13 Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will put an end to them together. But the body is not for the desires of the flesh, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body:
Or are you not conscious that your body is a house for the Holy Spirit which is in you, and which has been given to you by God? and you are not the owners of yourselves;
Do you not see that your bodies are part of the body of Christ? how then may I take what is a part of the body of Christ and make it a part of the body of a loose woman? such a thing may not be.
For the purpose of God for you is this: that you may be holy, and may keep yourselves from the desires of the flesh; So that every one of you may keep his body holy and in honour; Not in the passion of evil desires, like the Gentiles, who have no knowledge of God; And that no man may make attempts to get the better of his brother in business: for the Lord is the judge in all these things, as we said to you before and gave witness. Because it is God's purpose that our way of life may be not unclean but holy.
For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, being himself the saviour of the body.
For this cause do not let sin be ruling in your body which is under the power of death, so that you give way to its desires;
And that he underwent death for all, so that the living might no longer be living to themselves, but to him who underwent death for them and came back from the dead.
(Rules which are all to come to an end with their use) after the orders and teaching of men? These things seem to have a sort of wisdom in self-ordered worship and making little of oneself, and being cruel to the body, not honouring it by giving it its natural use.
For I have a very great care for you: because you have been married by me to one husband, and it is my desire to give you completely holy to Christ.
These are the things which make a man unclean; but to take food with unwashed hands does not make a man unclean.
And they all took the same holy food; And the same holy drink: for they all took of the water from the holy rock which came after them: and the rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not pleased: for they came to their end in the waste land.
For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
For every man's life and every man's death has a relation to others as well as to himself. As long as we have life we are living to the Lord; or if we give up our life it is to the Lord; so if we are living, or if our life comes to an end, we are the Lord's. And for this purpose Christ went into death and came back again, that he might be the Lord of the dead and of the living.
In the same way, my brothers, you were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, even to him who came again from the dead, so that we might give fruit to God.
Your fathers took the manna in the waste land--and they are dead.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 6
In this chapter the apostle,
1Cr 6:1-8
Here the apostle reproves them for going to law with one another before heathen judges for little matters; and therein blames all vexatious law-suits. In the previous chapter he had directed them to punish heinous sins among themselves by church-censures. Here he directs them to determine controversies with one another by church-counsel and advice, concerning which observe,
1Cr 6:9-11
Here he takes occasion to warn them against many heinous evils, to which they had been formerly addicted.
1Cr 6:12-20
The twelfth verse and former part of the thirteenth seem to relate to that early dispute among Christians about the distinction of meats, and yet to be prefatory to the caution that follows against fornication. The connection seems plain enough if we attend to the famous determination of the apostles, Acts 15, where the prohibition of certain foods was joined with that of fornication. Now some among the Corinthians seem to have imagined that they were as much at liberty in the point of fornication as of meats, especially because it was not a sin condemned by the laws of their country. They were ready to say, even in the case of fornication, All things are lawful for me. This pernicious conceit Paul here sets himself to oppose: he tells them that many things lawful in themselves were not expedient at certain times, and under particular circumstances; and Christians should not barely consider what is in itself lawful to be done, but what is fit for them to do, considering their profession, character, relations, and hopes: they should be very careful that by carrying this maxim too far they be not brought into bondage, either to a crafty deceiver or a carnal inclination. All things are lawful for me, says he, but I will not be brought under the power of any, v. 12. Even in lawful things, he would not be subject to the impositions of a usurped authority: so far was he from apprehending that in the things of God it was lawful for any power on earth to impose its own sentiments. Note, There is a liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, in which we must stand fast. But surely he would never carry this liberty so far as to put himself into the power of any bodily appetite. Though all meats were supposed lawful, he would not become a glutton nor a drunkard. And much less would he abuse the maxim of lawful liberty to countenance the sin of fornication, which, though it might be allowed by the Corinthian laws, was a trespass upon the law of nature, and utterly unbecoming a Christian. He would not abuse this maxim about eating and drinking to encourage any intemperance, nor indulge a carnal appetite: "Though meats are for the belly and the belly for meats (v. 13), though the belly was made to receive food, and food was originally ordained to fill the belly, yet if it be not convenient for me, and much more if it be inconvenient, and likely to enslave me, if I am in danger of being subjected to my belly and appetite, I will abstain. But God shall destroy both it and them, at least as to their mutual relation. There is a time coming when the human body will need no further recruits of food.' Some of the ancients suppose that this is to be understood of abolishing the belly as well as the food; and that though the same body will be raised at the great day, yet not with all the same members, some being utterly unnecessary in a future state, as the belly for instance, when the man is never to hunger, nor thirst, nor eat, nor drink more. But, whether this be true or no, there is a time coming when the need and use of food shall be abolished. Note, The expectation we have of being without bodily appetites in a future life is a very good argument against being under their power in the present life. This seems to me the sense of the apostle's argument; and that this passage is plainly to be connected with his caution against fornication, though some make it a part of the former argument against litigious law-suits, especially before heathen magistrates and the enemies of true religion. These suppose that the apostle argues that though it may be lawful to claim our rights yet it is not always expedient, and it is utterly unfit for Christians to put themselves into the power of infidel judges, lawyers, and solicitors, on these accounts. But this connection seems not so natural. The transition to his arguments against fornication, as I have laid it, seems very natural: But the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body, v. 13. Meats and the belly are for one another; not so fornication and the body.