1 Corinthians 6
6
Lawsuits between Believers
1Furthermore, how dare you take a fellow believer to court! It is wrong to drag him before the unrighteous to settle a legal dispute. Isn’t it better to take him before God’s holy believers to settle the matter? 2Don’t you realize that we, the holy ones, will judge the universe? # 6:2 As translated from the Aramaic. If the unbelieving world is under your jurisdiction, you should be fully competent to settle these trivial lawsuits among yourselves. 3For surely you know that we will one day judge # 6:3 The meaning of this is that believers will one day govern over and judge the angelic realm. Our position in Christ is higher than the angels. They are servants; we are sons. Sons rule over servants. angels, let alone these everyday matters. 4Don’t you realize that you are bringing your issues before civil judges appointed by people who have no standing within the church? # 6:4 The Greek verb kathizete can be interpreted as an ironic imperative instead of a question. This would change the verse to read “Appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church to arbitrate ordinary lawsuits.” However, it is more likely a question since kathizete is found at the end of the sentence. 5What a shame that there is not one within the church # 6:5 This chapter is loaded with irony. Paul here argues that the church must have someone who could discern, sift, weigh, and judge these everyday matters within the body. The irony is that the word for church is ekklēsia, which means “governing body,” similar to a senate. It was a Greek term used for the gathering of a governing body to promote the welfare of a city. To be a part of an ekklēsia (church) implies that there is wisdom and leadership among the group to govern and bring blessing to a city. who has the spirit of wisdom who could arbitrate these disputes and reconcile the offended parties! 6It’s not right for a believer to sue a fellow believer—and especially to bring it before the unbelievers.
7Don’t you realize that when you drag another believer into court you’re providing the evidence that you are already defeated? Wouldn’t it be better to accept the fact that someone is trying to cheat and take advantage of you, and simply choose the high road? At times it is better to just accept injustice and even to let someone take advantage of you, rather than to expose our conflicts publicly before unbelievers. # 6:7 Paul does not mean that we should passively acquiesce to abuse from others. Rather, he brings before us a higher principle: It is better to suffer personal injustice than to bring disgrace to Christ by bringing our conflicts before unbelievers. The Spirit of wisdom (Eph. 1:17) is one of the graces that God pours out upon his people. This anointing of wisdom will empower the body of Christ to bring justice and righteousness into our churches. Most scholars conclude that these disputes were not criminal but issues related to business, personal property, inheritances, default in loan payments to other believers, and the like. See also Matt. 5:25–26; 18:15–17. 8But instead you keep cheating and doing wrong to your brothers and sisters, and then request that unbelievers render their judgment!
Christian Morality and the Kingdom Realm of God
9Surely you must know that people who practice evil cannot possess God’s kingdom realm. Stop being deceived! # 6:9 Or “Make no mistake!” People who continue to engage in sexual immorality, idolatry, adultery, sexual perversion, # 6:9 Or “catamites” or “pederasts” or “child molesters.” homosexuality, 10fraud, greed, drunkenness, verbal abuse, # 6:10 Or “slanderers.” or extortion—these will not inherit God’s kingdom realm. 11It’s true that some of you once lived in those lifestyles, but now you have been purified from sin, # 6:11 Or “washed clean.” made holy, and given a perfect standing before God—all because of the power of the name of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, and through our union with the Spirit of our God.
12It’s true that our freedom allows us to do anything, but that doesn’t mean that everything we do is good for us. I’m free to do as I choose, but I choose to never be enslaved to anything. 13Some have said, “I eat to live and I live to eat!” But God will do away with it all. The body was not created for illicit sex, but to serve and worship our Lord Jesus, who can fill the body with himself.
14Now the God who raised up our Lord from the grave will awaken and raise us up through his mighty power!
The Body of Christ
15Don’t you know that your bodies belong to Christ as his body parts? Should one presume to take the members of Christ’s body and make them into members of a harlot? Absolutely not! 16Aren’t you aware of the fact that when anyone sleeps with a prostitute he becomes a part of her, and she becomes a part of him? For it has been declared:
The two become a single body. # 6:16 See Gen. 2:24. Paul is teaching that sexual intercourse causes an interpersonal union that goes beyond a physical relationship.
17But the one who joins # 6:17 The Greek verb kallaō means “to unite,” “to knit or weld together,” “to mingle,” or “to join together,” and “to make two into one.” himself to the Lord is mingled into one spirit with him. 18This is why you must keep running away from sexual immorality. # 6:18 Or “fornication,” which includes sexual activity outside of marriage. For every other sin a person commits is external to the body, but immorality involves sinning against your own body.
19Have you forgotten that your body is now the sacred temple of the Spirit of Holiness, who lives in you? You don’t belong to yourself any longer, for the gift of God, the Holy Spirit, lives inside your sanctuary. # 6:19 Or “the in-you Holy Spirit.” The Greek word Paul uses for “temple” is actually naos, “sanctuary.” See Eph. 2:19–22; 1 Peter 2:4–5. 20You were God’s expensive purchase, paid for with tears of blood, # 6:20 As translated from the Aramaic. Your soul was purchased with the bride-price of the precious blood of Christ. so by all means, then, use your body # 6:20 The Aramaic and the Textus Receptus adds “and in your spirit.” to bring glory to God!
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Learn More About The Passion Translation1 Corinthians 6
6
Judging Problems Between Believers
1When one of you has something against someone else in your group, why do you go to the judges in the law courts? The way they think and live is wrong. So why do you let them decide who is right? Why don’t you let God’s holy people decide who is right? 2Don’t you know that God’s people will judge the world? So if you will judge the world, then surely you can judge small arguments like this. 3You know that in the future we will judge angels. So surely we can judge life’s ordinary problems. 4So if you have such matters to be judged, why do you take them to those who are not part of the church? They mean nothing to you. 5I say this to shame you. Surely there is someone in your group wise enough to judge a complaint between two believers. 6But now one believer goes to court against another, and you let people who are not believers judge their case!
7The lawsuits that you have against each other show that you are already defeated. It would be better for you to let someone wrong you. It would be better to let someone cheat you. 8But you are the ones doing wrong and cheating. And you do this to your own brothers and sisters in Christ!
9-10Surely you know that people who do wrong will not get to enjoy God’s kingdom. Don’t be fooled. These are the people who will not get to enjoy his kingdom: those who sin sexually, those who worship idols, those who commit adultery, men who let other men use them for sex or who have sex with other men, those who steal, those who are greedy, those who drink too much, those who abuse others with insults, and those who cheat. 11In the past some of you were like that. But you were washed clean, you were made holy, and you were made right with God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Use Your Bodies for God’s Glory
12“I am allowed to do anything,” you say. My answer to this is that not all things are good. Even if it is true that “I am allowed to do anything,” I will not let anything control me like a slave. 13Someone else says, “Food is for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” Yes, and God will destroy them both. But the body is not for sexual sin. The body is for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14And God will raise our bodies from death with the same power he used to raise the Lord Jesus. 15Surely you know that your bodies are parts of Christ himself. So I must never take what is part of Christ and join it to a prostitute! 16The Scriptures say, “The two people will become one.”#Quote from Gen. 2:24. So you should know that anyone who is joined with a prostitute becomes one with her in body. 17But anyone who is joined with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
18So run away from sexual sin. It involves the body in a way that no other sin does. So if you commit sexual sin, you are sinning against your own body. 19You should know that your body is a temple#6:19 temple God’s house—the place where God’s people worship him. Here, it means that believers are the spiritual temple where God lives. for the Holy Spirit that you received from God and that lives in you. You don’t own yourselves. 20God paid a very high price to make you his. So honor God with your body.
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