1 Corinthians 6:20 - Printer Friendly

ESV: for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

NIV: you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

NASB: For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

CSB: for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.

NLT: for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

KJV: For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

NKJV: For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Paul now concludes his teaching on why it matters that Christians run away from sexual immorality. His final point, begun in the previous verse, is that Christian people do not belong to themselves. We have been purchased by God. We are free in the sense that we have been freed from the law of sin and death (Galatians 3:13), but we are not free in the sense that we are now self-owned and self-determined (1 Corinthians 6:12–13).

If we are truly in Christ, we are truly not our own. Our lives, including our bodies, belong to God. This gives Him the ultimate authority to tell us what to do and what not to do with our bodies.

It's important to notice something about this last argument against sexual immorality. It applies only to believers. Only those in Christ have been redeemed by His blood and brought from darkness to light (1 Corinthians 1:12–13). These words are not for those who remain in darkness. Paul is not commanding those outside the church, unbelievers, to live according to God's standards for sexual morality (1 Corinthians 5:12). Their sin is still sin, but one cannot expect them to recognize it as such (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Rather, it is those who belong to God—and not to themselves—who are commanded to glorify God with their bodies. In fact, only those in Christ have an opportunity to use their bodies to bring glory to God. In fact, that is now the purpose our bodies are designed to serve. Selfishly participating in sexual sin keeps us Christians from fulfilling our purpose.

First Corinthians 6:12–20 describes Paul's objections to those in the Corinthian church who had a casual attitude about sexual immorality. Beyond formal, literal laws, Paul insists the standard for Christian behavior must be whether a practice is helpful or enslaving. Sex is more than a mere bodily function; God designed it to unite two people into one body in marriage. That union with another person drags Christ, to whom we are also united, into the union with us. Our bodies will be resurrected and are meant even now to bring glory to God.

First Corinthians 6 continues Paul's confrontations of the Corinthian Christians over issues in the church. Earlier passages discussed problems of division into factions, and tolerance of heinous sexual sin. Paul is also outraged that they would take one another to court in a lawsuit over minor issues. Instead of suing each other before unbelievers, they should settle trivial issues in the church. Second, Paul urges them to live up to their new identities in Christ instead of living down to the sexually immoral standards of the culture. This sets up discussions of marriage in chapter 7.

Paul confronts two major issues happening in the church at Corinth. First, he is outraged that one of them has brought a lawsuit against a brother in Christ over a minor dispute. It is absurd to think that Christians—those who will judge the world and angels—cannot even judge a small matter between themselves. Second, Paul warns his readers to run from sexual immorality. Sex creates a powerful bond intended only for marriage. Since our bodies belong to and are part of Christ, we have no right to bring Him into a one-body union with someone to whom we're not married.

First Corinthians is one of the more practical books of the New Testament. Paul writes to a church immersed in a city associated with trade, but also with corruption and immorality. These believers are struggling to properly apply spiritual gifts and to resist the ungodly practices of the surrounding culture. Paul's letter gives instructions for real-life concerns such as marriage and spirituality. He also deals with the importance of unity and gives one of the Bible's more well-known descriptions of love in chapter 13.