1 Corinthians 6
6
The error of litigation in the Church
1Now another matter — the Greeks are devoted to litigation, it is a passion with them, but what has that to do with you? Are you going to haunt the law-courts of Corinth and with cases which you bring against one another! 2This has little to do with the true judgment and justice which your faith exemplifies. 3That is capable of judging angels, and if you have it are you not even capable of settling these business disputes which arise amongst yourselves? 4-7Have you no one wise enough for that, but must you go to law with one another, and invoke the methods and assistance of a corrupt judicial system to get the better of your brother? Questions of everyday life then cannot be settled by the Church, but you must needs take them before those who know nothing of your faith, and whom the Church on that account esteems as of no account. Yet you bring your quarrels and disputes before them! And why do such disputes arise? 8Is it not because you still have in your midst the old spirit of over-reaching and dishonesty? I declare it is better to be wronged, to be cheated and robbed, and to take the injustice and say no more about it, for that would more resemble your calling than to do the opposite. 9Yes, for the old world of wickedness that God is judging, which is for ever excluded from His Kingdom, is still lurking in your midst. O do not be deceived by it, whatever cloak it may put on! Fornication, idolatry, adultery, sodomy, 10dishonesty, greed, drunkenness, cursing, theft — these are the things that hide the Kingdom of God, and they can never win it. 11Were you once involved in them, and were you purified, cleansed, justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God? Yes, you were, you had won clear of that spirit of perdition, but see that it does not entangle you again, know it for what it is.
Man not subordinate to physical nature
12True, I am free, I am independent, and can act as seems good to me, yet, though nothing is bad in itself, evil in its influence is dangerous. I am a free man, but I will not be mastered by any influences. 13Food and drink have nothing to do with my real being, they affect the belly, not me, you say, and I am in my true self independent of them. Yet that physical part of you is doomed to destruction along with the material things that feed it. Perhaps you would dare to apply the same view to the body. Never! The body is not for fornication. It is for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14And as the Lord was raised from the dead by the power of God, so shall we be raised. 15For there is nothing legitimate or natural for you in an appetite which demands such vile institutions and uses for its satisfaction. Your bodies are no longer carnal, they are members of Christ. 16Shall I take that which is spiritual and convert it into the very opposite, change the limbs of Christ into the flesh of a harlot? “They twain shall be of one flesh,” says Moses (Gen 2:24), and so this awful substitution takes place, and in the place of Christ’s body we find that of a harlot. Such then is their practice, this besetting sin of Corinth. Flee from it. 17For the One Spirit makes us one with the Lord. 18That is the truth, of which the other is the lie. Just as in the truth man cannot separate himself from the Lord, for there is but one Spirit, so in the false, in the carnal action, man cannot separate himself from the sin to which he surrenders, he sins not against another only, nor does the wrong of his action merely affect that which is outside himself. He cannot excuse himself by saying “it has nothing to do with my true being, it is inherent in the body only, and I disclaim its connection with me, though as a physical being I am forced by the power of Nature to submit to it, even as I am forced by other appetites to eat and drink!” The reasoning is false. 19Your bodies are spiritual structures, the spirit that dwells in you is of God, and your bodies are correspondingly spiritual, as temples, rather than animal organisms; 20they owe allegiance not to the physical self, but to Him who redeemed them at a price. God Himself is to be glorified in your bodies.
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1 Corinthians 6: GWC
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Translated in 1916, published in 1937.
1 Corinthians 6
6
1Dare any of you, hauing businesse against an other, be iudged vnder the vniust, and not vnder the Saintes? 2Doe ye not knowe, that the Saintes shall iudge the worlde? If the worlde then shalbe iudged by you, are ye vnworthie to iudge the smallest matters? 3Knowe ye not that we shall iudge the Angels? howe much more, things that perteine to this life? 4If then ye haue iudgements of things perteining to this life, set vp them which are least esteemed in the Church. 5I speake it to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you? no not one, that can iudge betweene his brethren? 6But a brother goeth to law with a brother, and that vnder the infidels. 7Nowe therefore there is altogether infirmitie in you, in that yee goe to lawe one with another: why rather suffer ye not wrong? why rather susteine yee not harme? 8Nay, yee your selues doe wrong, and doe harme, and that to your brethren. 9Knowe yee not that the vnrighteous shall not inherite the kingdome of God? Be not deceiued: neither fornicatours, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor wantons, nor buggerers, 10Nor theeues, nor couetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners shall inherite the kingdome of God. 11And such were some of you: but yee are washed, but yee are sanctified, but yee are iustified in the Name of the Lord Iesus, and by the Spirit of our God. 12All thinges are lawfull vnto mee, but all thinges are not profitable. I may doe all things, but I will not be brought vnder the power of any thing. 13Meates are ordeined for the bellie, and the belly for the meates: but God shall destroy both it, and them. Nowe the bodie is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the bodie. 14And God hath also raised vp the Lord, and shall raise vs vp by his power. 15Knowe yee not, that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. 16Doe ye not knowe, that he which coupleth himselfe with an harlot, is one body? for two, sayeth he, shalbe one flesh. 17But hee that is ioyned vnto the Lord, is one spirite. 18Flee fornication: euery sinne that a man doeth, is without the bodie: but hee that committeth fornication, sinneth against his owne bodie. 19Knowe yee not, that your body is the temple of the holy Ghost, which is in you, whom ye haue of God? and yee are not your owne. 20For yee are bought for a price: therefore glorifie God in your bodie, and in your spirit: for they are Gods.
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