The Berean Table

Field	Detail
Pericope	1 Corinthians 6:1–20
Theme	The holiness of the redeemed community and the redeemed body — saints who will judge the world must not drag one another before unbelieving courts but suffer wrong for Christ’s sake; the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom, yet “such were some of you,” now washed, sanctified, and justified; and because the body belongs to the Lord and is a temple of the Holy Spirit, bought with a price, the believer flees sexual immorality and glorifies God in body and spirit

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Opening Prayer

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Closing Prayer

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Timeline Context

First Corinthians belongs to the great body of Paul’s letters written during his third missionary journey, most likely from Ephesus around A.D. 53–55 (1 Corinthians 16:8). Paul had founded the Corinthian church on his second journey, laboring there for eighteen months (Acts 18:1–18), reasoning in the synagogue and then in the house of Titius Justus, with the Lord’s encouragement that He had “many in this city who are my people” (Acts 18:10). After his departure the church, planted in the soil of a notoriously immoral and contentious city, began to fracture into factions and to tolerate scandalous behavior. Reports from “Chloe’s people” (1 Corinthians 1:11) and a letter from the church itself (7:1) prompted Paul to write this corrective epistle.

Corinth was the capital of the Roman province of Achaia, a wealthy commercial hub straddling the isthmus that linked the Aegean and Adriatic. Rebuilt by Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. after its destruction in 146 B.C., it was a relatively new Roman colony populated by freedmen, traders, and transients, with a culture that prized status, rhetoric, litigation, and sexual license. The temple of Aphrodite loomed over the city from the Acrocorinth, and “to Corinthianize” had become a byword for sexual immorality. Roman society was famously litigious, and the wealthy regularly used the civil courts to advance their honor and humiliate rivals.

Chapter 6 follows directly upon Paul’s discipline of the incestuous man in chapter 5 and his teaching about purging the leaven of immorality from the church. The chapter divides naturally into two related problems: lawsuits among believers brought before pagan courts (6:1–11) and the misuse of Christian freedom in sexual immorality (6:12–20). Both expose the same root failure — a community redeemed by Christ behaving as though it still belonged to the world. Redemptive-historically, the chapter stands in the era of the new covenant church’s formation among the nations, where Paul must teach a congregation drawn out of paganism what it means to be the holy, eschatological people of God — those destined to judge the world, indwelt by the Spirit, and bought for God’s own possession. The chapter is a charter for the holiness of the redeemed community and the redeemed body, grounded not in mere moralism but in the believer’s identity in Christ.

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Historical-Grammatical Study

Genre. First Corinthians is a New Testament epistle, a real letter addressing concrete problems in a specific congregation, yet bearing apostolic authority for the whole church. Chapter 6 is hortatory and corrective, employing rhetorical questions, diatribe (anticipating and answering objections, especially the quoted Corinthian slogans), Old Testament citation, and theological argument grounded in the believer’s union with Christ.

Key grammatical and syntactical features.

• “Does he dare” (tolma, v. 1). The verb expresses audacity or effrontery; Paul is scandalized that a believer would presume to take a fellow believer before pagan judges. The “unrighteous” (adikōn) are the unbelieving magistrates, set in pointed contrast to “the saints” (hagiōn), the holy ones.
• “Do you not know” (ouk oidate, vv. 2, 3, 9, 15, 16, 19). This phrase recurs six times in the chapter, a hammering rhetorical refrain rebuking the Corinthians for forgetting truths they should already possess. It frames the whole chapter as a recall to known doctrine.
• “Will judge” (krinousin, v. 2). The saints’ future participation in Christ’s judgment of the world (and angels, v. 3) is stated as settled fact (cf. Daniel 7:22; Matthew 19:28; Revelation 20:4). The argument is a fortiori (from greater to lesser): those who will judge cosmic matters should handle “trivial cases” (kritēriōn elachistōn) now.
• “Such were some of you” (tauta tines ēte, v. 11). The imperfect ēte (“you were”) marks a decisive past state now reversed by three aorist verbs: “you were washed” (apelousasthe), “you were sanctified” (hēgiasthēte), “you were justified” (edikaiōthēte). The aorists denote a completed, once-for-all reality accomplished at conversion.
• “All things are lawful for me” (panta moi exestin, v. 12). Almost certainly a Corinthian slogan, perhaps derived from Paul’s own teaching on Christian freedom and distorted into a license for immorality. Paul quotes and qualifies it twice: not all things are “helpful” (sympherei, beneficial/profitable), and he will not be “dominated” (exousiasthēsomai, brought under the power of) by anything.
• “Members of Christ” (melē Christou, v. 15). The believer’s body is a “member” or limb of Christ’s body. To join such a member to a prostitute is unthinkable (mē genoito, “Never! / May it not be!”). The horror rests on the reality of union.
• “One flesh” / “one spirit” (sarka mian / hen pneuma, vv. 16–17). Paul cites Genesis 2:24 to show that sexual union creates a profound one-flesh bond, set against the believer’s “one spirit” union with the Lord.
• “Flee” (pheugete, v. 18). A present imperative urging continual flight from porneia (sexual immorality) — as Joseph fled Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39:12).
• “Temple” (naos, v. 19). The naos is the inner sanctuary, the holy place of God’s dwelling. The believer’s body is the dwelling of the Holy Spirit.
• “Bought with a price” (ēgorasthēte timēs, v. 20). Redemption language drawn from the marketplace and from slavery; the believer has been purchased to become God’s own possession.

First-century background. Roman courts favored the powerful, and litigation was a tool of social competition. For believers to air grievances before pagan judges was to seek vindication from “the unrighteous” and to disgrace the gospel publicly. The vice catalog of verses 9–10 reflects sins endemic to Greco-Roman urban life, including temple prostitution associated with idolatry. The slogan “food for the stomach” (v. 13) likely reflects a libertine philosophy that treated bodily appetites — including sexual ones — as morally indifferent, since the body would perish.

