1 Corinthians 6

When one of you has a dispute with another, how dare you take it to court before judges who do not follow God, instead of bringing it before God's people?

1Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?

Note"Saints" in the King James does not mean specially holy people. It translates a word meaning "those set apart," and Paul uses it for all members of the church. "The unjust" is likewise not mainly a charge that the judges are crooked; it is his ordinary word for those outside the church, set against the "set apart" ones inside it. Corinth was a Roman colony whose civil courts handled suits over money and property, and where a wealthier, better connected plaintiff normally held the advantage.

2Don't you know that God's people will judge the world? And if you are going to judge the world, are you really not able to settle small cases?

2Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

NoteThe verb translated "judge" covers both sitting as a judge at a trial and ruling or governing, the way the "judges" of the Old Testament book governed Israel. Paul does not say which sense he has in mind.

3Don't you know that we will judge angels? So how much more can we handle matters of ordinary life!

3Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

4So when you have disputes about ordinary matters of daily life, do you hand them over to be judged by people who count for nothing in the church?

4If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.

NoteThe Greek of this verse carries no punctuation, and it can be read two ways. As a question: do you really hand these cases to people the church counts for nothing? Or as a command: then appoint as judges even the members held in least regard, the point being that the humblest believer is still better than a pagan court. The rendering takes the first reading; the second is ancient and widely held.

5I say this to make you ashamed. Can it really be that there is not one wise person among you who is able to settle a dispute between fellow believers?

5I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?

Note"Brethren" means fellow members of the congregation, women included. "A wise man" has an edge to it: the Corinthians prided themselves on their wisdom, a theme Paul has been working since the first chapter.

6Instead, one believer goes to court against another believer, and does it in front of people who do not believe.

6But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.

7The very fact that you have lawsuits against each other means you have already lost. Why not rather let yourselves be wronged? Why not rather let yourselves be cheated?

7Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?

Note"There is utterly a fault among you" translates a word meaning a defeat or a loss, drawn from the language of losing a contest or a lawsuit. The point is that before the case is even argued, they have already lost.

8Instead, you are the ones who do wrong and cheat, and you do it to your fellow believers.

8Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.

9Don't you know that people who do wrong will not receive a share in God's kingdom? Do not be fooled. Those who are sexually immoral, or who worship idols, or who commit adultery, or men who take either part in sex with men,

9Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

NoteTwo terms in this list are hard to pin down, and the King James renders them "effeminate" and "abusers of themselves with mankind." The first, malakoi, means literally "soft"; in that period it could describe a man taking the passive role in sex with another man, and could also carry a broader sense of self-indulgence or unmanliness. The second, arsenokoitai, is a rare compound meaning roughly "male-bedders," apparently coined from the wording of Leviticus in the Greek Old Testament. The precise scope of both words is disputed among scholars. "Fornicators" translates a word covering sexual wrongdoing generally, not one specific act.

10or thieves, or greedy people, or drunks, or people who tear others down with words, or people who cheat others out of what is theirs, will not receive a share in God's kingdom.

10Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

11And some of you used to be just like that. But you were washed clean, you were made holy, you were made right with God, in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

11And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

NoteAll three verbs are passive: these are things done to them, not by them. "Sanctified" comes from the same root as "saints" in verse 1 and means set apart. "Justified" is a courtroom word meaning declared to be in the right, which lands pointedly in a chapter about lawsuits.

12I am allowed to do anything, but not everything is good for me. I am allowed to do anything, but I will not let anything gain power over me.

12All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

Note"All things are lawful unto me" is most likely a slogan the Corinthians themselves were using, which Paul quotes back and then qualifies; modern translations put it in quotation marks for that reason. "Expedient" in 1611 meant advantageous or good for you, with none of the modern suggestion of cutting corners. The Greek also turns on a pun that English cannot keep: everything is permitted to me, but I will not let anything take permission over me.

13Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. The body is not meant for sexual sin. It is meant for the Lord, and the Lord is meant for the body.

13Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

Note"Meats" in 1611 English meant food of any kind, not flesh in particular. "Food for the stomach, and the stomach for food" reads like another Corinthian slogan quoted back, as in verse 12.

14By his own power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us up too.

14And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.

15Don't you know that your bodies are parts of Christ's own body? Should I then take parts of Christ and join them to a prostitute? Never!

15Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.

Note"Members" here means limbs and body parts, not members of an organization. "God forbid" translates a Greek phrase meaning simply "may it never be"; God is not named in the original. The King James uses this idiom throughout Paul's letters for his strongest possible denial.

16Don't you know that a man who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For Scripture says, "The two will become one flesh."

16What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

NoteThe quoted words come from Genesis 2:24, the account of the first marriage. The King James "saith he" leaves the speaker vague because the Greek does: it is just "it says" or "he says," a standard way of introducing a scriptural quotation.

17But whoever joins himself to the Lord is one with him in spirit.

17But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

18Run away from sexual sin. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but whoever sins sexually sins against his own body.

18Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

Note"Without the body" uses "without" in its older sense of outside, the opposite of within. Some readers take the whole clause, that every other sin is outside the body, as one more Corinthian slogan Paul quotes before answering it.

19Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you and whom you received from God? You do not belong to yourselves.

19What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

Note"Ghost" meant spirit in 1611 and carried no suggestion of a haunting. The word for "temple" here is not the whole temple precinct but the inner shrine, the room where the god was believed to actually live. Corinth was full of such shrines, so the image would have been immediate to the first hearers.

20You were bought at a price. So honor God with your body and with your spirit, which both belong to God.

20For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Note"Bought with a price" is the language of the slave market, where a sum changed hands and the person passed to a new owner. It follows directly on "ye are not your own." The closing words, "and in your spirit, which are God's," appear in the manuscripts the King James translators worked from but are missing from the oldest surviving copies, which is why most modern translations end the verse at "with your body."