1 Corinthians 6

Introduction

Chapter 6 marks a transition in Paul's letter as he moves from the problem of factionalism (chapters 1-4) and the case of sexual immorality within the church (chapter 5) to two new but related issues: lawsuits between believers in pagan courts, and the misuse of Christian freedom to justify sexual sin. Both problems share a common root -- the Corinthians have failed to grasp the implications of their new identity in Christ. They are still operating by the values and practices of the surrounding Greco-Roman culture rather than by the radically different logic of the gospel. Paul's repeated refrain "Do you not know?" — appearing six times in this chapter alone — implies the Corinthians already possess this knowledge but have failed to act on it.

The chapter divides into two major halves. In the first half (vv. 1-11), Paul addresses the scandal of Christians suing one another before pagan judges, arguing that the community destined to judge the world and angels should be competent to settle its own internal disputes. He then pivots to a vice list that functions as a sharp warning: those who persist in such behaviors will not inherit the kingdom of God -- but the Corinthians' past involvement in these very sins has been decisively broken by the washing, sanctification, and justification they received in Christ. In the second half (vv. 12-20), Paul engages a Corinthian slogan about freedom ("everything is permissible for me") and shows that Christian liberty is not license, especially when it comes to the body. The body is not disposable or morally irrelevant; it belongs to the Lord, is destined for resurrection, and is a temple of the Holy Spirit. The chapter culminates in one of Paul's most memorable declarations: "You are not your own; you were bought at a price."

Lawsuits among Believers (vv. 1-8)

Notes

• Τολμᾷ τις ὑμῶν ("Does any one of you dare") -- The verb tolmaō means "to dare, to have the audacity, to be bold enough." It carries a tone of moral outrage: Paul is not merely posing a question but expressing astonishment that any believer would consider such a course of action. The word implies that taking a fellow Christian to a pagan court is an act of shameless boldness, a crossing of a boundary that should be obvious. The same verb is used positively in Romans 5:7 ("someone might dare to die for a good person") and 2 Corinthians 10:12 (where Paul sarcastically says he "would not dare" to compare himself with certain self-commenders), showing that the word's moral coloring depends entirely on context.

• ἐπὶ τῶν ἀδίκων ... ἐπὶ τῶν ἁγίων ("before the unrighteous ... before the saints") -- The word ἄδικος ("unrighteous, unjust") does not merely mean "non-Christian" but carries a moral charge: these are people outside God's covenant who do not know God's justice. Paul uses the same word in verse 9 (adikoi) for those who will not inherit the kingdom. By contrast, ἅγιοι ("saints, holy ones") is Paul's standard term for believers -- people set apart by God. The irony is clear: the saints, who are destined to judge the cosmos, are going to the unrighteous to have their petty disputes settled. The preposition epi with the genitive here means "before" in the sense of "in the presence of, under the jurisdiction of."

• κριτηρίων ἐλαχίστων ("the most trivial cases/courts") -- The word κριτήριον can mean either "court, tribunal" or "case, lawsuit" -- the ambiguity is present in both Greek and English ("court" can mean the institution or the proceeding). The superlative adjective ἐλάχιστος ("smallest, least, most trivial") emphasizes how insignificant these civil disputes are in comparison to the eschatological judgment the saints will exercise. If believers are qualified to adjudicate cosmic matters, how can they be unfit for property disputes? Paul uses this same word elachistos in 1 Corinthians 4:3 ("it is the smallest of matters to me") to dismiss human evaluation, and in 1 Corinthians 15:9 to call himself "the least of the apostles."

• ἀγγέλους κρινοῦμεν ("we will judge angels") -- This is a mysterious claim. Paul states it as established knowledge ("Do you not know?"), suggesting it was part of his original teaching to the Corinthians. The background is likely the Jewish apocalyptic tradition in which the righteous participate in God's final judgment (cf. Daniel 7:22; Wisdom 3:8). The "angels" here most likely refer to fallen angels, since good angels would not need judgment. The future tense krinoumen situates this judgment at the end of the age. Paul's argument is from the greater to the lesser (a fortiori): if you will judge supernatural beings, surely you can handle βιωτικά ("matters pertaining to daily life, ordinary affairs").