Covenantal themes. The chapter is saturated with the indicatives of the new covenant: the saints are a holy people, washed and consecrated. Paul grounds ethics in identity — because believers belong to Christ, are indwelt by the Spirit, and were bought with a price, they must live as God’s own. The temple imagery draws on the old covenant sanctuary, now relocated to the body of the believer; the price echoes the redemption of Israel from Egypt and supremely the blood of the true Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7). The whole passage moves from creation (one flesh, Genesis 2:24) through redemption (bought with a price) to consummation (the resurrection of the body, v. 14).

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Expanded Outline

Section 1 — The Scandal of Lawsuits Before Unbelievers (1 Corinthians 6:1–6)

Key Insight

Paul turns abruptly from the immorality of chapter 5 to a related disorder: “When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?” (v. 1). The word “dare” (tolma) carries a note of shocked indignation. That a believer would haul a fellow believer before pagan magistrates strikes Paul as an outrage against the dignity of the redeemed community. The contrast is pointed: “the unrighteous” (adikoi) versus “the saints” (hagioi), the unbelieving judges versus the holy people of God. To seek justice from those outside the covenant, while bypassing the church, is to misunderstand who the church is.

Paul presses the argument with the first of his hammering refrains, “Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?” (v. 2). This stunning claim draws on the biblical expectation that God’s people will share in Christ’s eschatological reign and judgment (Daniel 7:22, “judgment was given for the saints”; Matthew 19:28; Revelation 20:4). If the saints are destined to judge the world, and even angels (v. 3), they are surely competent to settle the “trivial cases” of this present life. The argument is a fortiori: the greater dignity (judging the cosmos) makes the lesser task (adjudicating earthly disputes) altogether fitting. “Do you not know that we are to judge angels?” (v. 3) heightens the wonder — redeemed humanity will participate in the judgment of fallen angelic powers. Calvin observes that Paul “reasons from the greater to the less,” for “it would be absurd that those who are destined to be the judges of angels should not be able to decide trifling matters.”

Paul then sharpens the rebuke: “So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church?” (v. 4). To prefer pagan judges, who have “no standing” (literally, those “least esteemed”) in the church, over the Spirit-filled community is a perverse reversal. “I say this to your shame,” he adds (v. 5). The Corinthians prided themselves on wisdom, yet could not find among themselves “one wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers”. Instead, “brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers” (v. 6). The triple repetition of “brother” exposes the scandal: those bound together as family in Christ are tearing at one another in public, before the very world they will one day judge. Matthew Henry notes that “it is a very great fault for Christians to go to law with one another before heathen judges,” for it dishonors Christ and contradicts the brotherhood of the redeemed. The deeper failure is a forgetfulness of identity — the church behaving as though it were merely another worldly association, rather than the holy, eschatological people of God.

Application

This passage summons believers to live now in light of who they will be. The dignity of being destined to judge the world should reshape how we handle conflict within the church. First, disputes among Christians are family matters, to be resolved within the household of faith, not paraded before the world. We should make every effort to settle grievances through the wisdom God supplies to His people, seeking wise and godly counsel among the brethren (Matthew 18:15–17). Second, this passage rebukes a litigious, rights-asserting spirit that prizes personal vindication over the honor of Christ and the unity of His body. When believers sue one another before unbelievers, the watching world sees not the love that marks Christ’s disciples (John 13:35) but the same self-seeking that marks the world. Beware two misapplications: this is not a blanket prohibition of all legal recourse (Paul himself appealed to Caesar, Acts 25:11), nor a counsel to ignore genuine wrongs. Rather, it is a call to handle Christian disputes Christianly — within the community, with humility, and with the gospel in view. Ask whether your handling of conflict adorns or dishonors the gospel before the world.

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Section 2 — Better to Suffer Wrong: The Defeat of Litigation (1 Corinthians 6:7–8)

Key Insight

Paul now exposes the deeper problem beneath the lawsuits: “To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?” (v. 7). The very existence of such disputes, regardless of who wins, is “already a defeat” (hēttēma, a loss, a moral failure). Before a verdict is ever rendered, the lawsuit itself proclaims the believers’ defeat — a failure of love, patience, and the cross-shaped life. Paul’s astonishing counsel is that it would be better to “suffer wrong” and to “be defrauded” than to win a case against a brother before the world. This echoes the teaching of Christ Himself: “Do not resist the one who is evil… if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well” (Matthew 5:39–40). The way of the kingdom is the way of the cross — the willingness to absorb loss rather than to grasp for one’s rights at the expense of the gospel and the brotherhood.

This counsel runs directly against the grain of human nature and of Corinthian culture, which prized honor, vindication, and the public defense of one’s rights. To choose to be wronged rather than to wrong, to be defrauded rather than to defraud, is to follow the path of Christ, who “when he was reviled, did not revile in return” (1 Peter 2:23). Spurgeon remarked that “the Christian’s glory is not in standing up for his rights, but in his readiness to surrender them for Christ’s sake.” The believer’s vindication is not in the verdict of a pagan court but in the coming judgment of God, when all wrongs will be righted by the Judge who judges justly.

Then Paul turns the knife: “But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!” (v. 8). The Corinthians were not merely victims seeking redress; they were themselves perpetrators of injustice against the very brothers they should have loved. The litigation revealed a community in which believers were actively wronging and defrauding one another, the opposite of the love that suffers wrong. The word “defraud” (apostereō) implies deliberate, calculated injustice — taking what belongs to another. That such wrongs were committed against “your own brothers,” members of the same redeemed family, makes the offense especially grievous. The whole section lays bare the moral collapse beneath the legal disorder: a people called to suffer wrong for Christ were instead inflicting wrong on one another, and then dragging the matter before the world. Calvin notes that Paul “shows that they were doubly in fault — first, in not bearing injuries patiently; and secondly, in doing injury to others.”

