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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Translated in 1916, published in 1937.
1 Corinthians 6
6
The Report About Lawsuits
1When one of you is in a dispute with another believer, how dare you take them to court to be judged by ungodly people! Why don’t you ask the Lord’s people to help you settle it? 2Don’t you know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? Since you’re going to do that, don’t you think you can judge small cases? 3Don’t you know that we’re even going to judge angels? We should certainly be able to judge the things of this life! 4So if you’re in a dispute with someone, should you ask people that the church doesn’t even respect to settle it? Of course not! 5You should be ashamed. Is it possible that none of you are wise enough to settle disputes between believers, 6so that they’re taking each other to court instead, in front of unbelievers?
7Just by getting into a lawsuit with another believer, you’ve already lost. Wouldn’t it be better to be treated wrongly instead? Wouldn’t it be better just to be cheated? 8Instead, you’re cheating and doing wrong yourselves, and you’re doing it to your own brothers and sisters. 9Don’t you know that people who do wrong won’t inherit God’s kingdom? Don’t be deceived. People who commit sexual sins, or who worship idols or commit adultery, or men who sleep with other men, 10or thieves or greedy people, or those who are often drunk or tell lies or cheat, will not inherit God’s kingdom. 11Some of you used to do things like that. But you were washed and made holy and right with God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
The Report About Sexual Sins
12Some of you are saying, “I have the right to do anything.” That may be true, but not everything is helpful. If you say, “I have the right to do anything,” you should also say, “But I won’t be controlled by anything.” 13Some of you are saying, “Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach is meant for food, and God will destroy both of them.” But you can’t say the same thing about the body and sexual sins. The body is meant for the Lord, and the Lord is meant for the body. 14By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us up too. 15Don’t you know that your bodies are part of Christ himself? Should I take a part of Christ and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16Don’t you know that when you have sex with a prostitute, you become one with her in body? Scripture says, “The two will become one.” 17But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one with him in spirit.
18So keep far away from sexual sins. All the other sins a person commits are outside the body. But if a person commits sexual sins, those are sins against their own body. 19Don’t you know that together you are a body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you? You have received the Spirit from God. You don’t belong to yourselves; 20you were bought with a price. So honor God together as one body.
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