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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1 Corinthians 6: TPT
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Learn More About The Passion Translation1 Corinthians 6
6
1Dare any one of you, having a matter against another, prosecute his suit before the unjust, and not before the saints? 2Do ye not then know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world is judged by you, are ye unworthy of the smallest judgments? 3Do ye not know that we shall judge angels? and not then matters of this life? 4If then ye have judgments as to things of this life, set those to judge who are little esteemed in the assembly. 5I speak to you to put you to shame. Thus there is not a wise person among you, not even one, who shall be able to decide between his brethren! 6But brother prosecutes his suit with brother, and that before unbelievers. 7Already indeed then it is altogether a fault in you that ye have suits between yourselves. Why do ye not rather suffer wrong? why are ye not rather defrauded? 8But ye do wrong, and defraud, and this your brethren.
9Do ye not know that unrighteous persons shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who make women of themselves, nor who abuse themselves with men, 10nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor abusive persons, nor the rapacious, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11And these things were some of you; but ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
12All things are lawful to me, but all things do not profit; all things are lawful to me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats; but God will bring to nothing both it and them: but the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14And God has both raised up the Lord, and will raise us up from among the dead by his power. 15Do ye not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then, taking the members of the Christ, make them members of a harlot? Far be the thought. 16Do ye not know that he that is joined to the harlot is one body? for the two, he says, shall be one flesh. 17But he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit. 18Flee fornication. Every sin which a man may practise is without the body, but he that commits fornication sins against his own body. 19Do ye not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God; and ye are not your own? 20for ye have been bought with a price: glorify now then God in your body.
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First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.