Chapter 6

By way of introduction, one very important principle: Knowledge of doctrine is considered to be a very high virtue in the modus operandi of Christianity. Knowledge of doctrine is virtuous and ignorance of doctrine is tantamount to sinfulness. This passage emphasises knowing Bible doctrine as a deterrent to carnality. Five times in chapter 6 we have this very important phrase, “know ye not,” verses 2,3,9,15,19. You cannot do the will of God unless you know doctrine. Knowledge of doctrine is the basis of orientation to God’s plan, the basis of knowing your own status quo at any time. In other words, knowledge of doctrine in the basis of orientation to life as far as the believer is concerned. The believer who does not know doctrine and/or who is ignorant of doctrine is a believer who may once in a while hit some height but he doesn’t even know what he is doing and ordinarily he is a person who falls into some system of false criterion.

Verses 1-11, carnality in litigation; verses 12-20, carnality in lasciviousness. We are looking not simply at a sin which was committed in Corinth but at principles which are involved in many sins and problems where the believer becomes disoriented through ignorance of doctrine.

Verse 1, the area in which litigation is sin. Litigation is not sin in many areas but there is an area in which litigation may be sin. A believer involved in litigation is not necessarily carnal. There is no general principle that every time a believer is involved in any type of courtroom action he is carnal; this is not true.

“Dare” is present active indicative. It means to have a lot of nerve or gall, to go contrary to a well-established principle.

“having a matter against another,” the present active participle means that the matter should have been dropped long ago but you keep on harbouring in your mind this resentment. “Having” has to do with bitterness; “a matter” is the Greek word for law suit, a specific case “against another.” This means against another believer with whom you are at odds.

“go to law,” present middle infinitive. The present tense indicates that your are in the process at that time. The middle voice means that you deliberately made the decision to do so. This is the reflexive middle. You did this after thinking about it. The infinitive indicates your purpose to pursue the litigation to the limit.

“before the unjust” is actually “before an unbelieving judge.” The principle that is now being introduced is that there are going to be times when two believers have a controversy and the worst thing they could do is go to a court. While the judge may understand thoroughly the laws of the land and be a good judge any principle that involves spiritual activity is out of his realm. He knows nothing about spiritual truth, he is an unbeliever, he knows nothing about doctrine, and often it is a maximum amount of doctrine that settles a problem between two believers. Since the believer operates in a different realm often he is going to have a controversy with some other believer and he will want to take it to court, and that is the worst thing that could happen.

“and not before the saints” implies that that there are differences between believers which involve spiritual factors and therefore can only be judged or resolved by spiritual factors, and a an unbelieving judge in a courtroom simply doesn’t have the information to make a judgment.

The doctrinal principles which must be understood

1. There are two categories of law courts. Criminal courts which are authorised to try violations of penal statutes. This function is a part of divine institution # 4 and is authorised by Romans 13:1-7, with specific emphasis on verse 4 which deals with the authorisation of capital punishment. Then civil courts which are authorised to try cases involving individuals or groups of individuals, and this is the one that is pertinent to the context.

2. There are three categories of litigants in a civil court: a) Unbeliever versus unbeliever. This is permissible and is not the issue in our passage; b) Unbeliever versus believer, and this is permissible but it is a great tragedy when the believer is being sued by an unbeliever for cheating him in business or maligning his character; c) Believer versus believer, which is permissible at certain times (such as in a divorce case) and not permissible at other times.

3. Three reasons why believers should not become involved with other believers in certain types of civil litigation. These three reasons are given in context and are preceded by the phrase, “know ye not.” a) Verse 2, believers shall judge the world; b) Verse 3, believers shall judge angels; c) Verse 9, the unrighteous [unbelievers] shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Unbelievers cannot judge cases involving spiritual phenomena. The only person who is qualified to judge a difference between two believers is someone with a maximum knowledge of doctrine, obviously born again, obviously spiritual, obviously mature, obviously so mature that he would judge without becoming emotionally involved in the case.

