Your Body Is a Temple of the Holy Spirit

Verse 12 likely begins with a Corinthian slogan, "All things are lawful for me," which Paul repeats twice and qualifies: not everything is beneficial, and he will not be mastered by anything. Another slogan may appear in verse 13, "Food for the stomach and the stomach for food," perhaps expressing a view that bodily appetites are morally indifferent and temporary. Paul rejects extending that logic to sexual conduct because the body is "for the Lord" and the Lord "for the body," a claim reinforced by the resurrection of both Christ and believers.

Verses 15-18 argue from bodily union with Christ. Believers' bodies are "members of Christ," so sexual union with a prostitute creates a contradictory bodily allegiance. Paul cites Genesis 2:24, "the two will become one flesh," taking sexual intercourse as establishing genuine somatic union. By contrast, the one joined to the Lord is "one spirit" with him. Scholars debate whether hen pneuma describes mystical union, Spirit-mediated participation in Christ, or covenantal solidarity; in context it contrasts two forms of belonging rather than opposing spirit to body.

The command "flee sexual immorality" leads to the difficult statement that every other sin is "outside the body," while sexual immorality is "against one's own body." Proposed interpretations include the uniquely bodily character of sexual union, the violation of the body's union with Christ, or Paul's adaptation of another Corinthian slogan. The final argument is ownership: the body is a naos, "temple," of the Holy Spirit, believers are "not their own," and they were "bought with a price." The temple image is individual here, unlike the primarily corporate temple imagery of 3:16-17.

1 Corinthians 6 continues Paul's treatment of disorders within the Corinthian community by addressing lawsuits between believers and sexual conduct. Verses 1-11 criticize Christians who take disputes before secular courts rather than resolving them within the church. Paul's argument appeals to the community's eschatological identity: those destined to participate in God's judgment should be competent to adjudicate comparatively minor matters. The very existence of such lawsuits already represents failure because believers are defrauding one another.

Verses 12-20 return to sexual ethics and develop a theology of the body. Paul appears to quote Corinthian slogans such as "all things are lawful for me" and qualifies them by appeal to benefit, mastery, resurrection, union with Christ, and the indwelling Spirit. Sexual union cannot be treated as morally insignificant because the body belongs to the Lord and participates in Christ. The chapter therefore links ethical conduct with baptismal identity, eschatological inheritance, bodily resurrection, and God's ownership of the believer.