Application

This passage confronts the deep human instinct to defend our rights at all costs. The gospel calls us to a cross-shaped willingness to suffer wrong rather than to wrong, to be defrauded rather than to defraud. This does not mean Christians must be passive doormats indifferent to justice; it means we must hold our rights loosely, ready to surrender them when insisting upon them would dishonor Christ or wound a brother. Ask yourself: in conflict, am I more concerned to win or to preserve love and the church’s witness? The believer who has been forgiven an infinite debt (Matthew 18:21–35) can afford to absorb finite losses. This passage also confronts the possibility that we ourselves are the wrongdoers — that beneath our grievances lies our own defrauding of others. Examine your dealings: do you take advantage of others, withhold what you owe, or wrong your brothers and sisters even subtly? Beware two misapplications: a false martyrdom that broadcasts its sufferings for sympathy, and a passivity that enables genuine evil or fails to protect the vulnerable. The point is the willingness, for Christ’s sake and the gospel’s, to count personal loss as gain when the alternative is to disgrace the Lord before the world.

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Section 3 — The Unrighteous Will Not Inherit, But Such Were Some of You (1 Corinthians 6:9–11)

Key Insight

Paul now grounds his ethical demand in the most sobering of warnings and the most glorious of reminders. “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived” (v. 9). The refrain “do you not know” returns, and the warning “do not be deceived” (mē planasthe) signals that this is a truth the Corinthians were in danger of forgetting — perhaps lulled by their slogans of freedom. Those who persist in unrighteousness, whose lives are characterized by these sins without repentance, will not inherit God’s kingdom. Paul then lists a catalog of sins: “neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (vv. 9–10). The list covers sexual sins, idolatry, sins of greed and theft, and sins of the tongue, exposing the breadth of human depravity. These are not isolated stumbles but settled patterns of life that mark those outside the kingdom.

The warning is severe, but it serves the gospel. The catalog describes precisely the kind of people the Corinthians once were: “And such were some of you” (v. 11). The imperfect tense (“you were”) marks a decisive break with the past. Paul does not flatter the Corinthians; he reminds them of the pit from which they were dug (Isaiah 51:1). Calvin observes that Paul “humbles them by the remembrance of their former condition, that they may not glory over others, and that they may acknowledge the grace of God.”

Then comes the triumphant reversal, three aorist verbs proclaiming a finished work: “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” (v. 11). The decisive “but” marks the great gospel transition from what they were to what grace has made them. “You were washed” (apelousasthe) evokes the cleansing from sin’s defilement, signified in baptism (Acts 22:16; Titus 3:5). “You were sanctified” (hēgiasthēte) declares them set apart as holy unto God, consecrated as His people. “You were justified” (edikaiōthēte) announces their being declared righteous before God’s judgment. All three are accomplished “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” — by the authority and merit of Christ and the regenerating, sanctifying work of the Spirit. The Trinitarian shape is unmistakable: the Father’s God, the Son’s name, the Spirit’s power. This is the gospel in miniature: those destined for exclusion from the kingdom have been washed, sanctified, and justified, and the basis of their new holiness is not their achievement but God’s grace in Christ by the Spirit. Matthew Henry writes, “See how the grace of God can work the greatest change… such sinners as these were, but they were washed.”

Application

This passage holds together solemn warning and radiant hope. The warning is real: a professing Christian whose life is dominated, unrepentantly, by these sins gives no evidence of belonging to the kingdom. We dare not “be deceived” into thinking that grace permits a life of settled rebellion (Romans 6:1–2). Examine your life honestly: is any of these sins reigning over you without conflict or repentance? Yet the hope is greater still. No sin in the catalog is beyond the reach of the grace that washed, sanctified, and justified the Corinthians. “Such were some of you” — yet they were transformed. If you have repented and trusted Christ, you are no longer defined by your past but by the threefold work of grace. Let this both humble and assure you: humble, because you were once among the unrighteous; assured, because you have been definitively washed, sanctified, and justified. This passage also rebukes any pride that despises sinners, for the church is composed of redeemed sinners who were “such” themselves. Beware two misapplications: using grace as a license to continue in sin, and despairing as though past sins disqualify you when Christ has cleansed you. Hold the warning and the comfort together as Paul does.

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Section 4 — Freedom Misused: All Things Lawful, But Not Helpful (1 Corinthians 6:12–14)

Key Insight

Paul now turns to the second great disorder, the misuse of Christian freedom, beginning with a Corinthian slogan: “‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be dominated by anything” (v. 12). The phrase “all things are lawful” (panta moi exestin) was likely a maxim the Corinthians had seized upon — perhaps a distortion of Paul’s own teaching on freedom from the law — and were using to justify sexual license. Paul does not simply deny it but qualifies it twice. Christian liberty is real, but it is bounded by what is “helpful” (beneficial) and by the refusal to be “dominated” (enslaved) by anything. The very freedom they boasted of, used to indulge the flesh, would lead them back into bondage. True freedom is not the license to do anything but the liberty to do what builds up and honors God. Calvin notes that “liberty must be subordinate to edification,” and that “many things are lawful which are not expedient.”

Paul then engages a second slogan: “‘Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food’—and God will destroy both one and the other” (v. 13a). The Corinthians apparently reasoned that, just as eating is a morally neutral satisfaction of a bodily appetite that will pass away, so too is sex. Paul concedes the point about food — both stomach and food are transient, destined for destruction — but he sharply denies the analogy when applied to sexual immorality. The body is not a disposable instrument for satisfying appetites; it has an eternal destiny and belongs to the Lord. “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body” (v. 13b). Here Paul strikes at the heart of the libertine error. The body (sōma) is not designed for porneia; it is designed “for the Lord,” to belong to Him and to serve His purposes. And remarkably, “the Lord [is] for the body” — Christ has a saving interest in the believer’s body, having redeemed the whole person.

Paul clinches the argument with the resurrection: “And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power” (v. 14). The destiny of the body is not destruction but resurrection. Because God raised Jesus bodily, and will raise believers bodily by the same power, the body matters eternally. The Corinthian dismissal of the body as a perishable vessel collapses before the doctrine of the resurrection. The body is not to be used for immorality and then discarded; it is to be presented to the Lord, who will glorify it at the last day. Spurgeon observed that “the resurrection of the body is the seal of God upon its sacredness.” The whole section establishes the theological foundation for the call to flee immorality that follows: the body belongs to the Lord, is destined for resurrection, and must therefore be kept holy.