4. In this connection we have strong prohibition about one believer judging another believer, as in Matthew 7:1,2; Romans 2:1; 14:4,10,13.

5. There are four exceptions to the prohibition of judging another believer. In most cases it has to do with evaluation. a) As a member of a church or church organisation evaluating individuals for church office; b) Evaluation of believers in the field of job recommendation or application for entrance into a school, government organisation, and so on; c) The principle of evaluation of individuals for the purpose of determining and making decisions within a congregation where the congregation has the democracy. When a person makes a suggestion in a meeting you evaluate the person who makes it; d) Stay away from believers who are out of line in certain ways. You have to have sense enough to know who is a troublemaker and who isn’t.

6. When is it possible to go to court with others? A believer must know when he has the right through recourse in a civil suit and when you do not.

Verse 2, the word “saint” refers to the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ with emphasis on positional truth.

“and if,” first class condition, if and it is true; “the world shall be judged by you, and ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?” This is not exactly correct as it stands. Literally, the question is: “Are you all unworthy of the smallest courts.” If you are some day going to judge in the biggest court the world will ever know, are you therefore today unworthy to judge in the smallest kind of court? Are you incompetent to set up court for a trivial type of thing? To judge is not a verb but a noun, and it means to set up a standard or a criterion by which to try a case. There are differences which arise between believers which involve spiritual factors and are in no way connected with civil law. Remember that we are dealing with two believers only and also that all believers are not qualified to judge such cases. There are at least four minimum standards which must be set up for the judge, the individual believer.

a) He should have a spiritual gift which involves the use of authority.

b) There must be a maximum knowledge of doctrine.

c) The believer who is doing the judging must be very mature, both spiritually and physically, mentally, every way.

d) Spirituality. He must be controlled by the Spirit when trying the case. Along with this, all judging must be done by hearing both sides of the case.

Verse 3, “we shall judge angels.” This is a future judgment when angels will be judged; “things pertaining to this life” is one word in the Greek, biwtikoj. It has several connotations: a) It is used for business matters; b) Sometimes it refers to just knowing principles about life; c) It is sometimes used to refers to quarrels in daily life. Here it means quarrels in daily life, altercations.

Verse 4, a critique of church courts. Paul is very strong in his criticism of the way a certain case has been handled in Corinth.

“If then ye have judgments,” 3rd class condition, maybe you will and maybe you won’t; “of things pertaining to this life” — altercations.

Next we have a question: “Why do you appoint judges who are least esteemed in the church?” In other words, they had a case between two believers. There was an altercation where one believer had cheated another believer. The two believers came to the church about it and they put some numb-skull in charge of handling the case.

“least esteemed” is a perfect passive participle, which means ‘most contemptible,’ most contemptible in the past with the result that he is still contemptible. Because of this person Corinthians were going to civil courts for redress of grievances. In other words, they had some immature, way out, ignoramus in charge in the church.

Verse 5, corrupting the situation in the church court. “I speak to your shame,” they had failed to have qualified individuals judge a case.

“Is it so that there is not a wise man among you?” The Corinthians church was a large church. A ‘wise man’ is a believer who has a maximum amount of doctrine and can apply it to a situation. You must not only know doctrine but be able to apply it.

“no, no one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?” Again, we are talking about a person with a maximum amount of doctrine and maturity.

Verses 6-8, the pattern of lawsuit carnality.

Verse 6, “brother” here is a believer. The pattern that we have is two believers in an altercation going into a civil court and they should not be doing so. There is a principle behind this. Believers should not wash their dirty linen in the unbeliever’s laundry.

Verse 7, “there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another.” There are certain cases where you can, but this is not talking about those. This is about a specific case here.

“Why do ye not rather take wrong?” This was a case of where a believer cheated another believer and it would have been better to put the whole case in the Lord’s hands; by so doing the Lord would have disciplined the other believer. But this wasn’t the case and it finally came to a civil court.

“there is utterly a fault.” The Greek says, “there is continually altogether a failure.”

“ye go to law” is literally, “you keep on having lawsuits among yourselves.”

