1 Cor 6 – Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: 1 Cor 6:1-6

1 If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? 2 Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! 4 Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church? 5 I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? 6 But instead, one brother takes another to court – and this in front of unbelievers!

A. Find Out:

1. What question does Paul now ask? v.1
2. What does he tell us we will do in the future? v.2a,3a
3. So what does he conclude from that? v.2b,3b
4. How did he say they should administer this? v.4
5. Yet what query does he have? v.5
6. What had been happening? v.6

B. Think:

1. How do these verses flow on from what Paul has just said?
2. What spiritual principle does he use as a basis for his teaching?
3. What practical application does he suggest?

C. Comment:

Over the matter of sexual immorality Paul has just said that the church ought to judge the wrong behaviour of the offender and put the person out of the fellowship. Now he extends that thought to include judging all matters of dispute that may arise between Christians. He does this on two levels.

The first level is the spiritual level. In Matt 19:28 Jesus had said that those who follow him will eventually have a place of judging others. So, says Paul, if you are going to have to do that with Christ in a future age, why not learn to do it now within the church.

The second level is the practical level. The way to do that, he suggests, is to appoint specific people in the fellowship who will be able to sit and decide between those who bring disputes if they should arise. How much better to do it like this and allow the Lord to preside over it through His people, than go before the civil authorities and let them decide between you. The only requirement for this though, is people of sufficient maturity that they could preside over such proceedings in an unbiased and wise manner. Do they have such people there who could act in this way. This he asks to provoke them to rise up to this idea and deal with these problems themselves.

D. Application:

1. Our future role will be to judge. Can we learn to do it now?
2. How much better that we decide disputes than go to law.

Passage: 1 Cor 6:7-11

7 The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? 8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters. 9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

A. Find Out:

1. What does Paul say has happened to them and why? v.7a
2. What does he suggest would be better? v.7b
3. Yet what were they doing? v.8
4. Who will not inherit the kingdom? v.9,10
5. How had that applied to them? v.11a
6. Yet what had happened to them? v.11b

B. Think:

1. What does this passage say about going to law with Christians?
2. How would you summarise the list of those who will not inherit?
3. Why does Paul go through that list, do you think?

C. Comment:

Paul has been speaking about going to law against a brother in Christ. In that some of them were already warring against one another in this way, Paul sees that they have been overcome by the enemy, seduced into harsh action against one another, instead of loving one another as Jesus had taught. You would do better to just put up with being wronged, is what he says. In entering into these conflicts, you find yourself crossing the boundaries of integrity and truth, and you end up wronging your brothers.

He then gives a list of all those who will not enter into the kingdom of God. He wants to remind them of the severity of what is going on in the church there. It is possible to come into the kingdom but then fall right away because of a particular area of sin that is allowed in and eventually rules in the life instead of Christ. The first part of this list involves those in sexual immorality, which is a direct offence against God’s order of creation for man and woman, and the second part covers self-centred wrong doers, which could include those involved in the court actions. That’s what you once were, he says, but Jesus delivered you from that, so don’t (by implication) fall back to it!

D. Application:

1. God doesn’t turn a blind eye to sin. It limits entry to His kingdom.
2. Repentance and the Cross is the answer for anyone in this list. There is always hope – but it is through repentance.

Passage: 1 Cor 6:12-20

12 ‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say – but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’– but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 You say, ‘Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.’ The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, ‘The two will become one flesh.’ 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.

A. Find Out:

1. What does Paul state twice with what two limitations? v.12
2. What does Paul say about our bodies? v.13-15a
3. What abuse does he speak against and why? v.15b,16
4. What are we to do and why? v.18
5. What is our body today? v.19
6. What has happened to us, so how should we live? v.20 

B. Think:

1. Why don’t we have “total freedom”?
2. What reasons does Paul give for right use of our bodies?
3. What specific way does he say we can abuse our body?

C. Comment:

Paul still has in mind the problem of sexual immorality which was rife in Corinth, so he lays down some general principles to help them. First, he declares that as Christians they are free to live without restriction, such as comes with the “do this” and “don’t do that” mentality. Yet total freedom is not beneficial, for some things can lead us into bondage. Too much of anything is harmful (food leads to obesity, alcohol leads to alcoholism). Some things are specifically harmful in that they lead on to the bondage of the desire for more and more (e.g. wrong drugs, sexual abuse), and so not everything is good for us.

Then he declares that our body, as Christians, is for God’s use. When we become a Christian, we become one with Christ and his Holy Spirit comes to live within us. Our body has become a dwelling place for God Himself, and therefore we should be careful what we do with it.    

In the lax environment in which they were living (much like the West in the twenty-first century), he speaks against going with prostitutes. Sexual intercourse is far more than mere physical union, there is also a coming together of spirit in the intimacy and union of the act. For the Christian this is never an option. Sexual immorality with a person other than your spouse is never an option.  

D. Application:

1. Sexual union is limited to your marriage partner and them only!
2. Your body is a dwelling place of God by the Spirit.