Application

This passage corrects two errors about Christian freedom and the body. First, it confronts the abuse of liberty as license. Christian freedom is not permission to indulge every desire but liberty to glorify God; what is lawful must also be helpful and must never enslave. Ask whether the “freedoms” you claim build you up or bring you into bondage. Many lawful things, pursued without restraint, become tyrants — entertainment, food, comfort, and especially the appetites of the flesh. Second, this passage confronts the ancient and modern lie that the body is morally insignificant, a mere vessel for fleeting pleasures. The body belongs to the Lord and is destined for resurrection, so what we do with our bodies matters eternally. We must reject both the asceticism that despises the body and the libertinism that abuses it. The resurrection of Christ dignifies our physical existence; we honor God in our bodies because He will raise them. Beware two misapplications: a legalism that turns liberty into a new bondage of rules, and a license that twists freedom into an excuse for sin. The measure of true freedom is whether it serves the Lord to whom our bodies belong and brings glory to the God who will raise us up.

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Section 5 — Members of Christ, Not of a Prostitute (1 Corinthians 6:15–17)

Key Insight

Paul now presses the argument to its most intimate and astonishing point: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” (v. 15a). The refrain “do you not know” sounds again, recalling the Corinthians to a truth their conduct denied. The believer’s body is a “member” — a limb, a part — of Christ Himself, by virtue of union with Him. This is the staggering reality of the believer’s union with Christ: not merely a legal or spiritual abstraction, but a union so real that the believer’s very body belongs to and is incorporated into Christ. From this flows the horror Paul expresses: “Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!” (v. 15b). The Greek mē genoito is Paul’s strongest expression of revulsion — “May it never be!” To join a member of Christ to a prostitute is to drag Christ Himself into the act, an unthinkable desecration.

Paul grounds the horror in the nature of sexual union: “Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, ‘The two will become one flesh’” (v. 16). Citing Genesis 2:24, the foundational text on marriage, Paul reveals that sexual union is never casual or merely physical. Every act of sexual union creates a profound one-flesh bond, even with a prostitute, joining two persons at the deepest level. The libertine view that sex is a trivial bodily transaction, like eating, is exploded. Sexual union by its very nature forges a one-flesh union, which is why it is so grievous to debase it in immorality. Calvin observes that “fornication… is a profanation of that sacred bond” of one-flesh union ordained by God.

Against this dark backdrop Paul sets the believer’s higher and more glorious union: “But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him” (v. 17). The believer is united to the Lord in a union of the Spirit, becoming “one spirit” with Him. This is the climax of the argument: the believer who is one spirit with the Lord cannot also become one body with a prostitute. The two unions are utterly incompatible. The intimacy of the believer’s union with Christ — so close that they are “one spirit” — makes sexual immorality a kind of spiritual adultery, a betrayal of the most sacred bond. The whole section rests the call to purity not on rules but on relationship: because you are joined to Christ as a member of His body and one spirit with Him, you cannot give your body to immorality. Matthew Henry writes, “The believer is so closely united to Christ as to be one spirit with him… how horrible then to make the members of Christ the members of a harlot!” Sexual purity flows from the reality of union with Christ, and immorality is a violation of that union.

Application

This passage transforms the motive for sexual purity from external prohibition to internal reality. Because the believer’s body is a member of Christ and one spirit with Him, sexual immorality is not merely breaking a rule but desecrating a union. When tempted, the believer should remember: my body belongs to Christ; would I bring Him into this act? This is the most powerful deterrent to immorality — not fear of consequences alone, but reverence for the union with Christ that sin would violate. This passage also exposes the lie that sex is casual or consequence-free. Every sexual act forges a one-flesh bond, so there is no such thing as meaningless physical intimacy. The modern myth of “casual sex” is precisely the Corinthian error, refuted by Genesis 2:24. We must reckon with the depth and permanence of what sexual union creates. Positively, this passage invites believers to glory in their union with Christ — to be “one spirit” with the Lord is an astonishing privilege that dignifies and empowers a holy life. Beware two misapplications: reducing this to mere rule-keeping that misses the relational heart, and despairing over past sexual sin when union with Christ offers cleansing and a new identity (v. 11). Let your union with Christ be both the reason and the resource for purity.

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Section 6 — Flee Immorality: Your Body Is a Temple, Glorify God (1 Corinthians 6:18–20)

Key Insight

Paul reaches the climactic command: “Flee from sexual immorality” (v. 18a). The present imperative “flee” (pheugete) calls for continual, decisive flight, not negotiation or lingering — as Joseph fled Potiphar’s wife, leaving his garment behind (Genesis 39:12). Sexual temptation is not to be resisted by reasoning at its edge but to be fled outright. Paul then gives a striking reason: “Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body” (v. 18b). The exact sense is debated, but the thrust is clear: sexual sin uniquely involves and violates the body in a way that other sins do not, defiling the very body that is joined to Christ and indwelt by the Spirit. Sexual sin is a sin against one’s own body, the temple of the Holy Spirit and member of Christ, making it singularly self-destructive and dishonoring.

Paul then unveils the supreme dignity of the believer’s body: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” (v. 19a). The final “do you not know” presses home the chapter’s central truth. The believer’s body is a naos, the inner sanctuary, the holy dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Under the old covenant, God’s presence dwelt in the Jerusalem temple; now, by the Spirit, God dwells in the bodies of His people (1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:21–22). To defile the body with immorality is to profane the temple of the living God. The Spirit is “within you, whom you have from God” — a gift of divine grace, the seal of belonging to God.

