1 Corinthians 6

Notes

Ver. 1. And since ye have power to call your own members to account, and to judge of their behaviour, how imprudent, unbrotherly, and shameful must it be for you to prosecute your small differences, in civil affairs, in a litigious manner, even before heathen magistrates, to the scandal of your religion, rather than submit to the arbitration of your fellow-Christians! 2, 3. Do ye not know that faithful ministers and really holy persons shall at the last day sit with Christ on his throne, and give their assent to the sentences which he shall pass upon wicked men and angels? Are ye not then able to settle matters, nay, small matters, of right and wrong between one another? 4. If therefore ye have hereafter any civil differences, submit them to the arbitration of some of your brethren in the church, who are not ministers, but sensible and disinterested persons; nay, rather submit them to the arbitration of two or three of the weakest honest Christians, than bring them before heathen judges. 5. What a shame and reproach is it to you, who boast so much of your wisdom, that you cannot find among yourselves any persons able to adjust trifling debates about civil property! 6. But brethren, united together in the same saving head, faith, and fellowship, to the reproach of all, litigiously prosecute one another before heathen magistrates! 7. This your conduct is extremely sinful, contrary to Christian prudence, forbearance, love and friendship, and highly dishonourable to your meek and lowly Lord and Saviour, the Prince of Peace, who secured peace with his blood. Why then do ye not rather part with what is strictly your due, than expose one another, and even Christ himself, to contempt in the open courts of profane heathens? 8. Nay, I find, that instead of meek and patient bearing and forgiving injuries, too many of you by lawsuits really defraud and unjustly wrong your Christian brethren. 9, 10. But know, and consider this plain and awful truth, that whatever profession such people make, they are utterly unfit for, have no title to, and shall never be admitted to enjoy the blessings of grace or glory, who live impenitent and unbelieving under the guilt and dominion of any sin. Deceive not your souls with flattering fancies, hypocritical pretences, or presumptuous confidences. The nature, perfections, purposes, and word of God render it absolutely impossible that any, who live and die impenitent, in idolatry, uncleanness, dishonesty, drunkenness, or reviling, should ever be members of his kingdom of grace here or heavenly glory hereafter. 11. And remember, for your humiliation and warning, and for exciting your admiration of God's blessed grace towards you, that, while ye continued heathens and unregenerate, some of you were chargeable with these detestable crimes: but in his most transcendent mercy all of you, who truly believe in Christ, have been graciously cleansed from the guilt and the domineering and defiling power of your sinful lusts, and brought into a state of favour with God, promised eternal life, and made partakers of holiness in nature and practice, through the righteousness and intercession of Christ, and by the applying, quickening, renewing, and purifying influences of the Holy Ghost, bestowed upon us by our gracious God, and through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us. 12. With respect to eating of meats, with which some of your pretenders to wisdom hold fornication equally indifferent, I allow that, whatever is not directly or indirectly forbidden by Christ in his Word, is lawful in itself; but it is not in every circumstance conducive to good purposes, but may be very injurious to others. I therefore allow myself to do, or not to do, what is indifferent in itself, precisely as it tends to promote good or bad ends; but will not suffer myself to be enslaved by any ungovernable passion for it, nor would I submit to the arbitrary imposition of it upon my conscience by any man. 13. Yea, all kinds of food are formed answerable to our belly, and our belly to them; though we shall soon have no need of them, being removed to the eternal state. — But fornication is a thing of a quite different nature. God never intended nor formed our body for it; but to be used for the honour and in the service of Jesus Christ, as redeemed by, united to, and to be glorified together with him; 14. And God has raised up the dead body of the Lord Christ from the grave as a pledge, earnest, and security, that he will in due time, by the same almighty power, raise up the dead bodies of his true members to a like blessed and glorious immortality. 15. Know ye not then, that your bodies, being constituent parts of your persons united to Christ, must, as his members, die and sleep in him, and be raised to glory with him? How shameful then, how wicked, and dishonourable to him and to his law, would it be to alienate them from his service and honour, and, as it were, rend them off from him; and by committing uncleanness, render them the members of a lewd woman! 16. Do not ye, who pretend to so much knowledge, understand that the man who unites himself in criminal affection or conversation with a harlot disgraces himself, and becomes one body with her, in a sense extremely vile and abominable? 17. But, on the contrary, he who is vitally united to the Lord Jesus as his Head and Husband, partakes of, and is animated by, that very same divine Spirit which dwells in Christ; and so, being mystically one Spirit with him, every affront done to that man's body must be an affront to Christ himself. 18. Abhor therefore, and resolutely abandon, all manner of uncleanness, and keep at the greatest distance from it. Watch and pray against all inclinations, enticements, and all appearances and occasions of it. For he that is guilty of it not only sins against God, his soul, or his neighbour, as in other sins, but debases his body, and unworthily sacrifices it to the most brutish and abominable lust. 19, 20. Know ye not that, if ye be true believers, your bodies, through their union to Christ, are a sacred, dedicated, and appropriated habitation of God the Holy Ghost, who is freely and divinely bestowed upon you, in which his person dwells, and his sanctifying influences are exerted. And ye are not your own property, to dispose of your bodies according to any brutish inclinations; but ye were redeemed from the curse of the law, and from sin, Satan, and everlasting ruin, and secured, for the service and enjoyment of the holy and blessed God, through faith in his Son: labour therefore, through grace, to yield your bodies and all their members, as well as your souls, with all their faculties, as instruments of righteousness to God, that ye may never alienate and debase his peculiar property, but in all things obey and glorify him with that which he hath created, preserved, redeemed, and sanctified.

Ver. 18. Idolatry (1st, 2d, and 10th commandments) is 'without the body,' always worshipping something outward. Profanity (3d commandment) rests in the mind and word. Sabbath-breaking (4th commandment) consists in the disregard of an outward institution. Disobedience to parents, killing, and stealing (5th, 6th, and 8th commandments), are all sins against others, and the soul which it debases. But fornication (7th commandment) is a sin directly against the body which it degrades. C.

**Reflections.—**Great shall be the honour of the saints to sit with Christ on his throne at the last day, and as assessors to concur in the condemnation of devils and wicked men! And it is shameful, then, if they cannot adjust trifling disputes without going to law one with another. How much more like Christians, as well as profitable, would it be to settle them by kind arbitration, than by litigious lawsuits! And it is very base for professed Christians to act as if they neither regarded the honour of Christ nor his people, if they can but secure external advantages to themselves. It is absurd to hope for heavenly happiness, without being weaned from our lusts and reformed from our gross sins. Jesus' word, blood, and Spirit make a most evident and important change upon the most notorious sinners. And how blessed, how deeply indebted to free grace, are the partakers of it! It is absurd for such to disturb their consciences with scruples about meats and drinks, or such like trifles, or to enslave them to human impositions; and more base immoderately to indulge their sensual appetite in the use of meats and drinks, which will soon be entirely useless. Infinitely detestable is every form of uncleanness; and contrary to the law of nature and marriage, to the noble purposes for which our bodies were designed, and to which those of saints shall be raised at the last day. Yea, much more so to our relation and intimate union with Christ as his members, and his right of securing our souls and bodies to be eternal instruments of glorifying God. It is highly dishonourable to his name, and debasing, to ourselves, and a vile indignity to the Holy Ghost, who dwells in our bodies, as well as in our souls.