How do you take wrong? Colossians 3:13, “Forgive as Christ forgave.” Forgive and forget immediately. You do not retaliate. When a person has wronged you you put it in the Lord’s hands and completely leave it there. The word to defraud in verse 7 means to be robbed of what is justly yours. The principle is, leave the discipline in the hands of the Lord.

Verse 8, two wrongs do not make a right. You do wrong by going to a court of law with a believer who has defrauded you.

“and defraud,” how do you defraud him? You rob him of discipline from the Lord by getting in the way. So the principle: Never react to the believer who wrongs you by wronging him.

Verses 9 & 10, the unbeliever is not qualified to judge a case of believer versus believer.

Verse 9, the word ‘unrighteous’ is technical, it means unbeliever, one who does not have imputed righteousness. He will not inherit the kingdom of God. Those who inherit the kingdom of God in the future will be doing some judging themselves.

After the phrase “Be not deceived” we have a list of the judges in Corinth according to their sins. They are not named by their names but we have a list of unbelieving judges and this happens to be the area of weakness with them. These judges are unrighteous in the sense of being unbelievers. As unbelievers they also have areas of weakness.

“neither fornicators,” here ‘fornicators’ is a technical word, it means adultery committed in heathen temples in the name of religion. This went on all the time — operation phallic cult; “nor idolators,” some of the judges were idolators, they were extremely religious. They were guilty of one of the systems of idolatry which was either pantheism or polytheism; “nor adulterers,” this was simply illicit sexual relationship outside of the heathen temples; “nor effeminate,” a homosexual is what the Greek word refers to; “nor abusers of themselves with mankind,” a different Greek word and it refers to a homosexual or a pederast. Here are judges in Corinth. Some of these judges are fornicators, some are idolators, and some of them are involved in homosexuality. And a certain case might be brought in and the judge might judge the whole thing on the basis of his homosexual tendencies. Whenever you have an outbreak of homosexuality in any national entity it very definitely hurts the nation.

Verse 10, “Nor thieves.” The word is the overt act of stealing, therefore they could be bought off; “not covetous,” the mental activity of lust of which there are various types; “nor drunkards,” the word is always used for an alcoholic; “nor revilers,” an abusive type; “nor extortioners,” to steal through business practice rather than to steal outright.

“shall not inherit the kingdom of God,” this does not mean that these types cannot be saved. We have to remember that there are believers who do all of these things and it doesn’t mean that they are lost because they do them. You have to remember that the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written, you must always integrate with the context when you are interpreting a passage. We are talking about unbelieving judges, we are not talking about certain kinds of sins that disqualify you from heaven. There is no sin that disqualifies you from heaven except rejection of Christ. While believers are guilty of all of these sins this passage is referring to unbelieving judges, emphasising the areas of weakness whereby they would use a court case between two believers as an excuse to reject the gospel or not go to church where they could hear the gospel.

Verse 11, only believers are qualified to judge altercations between believers. The exception is anything that involves civil law. E.g. if two believers had a car accident the church is not qualified in any way to judge; if two people are getting divorced the church is in no position to judge. A pastor or someone responsible could possibly stave it off but if it goes beyond his counseling then it becomes a matter for civil law.

“And such were some of you,” when you were unbelievers you were just like those judges, you had an area of weakness with no restraint; “but ye,” all believers.

We have three changes at the point of salvation which qualify believers to judge cases in the future in the resurrection body, and qualify believers to judge cases at the time with the other things that have been mentioned. a) “ye are washed,” aorist middle indicative. The aorist tense: point of time divorced from time and perpetuated forever. Positionally the believer is washed. Middle voice, the believer is benefited by the action of the verb. The indicative mood: the reality of being cleansed. b) “ye are sanctified,” aorist passive indicative, referring to the point of time when we believe: positional sanctification. We are sanctified because of our union with Christ. The passive voice: we as believers receive the action of sanctification, baptism of the Holy Spirit. c) “ye are justified,” this means to be declared righteous. We cannot be declared righteous until we have righteousness (+R). +R belongs to Christ, we enter into union with Christ, we have +R. God is +R, He sees the +R of Christ as our +R, and therefore He justifies or vindicates us. Justification simply means that God recognises that you have +R or the righteousness of Christ which is credited to your account at the moment of salvation. Justification means vindication.

