1 Corinthians 6
by Pastor David Groendyk

The problems keep piling up for the Corinthian church. The three we see in this chapter are defrauding fellow believers (v. 8), frivolously suing one another (v. 1), and engaging in prostitution (v. 15). If there is one verse or phrase that can be used to summarize Paul’s teaching in this chapter, it’s verse 12a: “‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful.” Let’s see how Paul takes that principle and applies it to the Corinthians’ sins.

In verses 1–8, it’s clear that the believers in Corinth are wronging and defrauding one another and then getting lawsuit-happy when wronged, and Paul is unhappy with both of those actions. On the one hand, Paul is absolutely clear that the kind of people who wrong and defraud their brothers are the kind of people who will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Probably what Paul has in mind as the main problem is some sort of unethical business practices.) To “suffer wrong” (v. 8) and “the unrighteous” (v. 9) actually come from the same root word. Hence, those who are wronging their brothers are in the same category as the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, etc. who will not end up in heaven. They’re in grievous sin. Yet, Paul also instructs those who are wronged not to go to court against their brothers. Why? One reason is that the church itself ought to be wise enough to handle these kinds of trivial cases (vv. 2–5). The church has been given the Word of God, the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the judicial process (see Matt. 18:15–20) to adjudicate matters of sin in the church. Instead, the Corinthians were letting worldly courts settle the matters.

Another reason believers shouldn’t be suing one another is that believers ought to be willing to be wronged rather than to settle their disputes like unbelievers. It reminds me of Philemon, which we just covered in our youth Sunday school class. The servant Onesimus had run away from his master Philemon and had been converted by Paul. Paul’s instruction to Philemon was to receive Onesimus back into his home not as a servant but as a brother, and to credit any wrong Onesimus had done to Paul himself. The new relationship of Christian brothers trumps the old relationship of master-servant. Likewise for the Corinthians. Believers ought to be willing to suffer personal loss if it means reconciling brothers to one another. Now, to be clear, Paul is not outlawing lawsuits altogether. Especially as many sexual abuse cases and cover-ups in churches have been coming to light recently, we need to keep in mind that this passage absolutely cannot be used to forbid abused women and children from pressing charges against abusers. Rather Paul’s instruction is to avoid going to court in civil matters, if at all possible. Although the lawsuit might technically be allowable, Paul urges believers to refrain.

Then there’s the curious case of Corinthian believers engaging in prostitution (vv. 12–20). It seems like something so obviously sinful to us. But, apparently, the Corinthians had adopted a slogan from their secular culture, “All things are lawful for me,” as a means of saying that the body is allowed to have whatever it craves. Undergirding this secular slogan, however, was the theological idea that what we do with our bodies doesn’t matter. The soul is what Jesus saves, not the body, right? But Paul gives us several teachings on the importance of your body. First, God will, in fact, raise up our bodies at the resurrection (v. 14). Second, believers have been wholly and mysteriously united to Christ, so what we do with our bodies necessarily brings Christ into it as well (v. 15). Third, our bodies do not belong to ourselves but to God who purchased them with the blood of Christ (vv. 19–20). No one truly has the right to do whatever they want with their bodies. Of course, the “my body, my choice” slogan is the slogan of the pro-choice movement, and just one of many problems with that slogan is that actually God owns each of our bodies! But all of us have a tendency to take a “my body, my choice” mindset in some ways. Do you eat what you eat in order to glorify God with your body? Do you wear what you wear to glorify God with your body? Of all the physical activities you engage in, do you do them in order to glorify God with your body? Or do you simply choose to do what you want? Everything that we do with our bodies must be a signal to others that we belong to God not ourselves, and that our bodies are precious and valuable in God’s eyes.