What does 1 Corinthians 6:15 mean?

It is difficult to overstate how normalized sexual immorality was in the Greek and Roman culture of Paul's day. We know from historical records that adultery, homosexual sex, pedophilia, and prostitution were as normal in everyday life as the worship of false gods. In fact, idolatry and sexuality often came together. Those loyal to one god or another would often worship by visiting that god's temple prostitutes.

It's not surprising, then, that those who came to Christ in such a culture would find it difficult to break away from a lifestyle of sexual immorality. Apparently, some believers held to the idea that sexual appetites were no different than hunger for food (1 Corinthians 6:13). In a warped approach to grace and forgiveness, they assumed that since their physical bodies will die, it does not matter what we do with them on this side of eternity.

Paul has firmly rejected both of those false ideas. First, he has declared that our bodies serve a purpose. Death will not, in fact, even be the end of them. As Christ was, our bodies will be resurrected and transformed. They will go on.

In fact, Paul insists, these bodies are meant, right now, for the Lord. And the Lord is meant for our bodies. Paul makes that connection even stronger in this verse: The Christian's body is a member of Christ. Put another way, our physical body is part of Christ's eternal, spiritual body in some mysterious way. Our bodies are each, somehow, an appendage, an organ, a meaningful part of Him.

Now Paul asks a question meant to shock his readers: Should we take these bodies, members of Christ, and make them also members of a prostitute? His obvious answer is quick and emphatic: never!

He explains this more fully in the following verses.