“in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” is an idiom for “through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.” This is done through Christ, He provides this through His work on the cross.

“and by the Spirit of our God” is a reference to the Holy Spirit who is the agent of positional truth, doctrine of the baptism of the Spirit.

The four laws of Christian modus operandi

1. The law of liberty. This is directed toward self 1 Corinthians 8:4,9.

2. The law of expediency. This is directed toward the unbeliever. 1 Corinthians 9:16-23; 10:23.

3. The law of love. This is directed toward the believer. 1 Corinthians 8:13.

4. The law of supreme sacrifice. This is always directed toward God. 1 Corinthians 9:1-15.

Verse 12, the laws of Christian behaviour. We have two words in this verse, ‘lawful’ and ‘expedient.’ The word ‘lawful’ is going to describe the law of liberty, and the word ‘expedient’ the law of expediency. The issue which is being brought out in this passage is the problem of license in moral matters.

Principles

1. Our new position in Christ plus the doctrine of eternal security does not give us the right of licentiousness. We have a position in Christ which can never be changed. We have eternal security and we cannot lose our salvation. However, these two doctrines do not give us the right of levity in moral matters or licentiousness.

2. The law of liberty is often confused with antinomianism. The law of liberty is not antinomianism. The word ‘antinomianism’ is made up of two Greek words: a)nti, the Greek preposition ‘against’ and nomoj, the Greek word for law. We are not against law. Just because we know we cannot lose our salvation we are not lawless. (The Mosaic law is not our modus operandi)

3. The law of liberty gives us freedom in our modus operandi as well as freedom to serve God, but not freedom to sin.

4. The law of liberty is superseded on certain occasions by three other laws — they are not higher laws, however. There will be times when the law of expediency, the law of love, or the law of supreme sacrifice will be a superseding law. But this does not make them superior to the law of liberty, as is often implied.

5. Two of the four laws are discussed in this verse, and one supersedes the other under certain conditions.

“All things are lawful unto [for] me.” ‘All things’ refers to things pertaining to modus operandi and Christian service. The emphasis in this passage will be on service, production. This verb does not refer to anything immoral or anything prohibited by the direct statement of scripture.

“but all things are not expedient,” present active indicative, and it means ‘are not worthwhile.’ May permissible things are not worthwhile is what he is saying.

“all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any,” he states twice in this verse in the identical Greek words the law of liberty: the right to serve the Lord, the right to operate under a normal modus operandi. When he says that all things are not expedient he has the unbeliever in mind. “I will not be brought under the power of any” means that he is not going to be influenced by any of the innocuous things. What he is saying here is that many things which are harmless and permissible he has set aside under the law of expediency. In order to have an effective witness for Jesus Christ there are many things he has a right to do, they are perfectly harmless, but he does not do them in order that he might reach the unbeliever. (May of the taboos which are set up today do not fall into this category)

Verses 13-14, three problems which are related to the human body. This epistle is addressed to Greeks and the ancient Greek is a very unusual person in many ways. He thinks differently from everyone else on the earth with regard to certain things.

Verse 13, eating food. “Food for the stomach, and the stomach is for food,” literally. ‘Food for the stomach’ is referring to a normal function of the human body. It is permissible therefore to eat food. Eating food is the way by which the factory has its energy, the body energy comes from food, therefore the human body has to be sustained by food. But there are certain conditions under which certain kinds of foods should not be consumed. This problem is discussed in detail in 1 Corinthians chapters 8 and 10:23-33.

“but God shall destroy both it and them,” ‘God shall destroy’ is a future active indicative and it means to bring to nought; ‘both it and them’ is the stomach and those who eat food. So food and the stomach are temporal, is what he is saying here. Eating is a process that will not be continued forever. Physical death terminates the operation of eating and destroys the eater and his stomach.