• πρὸς ἐντροπὴν ὑμῖν λέγω ("I say this to your shame") -- The noun ἐντροπή ("shame, turning inward") comes from entrepō ("to turn in upon oneself"), suggesting the kind of self-reflection that produces embarrassment. In 1 Corinthians 4:14, Paul explicitly said he was not writing to shame them but to admonish them. Here, however, he deliberately invokes shame. The shift is significant: the lawsuits are so egregious that shame is the appropriate response. The Corinthians who prided themselves on their wisdom (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18-3:23) cannot produce even one sophos ("wise person") capable of arbitrating between brothers -- an ironic failure for a community obsessed with sophia.

• ἥττημα ("defeat, loss, failure") -- This word appears only here and in Romans 11:12 in the New Testament. It means "a loss, a defeat." Paul's point is sharp: the Corinthians think they are winning their lawsuits, but the very act of litigating against each other means they have already lost. The real defeat is not a lost court case but a fractured community and a ruined witness. Paul then proposes the radical alternative: ἀδικεῖσθε ... ἀποστερεῖσθε ("be wronged ... be defrauded") -- present passive imperatives that echo Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5:39-40 about turning the other cheek and giving up one's cloak. The willingness to absorb loss rather than damage the community is the truly Christian posture.

• ἀδικεῖτε καὶ ἀποστερεῖτε, καὶ τοῦτο ἀδελφούς ("you wrong and defraud, and this against brothers") -- The verbs ἀδικέω ("to do wrong, to harm") and ἀποστερέω ("to defraud, to deprive, to rob") are the same roots Paul has been using throughout the passage, creating a verbal echo. In verse 1, the pagan judges are called adikoi ("unrighteous"); now the Corinthians themselves are performing adikia ("unrighteousness"). The climactic phrase καὶ τοῦτο ἀδελφούς ("and this against brothers") is a construction expressing moral shock (cf. the same pattern in 5:1). The word ἀδελφός ("brother") appears four times in this short passage (vv. 5, 6, 6, 8), hammering home the family betrayal inherent in their actions.

The Wicked Will Not Inherit the Kingdom (vv. 9-11)

Notes

• ἄδικοι Θεοῦ βασιλείαν οὐ κληρονομήσουσιν ("the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God") -- The word ἄδικοι ("unrighteous") directly echoes verse 1, where Paul described the pagan judges as adikōn. Now the word takes on a broader meaning: not merely "non-Christian" but anyone characterized by unrighteous behavior. The verb κληρονομέω ("to inherit") carries the sense of receiving an allotted portion, an inheritance promised by God. In the Old Testament, Israel "inherited" the promised land; now the inheritance is the kingdom of God itself. Paul uses this language in Galatians 5:21 with a nearly identical vice list, and in Ephesians 5:5. The warning is not about isolated acts of sin but about a settled pattern of life that defines the person.

• μὴ πλανᾶσθε ("do not be deceived") -- The verb πλανάω ("to lead astray, to deceive, to wander") is in the present passive/middle imperative: "stop being deceived" or "do not let yourselves be led astray." This formula appears also in 15:33 and Galatians 6:7, always introducing a solemn warning. It suggests that some in Corinth were indeed being deceived -- likely by the same distorted view of freedom that Paul will address in verses 12-20. The Corinthians may have believed that their spiritual status made them immune to moral consequences, that baptism and participation in the Lord's Supper guaranteed their inheritance regardless of behavior.

• μαλακοὶ ... ἀρσενοκοῖται ("soft/passive partner ... active partner in homosexual acts") -- Both terms have generated sustained debate over their precise meaning. Μαλακός literally means "soft" and is used elsewhere for soft clothing (Matthew 11:8; Luke 7:25). In moral contexts in Greek literature, it was widely used for men who were effeminate or who took the passive role in homosexual intercourse. Ἀρσενοκοίτης is a compound word from ἄρσην ("male") and κοίτη ("bed," with sexual connotations -- the source of English "coitus"). The word appears to be coined from the Septuagint of Leviticus 18:22 and Leviticus 20:13, where the two words appear together (arsenos koitēn) ("the bed of a male"). Paul uses it again in 1 Timothy 1:10. Together the two terms likely cover both the passive and active partners in male homosexual acts, though the precise semantic range remains debated.

• καὶ ταῦτά τινες ἦτε ("and such were some of you") -- This is a compact and important sentence. The neuter plural ταῦτα ("these things") treats the entire vice list as a single category of identity. The imperfect tense ἦτε ("you were") marks a decisive break between past and present. The indefinite τινες ("some") is both honest and pastoral: not all the Corinthians had been involved in every vice, but some had been involved in each. Paul does not deny their past; he affirms that it has been genuinely overcome.

