Verses 1-8: Saints, Wisdom, and the Shame of Lawsuits

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.

• The church’s future calling shapes its present responsibilities:

  Because “the saints will judge the world” and “we will judge angels,” the church is not merely a private spiritual association but a people destined to share in God’s righteous governance. This future vocation implies a present competency and obligation to practice discernment and justice in “the smallest matters,” cultivating wisdom, fairness, and maturity within the communion of believers.

• Public litigation between believers damages witness and contradicts family-like unity:

  Paul’s shock that a “brother goes to law with brother… before unbelievers” highlights that the church’s unity is meant to be visible. When Christians treat one another as adversaries in public forums, the credibility of the gospel is harmed, because the community that proclaims reconciliation appears unable to live reconciled.

• Christian love sometimes accepts personal loss to preserve peace:

  “Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?” does not deny the reality of injustice, but places before believers a cruciform ethic: sometimes it is better to endure being wronged than to intensify conflict and scandal. This calls for humility, patience, and a willingness to prioritize communion over personal vindication.

• Wronging fellow believers is a serious moral failure, not merely a legal issue:

  Paul does not treat these disputes as morally neutral; he says they “do wrong and defraud… against your brothers.” Theological ethics are relational: sin is not only the breaking of abstract rules but also the violation of covenantal love within the body of Christ, where fellow believers must be treated as family.

Verses 9-11: Kingdom Inheritance, Moral Deception, and Transforming Grace

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.

• Persistent unrighteousness is incompatible with inheriting God’s Kingdom:

  “Don’t be deceived” frames the warning as pastoral and urgent: there is real danger in believing that an unchanged life can coexist with a Kingdom inheritance. The list of sins is not presented to fuel pride or selective judgment, but to make clear that God’s Kingdom is holy and that unrepentant patterns of injustice and immorality cannot be normalized among those who claim the Lord.

• The gospel offers real cleansing and real change, not mere re-labeling:

  “Some of you were such” affirms that the church is composed of redeemed sinners, not the naturally superior. The decisive “but” proclaims grace as a deliverance into a new identity: “you were washed… sanctified… justified.” This teaches that salvation includes both pardon and renewal—God not only forgives but also sets people apart and reshapes their lives.

• Salvation is rooted in the work of the Triune God and received in lived reality:

  To be “justified in the name of the Lord Jesus” and “in the Spirit of our God” grounds salvation in God’s initiative and power rather than human achievement. At the same time, the contrast between “were such” and “but you were washed” underscores that grace is not merely theoretical: it produces a new standing and a new direction that believers are called to live out faithfully.

Verses 12-14: True Freedom, Bodily Purpose, and Resurrection Hope

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.

• Christian freedom is governed by love, wisdom, and mastery—not mere permission:

  Paul’s “but not all things are expedient” teaches that moral reasoning includes what builds up and what harms, not only what is technically allowable. “I will not be brought under the power of anything” adds that true freedom refuses slavery to impulses and habits; discipleship includes learning to say no, so that the believer’s life is directed by the Lord rather than dominated by desires.

• The body belongs to the Lord and has a sacred purpose:

  By rejecting the idea that bodily desires define bodily meaning, Paul insists: “the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.” This affirms the goodness and significance of embodied life. The Lord’s concern is not only for the soul; God claims the whole person, and bodily conduct becomes a matter of worship and allegiance.

• Resurrection anchors bodily holiness in future glory:

  “God raised up the Lord, and will also raise us up by his power” grounds ethics in eschatology: what God will do with the body determines how the body should be treated now. Because the body is destined for resurrection, it is not disposable, and sexual immorality is not a trivial private choice but a contradiction of the body’s future and dignity in God’s plan.

Verses 15-17: Union with Christ vs. Illicit Union

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”, he says, “will become one flesh.” ¹⁷ But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.

• Believers’ bodies are inseparably involved in their communion with Christ:

  “Your bodies are members of Christ” teaches that salvation is not only inward and invisible; it incorporates the believer into Christ in a way that encompasses embodied existence. Therefore sexual sin is never merely “physical”; it misuses what belongs to Christ and drags what is holy into what is unholy.

• Sexual union carries profound covenantal and personal significance:

  Paul appeals to “The two… will become one flesh” to show that sexual acts are not morally weightless. They create a real “one body” joining, and therefore joining oneself to sexual immorality contradicts the believer’s true identity and communion: “he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.”

Verses 18-20: Flee Immorality—The Temple and the Price

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.

• Sexual immorality demands urgent resistance, not negotiation:

  “Flee sexual immorality!” presents a strategy of holiness shaped by realism: some temptations are not meant to be entertained but escaped. This is not fear-based morality; it is wisdom that treats sexual sin as uniquely self-involving—“sins against his own body”—and therefore requiring decisive action, accountability, and guarded boundaries.

• The indwelling Holy Spirit makes the believer’s body holy space:

  Calling the body “a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you” teaches that Christian ethics flows from God’s presence. Holiness is not merely rule-keeping; it is reverence for the One who dwells within. This dignifies the body and calls believers to bodily conduct consistent with worship.

• Redemption establishes God’s rightful ownership and the believer’s grateful obedience:

  “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” grounds Christian morality in redemption: believers belong to God because God has acted decisively to purchase and rescue them. This preserves both divine initiative and personal responsibility—God claims us by grace, and we respond by living as those who belong to him.

• The goal of holiness is doxology: embodied and spiritual worship:

  “Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” sets the positive aim: not merely avoiding sin, but honoring God with the whole person. Christian life is presented as integrated worship—what believers do with their bodies and cultivate in their inner life are both arenas for glorifying God.

Conclusion: 1 Corinthians 6 calls the church to embody the gospel publicly and privately: to resolve conflicts with wisdom and humility, to reject the deception that unrighteousness can inherit God’s Kingdom, and to pursue holiness grounded in being washed, sanctified, and justified. By anchoring sexual ethics in union with Christ, the indwelling Spirit, and the costly redemption that makes believers God’s own, the chapter summons Christians to glorify God with their whole lives—body and spirit—in hope of the resurrection.