“Now the body is not for fornication,” the problem of sex. The Corinthians were Greeks and all Greeks had the same idea. The Greek said that eating food is a normal function of the body and he recognised just what has been said in the first half of this verse. Regarding the second half of this verse the Greeks would say that sex is normal too. They said that one was just as normal as the other and therefore they had developed the concept of sex anytime, anywhere, under any conditions. They were famous over a period of seven hundred years for their practice of homosexuality, bestiality, normal sexual life. Most Greeks were heterosexual. And all Greek worship was centred in sexual activity. Fornication here is a technical word, it is not the same as the word we called adultery, it is having sexual relationship with someone inside of a heathen temple. This must be understood or the rest of this passage will not make any sense at all. Their distortions ignored certain divine prohibitions. The problem is only mentioned here and it is answered in detail in verse 15 and going through chapter 7 verse 40.

“but for the Lord,” the human body remains on the earth to serve the Lord, therefore there will be times when the normal function of the body will be wrong under the principle of expediency. The body is not for fornication, so immediately he puts a prohibition on any further trotting into the temples for any purpose.

“and the Lord [is] for the body,” the body has a new purpose in life from the moment of salvation. The soul and spirit inside of the body is the basis of serving the Lord in time. The Lord will serve your body, i.e. He will provide every need you have for the body whether food or sex.

Verse 14, the third problem has to do with the resurrection of the body. The Corinthians were influenced by the philosophy of Plato. He contended that the body was essentially evil, hence the body has no future. In what Plato called heaven you had to enter without a body. You would never have a body again because the body was evil. So these Greeks were thinking that they might as well go back into the temple because they were not going to have a body in the future anyway. The problem is raised here but it will be answered in 1 Corinthians 15.

“God,” referring to the Father who raised the humanity of Christ. While the Holy Spirit also had a part in raising the humanity of Christ, according to Romans 8:11 and 1 Peter 3:18, that is not the subject here; “hath raised up,” aorist tense, point of time; “the Lord,” the Lord Jesus Christ.

“and he will also raise us up,” future tense referring to the Rapture of the Church. In other words, believers in Jesus Christ, and specifically these Corinthian believers, have a future body. So contrary to all Greek thought and philosophy there will be a body in eternity. The believer will have a body, a glorious, wonderful resurrection body.

“by means of his own power,” we will be raised by the same power that raised Jesus Christ. The Greek word for power is inherent power, by His omnipotence.

Verse 15, the problem of sex. There are three things you have to know when you are facing the sex problem. Everyone understands that sex is a normal function of the human body. The point is these Corinthians who have to stay out of those temples from now on, and have for a period of 20,30, or 40 years has been carrying on a sex life there of one kind or another.

“Know ye not” means to have doctrine in the frontal lobe. The word to know here means to have it already in your frontal lobe, to know it, the perception is passed, it is now a part of your thinking; “your bodies,” all of these problems deal with the human body. ‘Your body’ does not refer to anyone. The pronoun ‘your’ is possessive and it refers to believers only; “are,” present linear aktionsart for the verb e)imi, absolute status quo. This keeps on being, nothing will ever change it.

“the members of Christ,” refers to positional truth. This means to be in union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

“shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot [temple prostitute]?” This is not an ordinary prostitute. Corinth was filled with extraordinary prostitutes, and this is a temple priestess. In other words, ‘Shall I take this body which is now in union with Christ and make it the member of a temple priestess.”

“God forbid” or ‘Let it not be so.’

Verse 16, “know ye not,” doctrine in the frontal lobe; “that he which is joined to an harlot [temple priestess] is one body?” When you cohabit with a priestess or a priest or an animal you are one with whatever is the object of your cohabitation. This temple is religion. Religion is the devil’s ace trump. Cohabitation with the priests and priestesses of the temple means union with religion. In effect Paul is saying that you can’t have one foot in union with Christ, which is permanent, and one foot in religion and do anything for the Lord. You are neutralised. When you take your body and join it to another one this is always true: they are ‘one flesh.’