• ἀπελούσασθε ... ἡγιάσθητε ... ἐδικαιώθητε ("you were washed ... you were sanctified ... you were justified") -- The threefold ἀλλά ("but") creates a drumbeat of contrast: "but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified." The first verb, ἀπολούω ("to wash off, to wash away"), occurs only here and in Acts 22:16 in the New Testament. The middle voice (apelousasthe) could suggest "you got yourselves washed" -- a reference to the Corinthians' own act of submitting to baptism. The ordering is surprising: sanctification comes before justification, which reverses Paul's usual theological sequence (cf. Romans 8:30). This suggests Paul is not presenting a systematic ordo salutis but rather piling up images of transformation. All three acts are accomplished ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ ἐν τῷ Πνεύματι τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμῶν ("in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God") -- a trinitarian formula linking Christ's authority and the Spirit's power with the act of God the Father.

• ἐδικαιώθητε ("you were justified") -- The verb δικαιόω ("to justify, to declare righteous") is the same root as the adikoi ("unrighteous") who opened this section. The verbal echo is deliberate and dramatic: those who were adikoi have now been dikaiōthēte -- the unrighteous have been declared righteous. The aorist passive tense points to a completed, decisive act of God. This is the language of Paul's great doctrine of justification (cf. Romans 3:24, Romans 5:1, Romans 8:30), applied here not as abstract theology but as a reminder of concrete transformation. The Corinthians who were once characterized by the vices of vv. 9-10 have been fundamentally redefined by what God has done for them.

Interpretations

• The meaning of malakoi and arsenokoitai remains contested translation questions in the New Testament. The traditional reading, held across Catholic, Orthodox, and most Protestant traditions historically, understands these terms as referring to the passive and active partners in male homosexual acts respectively. This reading draws on the Levitical background of arsenokoitēs (from Leviticus 18:22 and Leviticus 20:13 in the Septuagint) and the widespread use of malakos in Greco-Roman moral literature for men who took the receptive role. The revisionist reading, advanced by some scholars (notably Robin Scroggs and Dale Martin), argues that these terms refer to specific exploitative practices -- pederasty, prostitution, or economic sexual exploitation -- rather than to all same-sex relationships. On this view, Paul is condemning abusive power dynamics, not committed same-sex partnerships, which were largely unknown in the ancient world in their modern form. The debate turns partly on lexicography and partly on how much weight should be given to the broader cultural context of Greco-Roman sexuality versus the specific Levitical background that arsenokoitēs appears to derive from.

• Vice lists and the question of salvation -- The phrase "will not inherit the kingdom of God" raises the question of whether Paul is describing those who practice these sins occasionally or those for whom such behavior is a defining, ongoing pattern of life. Most interpreters across traditions agree that Paul is describing a characteristic way of life, not isolated acts, given the use of substantive participles (identifying people by these behaviors). However, the passage has been read differently regarding its implications for the security of believers. Reformed interpreters argue that those who persist in such patterns demonstrate they were never truly regenerate. Arminian interpreters take the warning at face value as a genuine possibility for believers who fall away. Catholic moral theology distinguishes between mortal and venial sin, understanding these as mortal sins that sever the state of grace unless repented of through the sacrament of confession.

• "And such were some of you" (v. 11) -- All traditions agree that this verse affirms the reality of transformation. The debate is whether the transformation must be complete and immediate or whether it describes a new identity that is progressively realized. This has pastoral implications for how churches relate to members struggling with the sins listed.

The Body Belongs to the Lord (vv. 12-17)

Notes

• Πάντα μοι ἔξεστιν ("All things are lawful/permissible for me") -- Most scholars believe this is a Corinthian slogan that Paul is quoting back to them, not his own teaching. The verb ἔξεστιν ("it is permitted, it is lawful") is impersonal and expresses what is legally or morally allowed. The Corinthians appear to have taken Paul's teaching about freedom from the Law (cf. Galatians 5:1) and pushed it to an antinomian extreme: if we are free from the Law, then everything is permissible. Paul does not flatly deny the slogan but qualifies it twice: first with συμφέρει ("it is beneficial, it is profitable") -- not everything that is technically permissible actually serves your good or the good of others; and second with ἐξουσιασθήσομαι ("I will be mastered, I will be brought under the authority of") -- a deliberate wordplay on exestin/exousia. The person who claims total freedom but is enslaved to an appetite has not achieved freedom at all but a new form of bondage.

