in danger of losing the awareness of the impact of certain sins. This applies to us as well. The world around you is living its own dissolute life. Values and standards are fading. If you don’t watch out, you may slowly be dragged along and you will also gradually lose the right view of matters. The only way to continually have a right view of good and evil is by listening to God’s Word. Then you will have the right view of God’s purpose with your body.

You cannot do whatever you want with your body. Regarding food and drink, you may gratefully receive it to nurture your body. And you may certainly enjoy it. But your body is not for sexual immorality (or fornication)! By sexual immorality is not meant prostitution in the first place. Sexual immorality is a collective term for all unlawful sex, thus for sexuality outside marriage.

Your body and the Lord belong together. Your body is for the Lord and the Lord takes care for your body. That’s why you should never enter into a relationship with your body with someone whom the Lord has not purposed for you, that means your own wife with whom you are legally bound by marriage.

Now read 1 Corinthians 6:7-13 again.

Reflection: Do you sometimes explore, when doing things, if they are useful? Just also explore which things you are mastered by.

V14. Your body and the Lord belong together, not only at present, but also in future. Just like the Lord was raised up, just like that your body will be raised up. Your body is – and will remain in future – a member of Christ.

V15. Do you not know that your body is a member of Christ? Just as you use a member of your own body, your arm, head, hand, foot, etcetera, Christ wants to use your body with all its members and capacities. If that stands out clearly in your mind, you will be able to immediately see why you cannot make your body a member of a prostitute.

V16. To be joined to a prostitute or harlot means that you are one body with her. The proof of that comes from Genesis 2, where God instituted marriage (Gen 2:24). Being one flesh, established through sexual intercourse, is something that belongs within marriage. He who has sexual intercourse outside marriage – so in harlotry – with someone else, becomes by doing so one body with the other person. The Bible calls a person, who is married and commits this sin, an ‘adulterer’. Only repentance and forgiveness can restore the damaged relationships.

I will not elaborate now on the terrible consequences, but you can imagine the pain and sorrow that fills the hearts of the persons involved. The worst consequences come out of this sin.

In an earlier comment I wrote as follows about this verse:

‘When someone who is not married commits this sin, then he or she is obligated to marry the other person because, to my personal conviction, God sees this physical being one as a marriage, even though this being one still has to be confirmed publicly.’

Now I have reread this commentary I must confess to the reader that I had to revise ‘my personal conviction’. That has been a while ago, but with this new version I now have the opportunity to tell it. My revision appeared to be necessary after I reread carefully what is written in the Bible. Also others have pointed that out to me.

It is written that two married people become one flesh through sexual intercourse. That it is about a man and his wife, so about a married couple, appears from the fact that “becoming one flesh” does not stand on itself, but it is the third aspect that makes a marriage a real marriage.

Read again what is written in Genesis 2, where God introduces marriage (Gen 2:24). You read there, that there are two steps that precede the “becoming one flesh”. Those steps are
1. that “a man shall leave his father and his mother” (a process) and
2. then will “be joined to his wife” (the official wedding).

Subsequently, after these two steps, follows that “they shall become one flesh”. This third step or this third aspect expresses the whole and total unity.

When unmarried people have sexual intercourse, there is no mention of the first two steps. Therefore Paul doesn’t say here – and that is what has opened my eyes – that he who joins a harlot is one flesh with her, but that he is “one body” with her. The reason why Paul refers to marriage is because of God’s purpose with it and that’s why he speaks about “one flesh”. Because of the fact that Paul speaks about cases regarding sexual intercourse outside marriage, he says that in those cases there is a mention of ‘one body’ and not of ‘one flesh’.

When I became aware of that important distinction, I also understood that it is not right to speak about a marriage when unmarried people commit this sin.

That doesn’t mean that sexual intercourse before marriage because of the mentioned reasons doesn’t have consequences in the sense of obligations. This change of vision is mainly important on how pastoral care is given in such cases. God will grant power to persons who are willing to receive pastoral care, so that they will be able to bear the consequences and even to be instruments in a way that God will be glorified. I would like you to consider exploring in the Old Testament and in the New Testament as well, how God thinks about marriage.

Now I will not elaborate on problems that occur in a case that the other person is married. One cannot but expect that sin always has chaotic consequences. God will surely make a way for the persons involved, when they confess their sins sincerely and wholeheartedly. The same goes for people, young and old, who are converted and have come to faith in the Lord Jesus and who do not have any religious background. The number of newly converts that are free from sexual immorality is decreasing more and more. It is often the case that they haven’t ‘had sex’ with only one person, but with more than one. What should you advise in such cases? That is not that simple. We should look at them on a case-by-case basis.

One thing is clear: before someone is converted, everything he does, is sin. Confession toward God and forgiveness by God are necessary. The more someone speaks light-heartedly about his past, the less profound his confession will be. The awareness of the gravity of this sin should be made clear to such a person. The deeper someone is convinced of his former sins, the more he can be pointed to the forgiveness that God has granted him. When that repentance is clearly apparent, God will surely show a way to get through.

V17. The believer belongs to the Lord, he is one spirit with Him. That is the unity that has been accomplished at conversion. This spiritual unity may not be damaged by a wrong physical unity.

V18. The call is: “Flee immorality.” Do not ever trifle with your sexual feelings. Avoid places where you can easily be tempted to fulfill your sexual desires – which are not wrong on itself; they are given by God, after all – in an erroneous way. Sexual immorality has, among all sins one can commit, a particular place because your body is, in an extraordinarily negative way, involved in this.

V19. Your body has received such an extraordinarily positive function from God. It is a house in which the Holy Spirit dwells. A Divine Guest has taken up residence in your body. Then surely your body must be special. At the same time it means that you are not your own anymore. When God the Holy Spirit dwells in you, He surely has all rights in and over the house of your body, hasn’t He?

V20. Do you still remember how He received the ownership of your body? Not by squatting or by breaking into ‘the house’ of your body. The full price has been paid by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus, which He shed after His awful sufferings on the cross. Make yourself fully aware of that again; think once more about what the Lord really did for you. It is only through His love that He made your body His own, isn’t it? If you put your body in the hands of the Holy Spirit, Who dwells in you, He will use every member of it to glorify God. Therefore glorify God in your body!

Now read 1 Corinthians 6:14-20 again.

Reflection: Explore how you can glorify God with your body (thus with your ears, eyes, hands, feet etcetera.).