“for two, saith he [Genesis 2:24], shall be one flesh,” the quotation from Genesis has to do with marriage and the divine institution of marriage. However, any sexual relationship is tantamount to marriage. They didn’t have marriage ceremonies as we know them today. Ant sexual relationship makes you one with the person with whom you have the relationship. So do you want to be one with the devil experientially while positionally you are one with Christ? This is about what it amounts to.

Verse 17, the spiritual principle, union through positional truth. “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” ‘He that is joined’ is present tense, linear aktionsart. He is joined to the Lord forever.

“one spirit,” there is a direct syntactical contrast between ‘one flesh’ in verse 16 and ‘one spirit.’ When we are in union with Christ it is a spiritual union. In cohabitation with the temple prostitute the body is in union with a body, therefore it is a physical union. So in verse 16 we have physical union, in verse 17 we have spiritual union, and these two are set up in contrast.

One Spirit

1. We share His life. The life of Christ is eternal life, 1 John 5:11,12.

2. We share His righteousness, 2 Corinthians 5:21.

3. We share His election, Ephesians 1:4.

4. We share His destiny, Ephesians 1:5.

5. We share His sonship, Galatians 3:26.

6. We share His heirship, Romans 8:16,17.

7. We share His sanctification, 1 Corinthians 1:2.

8. We share His priesthood, 1 Peter 2:5,9.

9. We share His kingship, 2 Peter 1:11.

That is why we have one Spirit instead of one body. Our union with Christ is a spiritual factor, hence one Spirit means life with God forever.

Verse 18 — fornication is different from the rest in that it is a sin not against the body but it is a sin in union with the body which ruins the spiritual perceptory system or the responses to the grace of God in the field of positional truth.

“Every sin that a man doeth is outside of the body,” it may be against the body but it is outside of the body, “but he that commeth fornication sinneth against his own body [literally, with reference to his body],” because he is involved in a sin which is union of body and this destroys the concept of positional truth, therefore in response alley instead of responding to the grace of God [positional truth] he responds to religion through operation fornication in this case.

Verse 19, indicates that the body now has a new purpose. It has a purpose in time and a purpose in eternity. The purpose in eternity is a resurrection body, and incidentally the resurrection body has maximum perceptory responses to doctrine, to the presence of the Lord, to the conditions of eternity. Therefore there will be wonderful response in eternity to the Lord. On the other hand, the body also has a purpose in time. It is the temple of the Holy Spirit and this is the issue that is brought out in this passage. The believer is taking the temple of the Holy Spirit and having sexual relationship with some person who means nothing to him, doing it in the name of religion, the union of one body with another body, and he is taking the temple of the Holy Spirit into a heathen temple. All religion, all heathen temples are part of Satan’s system. This is a maximum compromise and is maligning positional truth.

Verse 19, “What? know ye not,” this is a perfect tense used as a present to indicate doctrine in the frontal lobe, and this is the doctrine they need to know. Paul is hitting these Corinthians with the fact that because they are ignorant of the fact that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit they are simply operating their human body in operation religion and their responses are simply soulish activity and there is no response to spiritual phenomena because they’re stupid. Divine good versus human good is the issue of this passage. Fornication is production of the old sin nature.

“that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit [not ‘Ghost’], the Greeks did not believe in ghosts. This was a shock to the Greeks because they thought the body was essentially evil [Platoism], the function of the body was evil, and therefore you engaged in this in order to get rid of the body; “who is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” When it says ‘you are not your own’ it means that you can now produce something that counts with God. The Holy Spirit produces divine good. The old sin nature produces sin and human good. When you produce human good you are simply competing with any unbeliever, you are imitating the unbeliever; “ye are not your own,” you are here to serve the Lord.

Verse 20, the application. “For ye are bought with a price,” doctrine of redemption; “therefore,” in view of the fact that Christ has purchased us from the slavemarket of sin, and in view of the fact that the Holy Spirit dwells within us, “glorify God,” response alley.

“in your body,” the Greek does not have ‘in your spirit’ here, it has been added, “which belongs to God.” We are here to serve Him.