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1 Corinthians 6

Paul confronts fraud and sexual immorality by showing how belonging to Christ governs disputes and the use of the body.

Believers in Corinth are taking one another to court before unbelievers, and Paul confronts both their lawsuits and the fraud behind them. He argues that people destined to judge the world should be able to settle disputes within the church. His warning about exclusion from God’s Kingdom leads into a reminder of their cleansing in Christ. He then addresses sexual immorality, grounding his commands in the body’s union with Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

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1Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbor, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?
2Don’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?
3Don’t you know that we will judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?
4If then you have to judge things pertaining to this life, do you set them to judge who are of no account in the assembly?
5I 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?
6But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers!
7Therefore 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?
8No, but you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that against your brothers.
9Or 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,
11Some of you were such, but you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God.
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.
14Now God raised up the Lord, and will also raise us up by his power.
15Don’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!
16Or don’t you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, “The two”, he says, “will become one flesh.”
17But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.
18Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
19Or 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,
20for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
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Key verses
1 Corinthians 6:9This warning places the Corinthians’ wrongdoing under God’s judgment and challenges any assumption that church membership excuses sin.
1 Corinthians 6:11Paul recalls God’s saving work among them as the basis for a life that breaks with their former conduct.
1 Corinthians 6:19The Spirit’s presence establishes God’s claim on their bodies and grounds Paul’s command to flee sexual immorality.
Where this chapter reaches

Romans shares the link between God’s Spirit, bodily resurrection, and a life freed from sin’s rule; Ephesians also describes believers as God’s dwelling through the Spirit. First Peter shares the language of redemption at a cost and the call to holiness that follows from belonging to God.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What distinction does Paul draw between suffering wrong and doing wrong in a dispute?

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How does Paul’s teaching about resurrection shape your understanding of what your body is for?

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Questions people ask about 1 Corinthians 6

Does 1 Corinthians 6 forbid Christians from going to court?

Paul addresses lawsuits between believers over ordinary disputes, especially where members wrong and defraud one another. He urges wise judgment within the church and a willingness to suffer loss. The passage does not address every use of civil courts, and it should never be used to suppress reports of abuse or crime.

What does it mean that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?

Paul says the Holy Spirit dwells in believers as God’s gift. In context, this explains why sexual conduct matters: their bodies belong to Christ and will be raised by God. The temple image establishes God’s claim on the body, leading to the command to glorify God in it.

What does “All things are lawful for me” mean in 1 Corinthians 6?

The phrase may be a Corinthian slogan that Paul quotes and corrects, though the text does not identify its source. Paul places limits on the claim: some things are unhelpful, and freedom must not become bondage. His following commands make clear that sexual immorality falls outside faithful Christian freedom.

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1 Corinthians · 16 chapters
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).