• Τὰ βρώματα τῇ κοιλίᾳ καὶ ἡ κοιλία τοῖς βρώμασιν ("Food for the stomach and the stomach for food") -- This appears to be another Corinthian slogan, reflecting a materialist argument: the stomach and food are made for each other, and both are temporary. By analogy, the Corinthians may have argued that the body and sexual desire are similarly made for each other and equally morally neutral. Paul grants the premise about food and the stomach -- God will indeed καταργήσει ("abolish, put an end to, render inoperative") both -- but he emphatically rejects the conclusion about the body and sex. The word katargeō is a favorite Pauline term (appearing 25 times in his letters) meaning "to make ineffective, to nullify, to bring to nothing." Food and stomach are transient, but the σῶμα ("body") has an eternal destiny.

• τὸ δὲ σῶμα οὐ τῇ πορνείᾳ ἀλλὰ τῷ Κυρίῳ, καὶ ὁ Κύριος τῷ σώματι ("the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body") -- The word πορνεία ("sexual immorality, fornication") is a broad term covering all sexual activity outside marriage. The construction creates a remarkable reciprocity: the body is for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. This is not merely a prohibition but a positive theological claim: the body has a Lord who cares for it, who has a purpose for it, and who will raise it from the dead. The body is not a prison to escape from (as in Greek dualism) but an instrument destined for glory. The mutual "for" (dative of advantage) echoes the marriage-like language of belonging that Paul will develop further in chapter 7.

• ἐξεγερεῖ ("he will raise up") -- The verb ἐξεγείρω is a strengthened form of egeirō ("to raise"), with the prefix ex- intensifying the action: "to raise out, to raise up fully." It appears only here and in Romans 9:17 in the New Testament (where it has a different sense). The future tense is significant: Paul grounds his ethic of the body in the doctrine of bodily resurrection. What you do with your body matters eternally because God will raise it. This argument connects directly to chapter 15, where Paul will mount his great defense of the resurrection. The phrase διὰ τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ ("through his power") recalls the letter's opening theme: God's power (dynamis) is the real force at work, not human wisdom or autonomy.

• μέλη Χριστοῦ ("members of Christ") -- The word μέλος ("limb, member, body part") refers to an actual part of a body. Paul is not speaking metaphorically in a loose sense; he means that believers' physical bodies are organically connected to Christ, forming parts of his body. This body theology will be developed extensively in chapter 12. The implication Paul draws out is that taking the members of Christ and joining them to a prostitute is a kind of bodily sacrilege -- it is tearing a limb from Christ's body and fusing it to another body entirely. The emphatic μὴ γένοιτο ("may it never be! absolutely not!") is Paul's strongest formula of rejection, appearing fifteen times in his letters (ten times in Romans alone). It expresses strong revulsion at the very thought.

• κολλώμενος ("the one who joins himself to, the one who clings to") -- The verb κολλάω means "to glue, to cement, to join firmly." In the passive/middle, it means "to cling to, to be joined to." It appears in the Septuagint of Genesis 2:24, where the man "clings to" (proskollēthēsetai) his wife. Paul uses the same verb for both unions -- joining to a prostitute (v. 16) and joining to the Lord (v. 17) -- creating a stark parallel. Sexual union with a prostitute creates "one body" (hen sōma), recalling Genesis 2:24 ("the two will become one flesh"), while union with the Lord creates "one spirit" (hen pneuma). The contrast is not between body and spirit as inferior and superior, but between two incompatible unions: one that degrades the body's purpose and one that fulfills it.

• Ἔσονται γάρ, φησίν, οἱ δύο εἰς σάρκα μίαν ("For 'the two will become one flesh,' it says") -- Paul quotes Genesis 2:24, introduced with the formula φησίν ("it/he says"), a present tense verb used for authoritative citation of Scripture. The quotation follows the Septuagint exactly. In its original context, Genesis 2:24 describes the marriage union. Paul's application of it to sexual intercourse with a prostitute is theologically significant: he is arguing that sexual union always creates a real ontological bond, not merely a physical act. Sex is never "just physical" in Paul's theology. The word σάρξ ("flesh") here refers to the physical, embodied person -- the whole human being in bodily existence -- rather than "flesh" in Paul's theological sense of the sinful nature (as in Romans 8:5-8).