The argument culminates in the great gospel ground of holiness: “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (vv. 19b–20). The believer does not belong to himself but to God, having been purchased at infinite cost. The phrase “bought with a price” (ēgorasthēte timēs) is redemption language from the slave market; the price is the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18–19; Acts 20:28; 1 Corinthians 7:23). The believer has been bought out of bondage to sin and into the possession of God. This double truth — “you are not your own” and “you were bought with a price” — overturns the entire libertine logic. The Corinthian boasted, “All things are lawful for me,” but Paul replies that the body is not the believer’s own property to use as he pleases; it belongs to the God who bought it. Therefore, the climactic command: “glorify God in your body.” The redeemed body exists to display the glory of the God who purchased it. Spurgeon declared, “You are bought with a price; therefore you are Christ’s, and to him you must live.” Calvin notes that “since we are not our own, we ought to consecrate ourselves wholly to God, and to make his will the governing principle of all our actions.” Redemptive-historically, this gathers up the whole drama: the God who redeemed Israel from Egypt has redeemed His people by the blood of the true Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7), and the body, once the instrument of sin, becomes the temple of the Spirit and the theater of God’s glory. The whole chapter ends where all Christian ethics must: in the glory of God, sought in the very body He has bought.

Application

This passage gives both the command and the deepest motive for sexual purity. First, the command is to “flee” — not to flirt with temptation but to run from it. Wisdom in the face of sexual temptation is not bold resistance at close range but decisive flight. Identify and remove the occasions of temptation; do not trust your strength to linger near sin. Second, the motive is the dignity and ownership of the body. Because your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and was bought with the blood of Christ, you must keep it holy and use it to glorify God. This dignifies even mundane bodily life: how we eat, work, rest, and steward our physical selves can glorify God. The truth “you are not your own” liberates us from the tyranny of self-ownership and self-indulgence; we belong to a good Master who paid the highest price for us. Let the cross — the “price” by which you were bought — be ever before you as the measure of your worth and the motive for your holiness. Beware two misapplications: a fear-driven flight that forgets the gospel grace beneath the command, and a presumption that, being forgiven, the body’s use is unimportant. The redeemed body is to be presented to God as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1), glorifying the One who bought it.

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Cross References

Comparative Gospel Study

Not Applicable as Direct Comparison — 1 Corinthians is a New Testament epistle, not Gospel narrative. There are no parallel accounts in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John to harmonize, since Paul is writing pastoral instruction to a specific congregation rather than recording the deeds and words of Jesus. However, 1 Corinthians 6 richly develops key Gospel themes that find their root in the teaching of Jesus:

First, the call to suffer wrong rather than to retaliate (vv. 7–8) directly echoes the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus taught, “Do not resist the one who is evil… if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well” (Matthew 5:39–40), and “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9). Paul applies Jesus’ kingdom ethic to the practical disputes of the Corinthian church.

Second, the warning that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom (vv. 9–10) develops Jesus’ repeated teaching about who enters the kingdom of God — that not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will enter, but the one who does the Father’s will (Matthew 7:21), and that the kingdom belongs to the transformed (John 3:3, 5).

Third, the radical seriousness of sexual purity (vv. 13–18) reflects Jesus’ own intensification of the seventh commandment, condemning even lustful looking as adultery of the heart (Matthew 5:27–30) and grounding the one-flesh union in creation (Matthew 19:4–6, citing the same Genesis 2:24 that Paul cites).

Fourth, the transformation of sinners by grace (v. 11, “such were some of you”) embodies the Gospel portrait of Jesus as the friend of sinners who came “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10) and who declared, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (Mark 2:17). The washed, sanctified, justified Corinthians are living proof of the Gospel’s saving power.

Fifth, the temple imagery (v. 19) connects to Jesus’ identification of His own body as the temple (John 2:19–21), now extended to His body the church and to the bodies of believers indwelt by the Spirit He promised to send (John 14:16–17).

Old Testament Connections

Pentateuch. The foundational citation of the chapter is Genesis 2:24, “the two will become one flesh” (v. 16), grounding sexual union in the creation ordinance of marriage. The command to “flee” immorality (v. 18) recalls Joseph fleeing Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39:12). The “bought with a price” language (v. 20) echoes the redemption of Israel from Egypt and the Passover (Exodus 12), and the consecration of a redeemed people to God (Exodus 19:5–6). The temple/sanctuary imagery (v. 19) draws on the tabernacle where God’s glory dwelt (Exodus 40:34–35; Leviticus 26:11–12). The vice catalog reflects the moral law of the Decalogue (Exodus 20).

Historical Books. The presence of God filling the temple (1 Kings 8:10–11) provides the background for the believer’s body as God’s temple. The covenant people’s call to holiness as God’s possession runs throughout (e.g., the consecration of Israel).

Wisdom Literature. The warnings against sexual immorality and the seductions of the forbidden woman pervade Proverbs (Proverbs 5; 6:20–35; 7), reinforcing the call to flee. The dignity of the body and the integrity of life before God resonate with the wisdom tradition.

Major Prophets. The expectation that God’s people will share in His judgment is rooted in Daniel 7:22, “judgment was given for the saints of the Most High” (v. 2). The depiction of idolatry and spiritual adultery in the prophets illuminates the gravity of joining a member of Christ to immorality.

Minor Prophets. Hosea’s portrayal of spiritual harlotry and God’s redeeming love provides a backdrop to the contrast between union with a prostitute and union with the Lord. The prophetic call to justice rebukes the defrauding of brothers (v. 8; cf. Amos 5; Micah 6:8).

New Testament Fulfillment

Gospels and Acts. Jesus’ teaching on nonretaliation (Matthew 5:38–42), on the kingdom (Matthew 7:21), on sexual purity and marriage (Matthew 5:27–30; 19:4–6), and on His body as the temple (John 2:19–21) all underlie this chapter. Acts records the redemption of the church “with his own blood” (Acts 20:28) and the cleansing of baptism, “wash away your sins” (Acts 22:16).

Paul’s Epistles. Paul develops the same themes elsewhere: union with Christ and the church as His body (Romans 12:4–5; 1 Corinthians 12:12–27; Ephesians 5:30); the believer as the temple of the Spirit corporately (1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:21–22; 2 Corinthians 6:16); justification (Romans 3:24; 5:1) and definitive sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:2); redemption by Christ’s blood (Ephesians 1:7; 1 Corinthians 7:23); the resurrection of the body (1 Corinthians 15; Philippians 3:21); the call to present the body as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1); the vice lists and warnings about the kingdom (Galatians 5:19–21; Ephesians 5:5).

