CHAPTER 6

(A.D. 59)

CIVIL LAW

¹Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to Law before the unjust (this situation had evidently been brought to Pauls attention by the House of Chloe [1:11]), and not before the Saints? (This portrays what our Lord proclaimed as He laid down the rule for Believers to settle quarrels among themselves [Mat. 18:15-17].)

²Do you not know that the Saints shall judge the world? (This refers to the Millennial and Eternal Reigns of Jesus Christ and His Saints.) and if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? (This presents a fitting rebuke.)

³Know you not that we shall judge Angels? (This only pertains to those Angels who fell with Lucifer [II Pet. 2:4; Jude, Vs. 6; Rev. 20:10].) how much more things that pertain to this life? (The statement regards this present life as being elementary in comparison to that life to come.)

⁴If then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life (seems like there were many quarrels in the Church at Corinth), set them to judge who are least esteemed in the Church (presents Paul again using irony).

⁵I speak to your shame (I shouldnt have to say these things). Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? (The question drips with sarcasm.)N o, not one who shall be able to judge between his Brethren? (This is asked in the Greek in a manner which demands an affirmative answer. Of course there is!)

⁶But brother goes to Law with brother, and that before the unbelievers (a bad example!).

⁷Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because you go to Law one with another (should not be among Christians). Why do you not rather take wrong? (This portrays the perfect example of uncrucified self.) why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? (It is better to suffer material loss, than to suffer spiritual loss.)

⁸No, you do wrong, and defraud, and that your Brethren (to defraud anyone is bad enough, but to defraud a fellow Brother in the Lord is worse still!).

PURITY

⁹Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? (This shoots down the unscriptural Doctrine of Unconditional Eternal Security.) Be not deceived (presents the same words of our Lord, let no man deceive you [Mk. 13:5]): neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind (the proof of true Christianity is the changed life),

¹⁰Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of God (refers to those who call themselves Believers, but yet continue to practice the sins mentioned, whom the Holy Spirit says are not saved, irrespective of their claims).

¹¹And such were some of you (before conversion): but you are washed (refers to the Blood of Jesus cleansing from all sin), but you are Sanctified (ones position in Christ), but you are Justified (declared not guilty) in the Name of the Lord Jesus (refers to Christ and what He did at the Cross, in order that we might be saved), and by the Spirit of our God (proclaims the Third Person of the Triune Godhead as the Mechanic in this great Work of Grace).

¹²All things are Lawful unto me (refers to the fact that Christianity is not a religion which consists of rules, etc.), but all things are not expedient (not profitable): all things are Lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any (Grace does not give a license to sin, but rather liberty to live a Holy Life).

¹³Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats (food contains no spiritual application): but God shall destroy both it and them (dont make a god out of your belly; it wont set well with the Lord). Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord (our physical bodies are Temples of the Holy Spirit [3:16]); and the Lord for the body (if we keep the Temple pure, which we can only do by His Grace, He will keep it well).

¹⁴And God has both raised up the Lord (the Resurrection of our Lord), and will also raise up us by His Own Power (carries the idea that the human body belongs to God, not just the soul and spirit, because it will also participate in the physical Resurrection of Believers).

¹⁵Do you not know that your bodies are the members of Christ? (When a person is Saved, they are Saved holistically, meaning spirit, soul, and body. We become a member of Christ as a unity, with the Holy Spirit looking at the triune being of man as one.) shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? (This constitutes every part of the physical body, including the sex organs, as belonging to Christ.) God forbid (may it never be!).

¹⁶What? (How could anyone, especially a Believer, think the Holy Spirit would sanction the terrible sin of fornication!) do you not know that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? (Involves an argument against this sin which is the most original and impressive that could have been used.) for two, said He, shall be one flesh ([Gen. 2:24] this means that no type of sexual intercourse between the sexes is free from sin, except under the sanction of marriage).

¹⁷But he who is joined unto the Lord (indicates the closest possible union, symbolized by the sexual union of a Christian husband and wife) is one spirit (reflects the same union with Christ, albeit in a Spiritual Sense, as a husband and wife have in a physical sense).

¹⁸Flee fornication (is not a suggestion, but a Command; fornication, as an abbreviated definition, pertains to any type of immorality). Every sin that a man does is without the body (speaks of all sins other than fornication; gluttony, drunkenness, or drug addiction, etc., while affecting the body in a negative way, originate from without; with fornication, the source of uncleanness is in the heart); but he who com mits fornication sins against his own body (presents in the physical sense a type of the spiritual union of man with devils; thats the reason God referred to Israel worshiping idols as spiritual adultery or fornication [Jer. 3:1-9; Ezek. 23:1-45; Hos., Chpt. 4]).

¹⁹What? (By this time, you should know!) do you not know that your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you (actually refers to the human body of the Born-Again Believer as being a Sanctuary of the Holy Spirit), which you have of God (means that its all of God and must be treated accordingly), and you are not your own? (We belong to the Lord.)

²⁰For you are bought with a price (the price was the shed Blood of Christ at Calvary): therefore Glorify God in your body (the house of the Spirit), and in your spirit (the use of the house), which are Gods (because we were created by God, and have been purchased at great price).