The Temple of the Holy Spirit (vv. 18-20)

Notes

• Φεύγετε τὴν πορνείαν ("Flee sexual immorality") -- The verb φεύγω ("to flee, to run away from") is a present imperative, commanding an ongoing posture of flight. Paul does not say "resist" or "stand firm against" sexual immorality, as he does with other temptations (cf. Ephesians 6:13, "stand firm"; James 4:7, "resist the devil"). The command to flee implies that sexual temptation is uniquely dangerous -- the proper response is not to test one's strength against it but to remove oneself from the situation entirely. The Old Testament background is likely the story of Joseph, who literally fled from Potiphar's wife (Genesis 39:12), leaving his garment behind. Paul uses the same verb in 10:14 ("flee from idolatry"), treating sexual sin and idolatry as parallel dangers requiring the same response: immediate withdrawal.

• πᾶν ἁμάρτημα ὃ ἐὰν ποιήσῃ ἄνθρωπος ἐκτὸς τοῦ σώματός ἐστιν ("every sin that a person commits is outside the body") -- Interpreters divide over whether Paul is quoting a third Corinthian slogan or stating his own premise. Some scholars believe Paul is quoting yet another Corinthian slogan ("every sin is outside the body," i.e., what you do with the body doesn't matter spiritually) and then correcting it with "but the one who sins sexually sins against his own body." Others take it as Paul's own assertion that sexual sin is unique in how it affects the body. The word ἁμάρτημα ("sin, sinful act") is the concrete noun form (a specific act of sin) rather than the abstract hamartia ("sin" as a principle or power). The preposition ἐκτός ("outside, apart from") underscores the spatial metaphor: other sins may use the body as an instrument, but sexual sin uniquely implicates the body itself, making it part of a union that contradicts its belonging to Christ.

• ναὸς τοῦ ... Ἁγίου Πνεύματος ("sanctuary/temple of the Holy Spirit") -- Greek distinguishes two words for temple: hieron (the entire temple complex, including courts and outbuildings) and naos (the inner sanctuary, the deity's dwelling place). Paul chooses naos -- the holy of holies, where God's presence resides. In 3:16, Paul used the same word for the church corporately as God's temple; here, strikingly, he applies it to the individual believer's body. Each Christian's physical body is the sacred inner chamber where the Holy Spirit resides. This is a striking claim in the context of Greco-Roman religion, where naoi were physical buildings housing cult statues. Paul is saying that the living God has relocated his dwelling from a building to a body -- and therefore that body must be treated with the reverence due to sacred space.

• οὐκ ἐστὲ ἑαυτῶν ("you are not your own") -- This is a genitive of possession: "you do not belong to yourselves." The statement directly counters the Corinthian slogan of radical autonomy (panta moi exestin, "all things are permissible for me"). The Corinthians claimed the right to do whatever they wanted with their own bodies; Paul denies the foundational premise. You do not own yourself. The language of self-ownership was significant in the ancient world, where the line between slave and free was a fundamental social category. A free person "belonged to himself" (heautou ēn); a slave belonged to his master. Paul is saying that Christians are, in the most positive sense, not their own masters -- they have a Lord.

• ἠγοράσθητε γὰρ τιμῆς ("for you were bought at a price") -- The verb ἀγοράζω ("to buy, to purchase") is drawn from the language of the marketplace and, in the ancient world, particularly from the slave market. The aorist passive ("you were bought") points to a completed act -- the death of Christ. The genitive τιμῆς ("of/at a price") is a genitive of price or value. The word timē itself means both "price" and "honor/value," creating a double meaning: you were purchased at a cost, and that cost reflects your immense value to God. Paul repeats this phrase in 7:23 ("you were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men"). The imagery does not specify the price, but the broader New Testament context makes clear it is Christ's blood (cf. 1 Peter 1:18-19, "not with perishable things like silver or gold ... but with the precious blood of Christ").

• δοξάσατε δὴ τὸν Θεὸν ἐν τῷ σώματι ὑμῶν ("therefore glorify God in your body") -- The verb δοξάζω ("to glorify, to honor, to magnify") is an aorist imperative, giving the command urgency and decisiveness: do it now, do it fully. The particle δή ("indeed, therefore, so then") adds emphasis and urgency -- it is an inferential particle that draws the conclusion from everything Paul has argued. The body is for the Lord (v. 13), God will raise the body (v. 14), the body is a member of Christ (v. 15), the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (v. 19), and you were bought at a price (v. 20) -- therefore glorify God in your body. The preposition ἐν ("in") indicates the body is the sphere or instrument of glorification. A textual variant in the Byzantine tradition adds "and in your spirit, which belong to God," but this is not found in the earliest manuscripts (P46, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus) and is almost certainly a later expansion intended to balance "body" with "spirit."