General Epistles and Revelation. Peter grounds holiness in redemption “with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18–19) and in Christ’s nonretaliation (1 Peter 2:21–23). The promise that the saints will reign and judge appears in Revelation 20:4–6, and the exclusion of the unrighteous from the kingdom in Revelation 21:8; 22:15. The Lamb who “ransomed people for God by your blood” (Revelation 5:9) is the price by which believers were bought.

Redemptive-Historical Context

First Corinthians 6 must be read within the grand arc of redemptive history: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Consummation. At Creation, God made human beings embodied, male and female, and ordained marriage as a one-flesh union (Genesis 2:24, cited in v. 16). The body is God’s good creation, designed for His glory and for fellowship with Him; the human person is not a soul imprisoned in a body but an embodied image-bearer. The dignity of the body, which the Corinthians despised, is established at creation.

At the Fall, sin corrupted the whole person, including the body, turning God’s good gifts of sexuality and freedom into instruments of rebellion. The vice catalog of verses 9–10 chronicles the wreckage of the fall — sexual immorality, idolatry, greed, and injustice — the very sins that exclude from the kingdom. Humanity, by nature, belongs among the unrighteous; “such were some of you” describes the universal human condition apart from grace. The body, made for the Lord, is profaned in immorality; freedom, given for service, is twisted into license.

At the center stands Redemption. God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead (v. 14), having sent Him to bear the curse of sin. By His blood, the “price” by which believers were “bought” (v. 20), Christ has purchased a people for God’s own possession (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 1:18–19). This redemption is the new and greater exodus: as Israel was redeemed from Egypt by the blood of the Passover lamb, so the church is redeemed by the blood of Christ, “our Passover lamb” (1 Corinthians 5:7). The threefold work of grace — washed, sanctified, justified (v. 11) — applies this redemption to the believer by the Spirit. Union with Christ incorporates the believer’s very body into Christ as His member (v. 15) and joins the believer to the Lord as “one spirit” (v. 17). The Spirit takes up residence in the believer’s body, making it the temple of God (v. 19). The believer, once among the unrighteous, is now God’s purchased possession, indwelt by the Spirit, destined to judge the world and angels.

The chapter also presses toward the Consummation. The “already” of redemption — washed, justified, indwelt — coexists with the “not yet” of glory. The saints will judge the world and angels (vv. 2–3), a future reign already certain in Christ. God “will also raise us up by his power” (v. 14), so that the body itself awaits its resurrection and glorification (1 Corinthians 15:42–44; Philippians 3:21). This eschatological tension grounds the ethics of the chapter: because believers are already redeemed and indwelt, and not yet fully glorified, they must now glorify God in the body, living as the holy people they have been made and will fully become. The whole sweep — from creation’s one-flesh union, through the fall’s corruption, to redemption’s purchase and the consummation’s resurrection — converges on the climactic command: “you are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (vv. 19–20). All of redemptive history bends toward the glory of God displayed in the redeemed bodies of His people, joined to Christ forever.

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Systematic Theology Connection

Union with Christ

First Corinthians 6 is one of the most vivid expressions of the doctrine of union with Christ in all of Scripture. Paul declares that “your bodies are members of Christ” (v. 15) and that “he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him” (v. 17). The believer is not merely a follower or beneficiary of Christ but is vitally, organically, and spiritually joined to Him, so that even the believer’s body is a member of Christ’s body. This union, wrought by the Holy Spirit, is the source of every saving benefit. The Westminster Larger Catechism (Q. 66) defines union with Christ as “the work of God’s grace, whereby [the elect] are spiritually and mystically, yet really and inseparably, joined to Christ as their head and husband.” From this union flow the washing, sanctification, and justification of verse 11. The horror of sexual immorality, in Paul’s argument, rests entirely on this union: to join a member of Christ to a prostitute is to desecrate the very bond that defines the Christian. The practical implication is profound — purity is not first a matter of rules but of relationship, of faithfulness to the One with whom the believer is one spirit. Cross-references include Romans 6:5; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 5:30–32; John 15:4–5. Because believers are united to Christ, His death and resurrection are theirs, His Spirit indwells them, and their bodies belong to Him. This union grounds both the dignity and the duty of the Christian life, making holiness the natural expression of a real and inseparable bond with the risen Lord.

Justification by Faith

The triumphant declaration “you were justified” (v. 11) places this chapter squarely within the doctrine of justification by faith. Justification is the act of God’s free grace whereby He pardons all the believer’s sins and accepts him as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to him and received by faith alone (Westminster Shorter Catechism Q. 33). Paul lists justification alongside washing and sanctification as a finished work accomplished “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” — that is, on the basis of Christ’s merit, not the believer’s. The Corinthians, once numbered among the unrighteous who would not inherit the kingdom (vv. 9–10), have been declared righteous before God. This is a forensic, legal verdict: the once-guilty are now acquitted and accepted. Crucially, justification is grounded not in the believer’s transformation but in Christ’s imputed righteousness, received by faith (Romans 3:24–28; 5:1; Galatians 2:16). Yet Paul does not isolate justification from sanctification; both are gifts flowing from union with Christ. The practical implication is enormous: the believer who once stood condemned now stands acquitted, secure in a righteousness not his own. This grounds assurance — the justified need not fear condemnation (Romans 8:1) — and fuels gratitude-driven holiness. The chapter shows that the same grace that justifies also transforms, so that the justified are summoned to glorify God in the body, not to earn acceptance but to live out the acceptance freely given in Christ.

Sanctification

Paul declares “you were sanctified” (v. 11), pointing to definitive sanctification — the decisive setting apart of the believer as holy unto God at conversion — and the whole chapter then summons believers to progressive sanctification, growing in actual holiness. The Westminster Shorter Catechism (Q. 35) defines sanctification as “the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.” In verse 11, sanctification is positional and definitive: the Corinthians have been consecrated, made “saints” (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:2). But the imperatives of the chapter — flee immorality (v. 18), glorify God in your body (v. 20) — call for the progressive outworking of that holiness. The doctrine holds together the indicative (“you were sanctified”) and the imperative (“flee,” “glorify”): because believers have been made holy, they must become holy in practice. This guards against both legalism (as though holiness earns salvation) and antinomianism (as though salvation makes holiness optional). The indwelling Spirit (v. 19) is the agent of sanctification, empowering the mortification of sin and the pursuit of righteousness (Romans 8:13; Galatians 5:16–25). The practical implication is that sanctification is both a gift to be received and a calling to be pursued, grounded in union with Christ and energized by the Spirit, aiming at the glory of God in the believer’s whole embodied life.

The Body as the Temple of the Holy Spirit

The doctrine that the believer’s body is “a temple of the Holy Spirit” (v. 19) teaches the personal indwelling of the Spirit and the sanctity of the body. The Spirit, given by God, takes up residence in the believer, making the body a holy sanctuary where God dwells. This fulfills and surpasses the old covenant temple: God’s presence, once localized in Jerusalem, now indwells His people by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21–22). The Westminster Confession (13.1) affirms that believers are “really and personally” sanctified “through the virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection, by His Word and Spirit dwelling in them.” This doctrine confers extraordinary dignity on the body and grounds the call to bodily holiness: to defile the body with immorality is to profane the temple of the living God. Against all dualism that despises the body, this teaching affirms that the physical body is the dwelling of God and the instrument of His glory. The practical implications reach into every area of bodily life — sexuality, eating, drinking, work, rest, and self-care — all of which can either honor or profane the temple. The indwelling Spirit is also the believer’s seal and guarantee (Ephesians 1:13–14), the pledge of final redemption. Cross-references include Romans 8:9–11; John 14:16–17. The believer lives, then, as a walking sanctuary, called to keep the temple pure for the glory of the God who dwells within.

Redemption (Bought with a Price)

The declaration “you were bought with a price” (v. 20) expresses the doctrine of redemption — Christ’s purchase of His people from bondage to sin by the payment of His own blood. The verb agorazō draws on the imagery of the marketplace and the manumission of slaves; the believer has been bought out of slavery to sin and Satan and into the possession of God. The price is “the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:18–19; cf. Acts 20:28; Revelation 5:9). The Heidelberg Catechism (Q. 1) confesses that the believer’s only comfort is that “I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who with His precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and redeemed me from all the power of the devil.” This redemption establishes God’s absolute ownership of the believer: “you are not your own” (v. 19). The practical implication overturns the entire logic of self-ownership and self-indulgence that animated the Corinthian slogans. The believer’s body, having been purchased at infinite cost, belongs to God and must be used for His glory. Redemption thus grounds the climactic command to “glorify God in your body.” It also magnifies the believer’s worth — valued at the price of Christ’s blood — and the totality of God’s claim. Cross-references include Galatians 3:13; 4:5; Titus 2:14; 1 Corinthians 7:23. The doctrine of redemption transforms obedience from servile duty into the grateful self-giving of those who have been bought and now belong to a gracious Master.

Glorification and the Resurrection of the Body

Paul’s assurance that “God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power” (v. 14) connects the chapter to the doctrines of the resurrection of the body and the believer’s final glorification. The believer’s body is destined not for destruction but for resurrection, raised incorruptible and glorious like the risen body of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:42–44; Philippians 3:21). This future hope grounds the present ethics of the chapter: because the body has an eternal, glorious destiny, it must be kept holy now. The Westminster Confession (32.2–3) affirms that the bodies of the dead “shall be raised up with the selfsame bodies, and none other,” the bodies of the just “made conformable to His own glorious body.” This refutes the Corinthian dualism that treated the body as a perishable shell to be indulged and discarded. The resurrection of Christ is the firstfruits and guarantee of the believer’s resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20–23), and the indwelling Spirit is the pledge of the body’s redemption (Romans 8:11, 23; Ephesians 1:14). The practical implication is that bodily holiness matters eternally; what we do with our bodies now bears on the bodies we will receive in glory. Glorification completes the work begun in justification and sanctification, the final stage of God’s saving purpose (Romans 8:30). The believer thus lives in hope, honoring God in the body that will one day be raised in glory, and looking to the consummation when the redeemed will reign with Christ, judging the world and angels (vv. 2–3), in resurrected and glorified bodies fit for the new creation.

Total Depravity and Effectual Calling

The catalog of sins in verses 9–10, climaxing in “such were some of you” (v. 11), illustrates the doctrines of total depravity and effectual calling. Total depravity teaches that, apart from grace, every part of human nature is corrupted by sin, so that the natural person is enslaved to unrighteousness and cannot inherit the kingdom (Romans 3:10–18; Ephesians 2:1–3). The Corinthians, before grace, were characterized by the very sins that exclude from God’s kingdom — proof that they, like all humanity, were “by nature children of wrath.” The Canons of Dort (3/4.1–3) affirm that fallen humanity is “incapable of any saving good” apart from regenerating grace. Yet the decisive “But” of verse 11 — “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified” — testifies to effectual calling, the sovereign work of God whereby He draws sinners out of their depravity into salvation. The Westminster Confession (10.1) teaches that God effectually calls the elect “out of that state of sin and death… to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ,” by His Word and Spirit, renewing their wills and drawing them to Christ. The Corinthians did not wash themselves; they “were washed” — the passive voice underscores the divine initiative. The practical implication is twofold: profound humility, since believers were once among the unrighteous and contributed nothing to their rescue; and profound assurance, since the God who effectually called them will surely complete His work. This grounds both gratitude and hope, and it demolishes any pride that would despise sinners, for the church is composed of the formerly depraved, called and transformed by sovereign grace.

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Reformed Theology

First Corinthians 6 is a treasury for Reformed theology, exhibiting the characteristic Reformed integration of indicative and imperative, of grace received and holiness pursued, all within the framework of the covenant of grace and union with Christ. The Reformed tradition has always insisted that Christian ethics flow from Christian identity — that the imperative (“glorify God in your body,” v. 20) rests upon the indicative (“you were bought with a price,” v. 20). This is the structure of the whole chapter: because believers have been washed, sanctified, and justified (v. 11), are members of Christ and temples of the Spirit (vv. 15, 19), and have been bought with a price (v. 20), they must now flee immorality and glorify God. Holiness is never the ground of salvation but always its fruit.

The doctrine of union with Christ, so central to Calvin and the Reformed tradition, stands at the heart of the chapter. Calvin taught that “as long as Christ remains outside of us… all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us” — but in union with Him, all His benefits become ours. Paul’s argument that believers’ bodies are “members of Christ” (v. 15) and “one spirit with him” (v. 17) is precisely this union applied to the question of bodily holiness. Richard Gaffin and other modern Reformed scholars have rightly stressed that union with Christ is the architectonic principle organizing the ordo salutis — washing, sanctification, and justification all flow from being joined to Christ.

The threefold work of grace in verse 11 reflects the Reformed understanding of the application of redemption. Justification (the legal verdict of righteousness), definitive sanctification (the decisive setting apart as holy), and washing/regeneration are distinguished yet inseparable, all received in union with Christ and applied by the Spirit. The Westminster Standards carefully distinguish these benefits (justification, Shorter Catechism Q. 33; sanctification, Q. 35) while holding them together as the gifts of the one Mediator. The Trinitarian shape of verse 11 — “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” — reflects the Reformed emphasis on salvation as the work of the triune God, planned by the Father, accomplished by the Son, and applied by the Spirit.

The chapter also displays the Reformed concern for the church as a holy community and for church discipline (continuing from chapter 5). The expectation that disputes be resolved within the body (vv. 1–6) reflects the Reformed conviction that the church is a distinct, holy society, the new covenant people of God, called to live differently from the world it will one day judge. The Westminster Confession (25) treats the visible church as the kingdom of the Lord Jesus, outside of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation, and the chapter’s vision of the saints judging the world (vv. 2–3) accords with the Reformed amillennial and postmillennial hope of the saints’ participation in Christ’s reign.

The sanctity of the body and the affirmation of the resurrection (vv. 13–14, 19–20) reflect the Reformed rejection of all Platonic or gnostic dualism. Against any view that despises the material creation, the Reformed tradition affirms the goodness of the body as God’s creation, redeemed by Christ, indwelt by the Spirit, and destined for resurrection. Herman Bavinck and Geerhardus Vos emphasized the eschatological dignity of the body and the redemptive-historical movement toward the resurrection and the new creation. Representative Reformed voices — Calvin, Bavinck, Vos, Warfield, Gaffin, Sinclair Ferguson, and R.C. Sproul — converge in reading this chapter as a sustained application of union with Christ and the indwelling Spirit to the holiness of the redeemed body, grounded in the sovereign grace that washed, sanctified, and justified a people for God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

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Dispensational Theology

A Dispensational reading of 1 Corinthians 6 approaches the text with its characteristic commitment to a literal-grammatical hermeneutic, a distinction between Israel and the Church, and an emphasis on the present Church age as a distinct dispensation in God’s unfolding program. Dispensationalists such as C.I. Scofield, Charles Ryrie, John Walvoord, and J. Dwight Pentecost would read this chapter primarily as instruction for the Church, the body of Christ formed at Pentecost, addressing the conduct befitting believers in the present age of grace.

On the matter of the saints judging the world and angels (vv. 2–3), Dispensational theology offers a distinctive interpretation grounded in its premillennial eschatology. Where Reformed amillennialism tends to read the saints’ reign as a present spiritual reality consummated at Christ’s return, Dispensationalism understands this judgment as a future, literal participation of the Church in Christ’s millennial kingdom, the thousand-year earthly reign of Christ following His second coming (Revelation 20:4–6). The saints, having been raptured and glorified, will reign with Christ over the nations during the millennium and will participate in the judgment of the world and of fallen angels. Walvoord and Pentecost would stress the literal, future, earthly character of this reign, distinguishing it from any present or merely spiritual fulfillment. The promise that believers will “judge angels” is understood as part of the Church’s exalted destiny in the kingdom age, a destiny distinct from God’s separate program for national Israel.

Regarding the vice catalog and the warning about inheriting the kingdom (vv. 9–10), Dispensationalists would affirm the moral seriousness of the text while typically interpreting “inherit the kingdom of God” in light of their kingdom theology — the future, literal kingdom that Christ will establish. They would emphasize that the present age is the dispensation of grace, in which salvation is by faith apart from law, and that the transformation described in verse 11 (“such were some of you… but you were washed, sanctified, justified”) demonstrates the power of grace operative in the Church age. The literal-grammatical method leads Dispensationalists to read the threefold work of verse 11 straightforwardly as the present possession of every believer in the body of Christ.

On the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (v. 19), Dispensational theology gives particular emphasis to the universal, permanent indwelling of the Spirit as a distinctive feature of the Church age. Ryrie and others note that, in contrast to the Old Testament, where the Spirit’s ministry was more selective, in the present dispensation every believer is indwelt and baptized into the body of Christ by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13). The believer’s body as the temple of the Spirit is thus a mark of the Church age, distinguishing this dispensation from previous ones. This indwelling grounds the call to holiness and the flight from immorality.

On the redemption and ownership of the body (vv. 19–20), Dispensationalists fully affirm that the believer is “bought with a price” and must “glorify God in [the] body,” reading these as direct, literal exhortations to the Church. The “price” is the literal, substitutionary atonement of Christ. Where Dispensationalism differs from covenant theology is chiefly in its broader framework: it situates this redemption within a series of distinct dispensations rather than a single overarching covenant of grace, and it maintains a sharp distinction between the Church and Israel, expecting a future restoration of national Israel and a literal earthly kingdom in which the glorified saints will reign and judge. Within that framework, however, the practical exhortations of the chapter — flee immorality, glorify God in your body, live as those bought with a price — are received by Dispensationalists with the same seriousness as in the Reformed tradition, as the present duty of every member of the body of Christ in this age of grace.

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