1 Corinthians 6:18: flee fornication

c. 370–419 · Jerome, Letters 55.2

Accordingly all such sins as theft, manslaughter, pillage, perjury, and the like can be repented of after they have been committed; and, however much interest may tempt him, conscience always smites the offender. It is only lust and sensual pleasure that in the very hour of penitence undergo once more the temptations of the past, the itch of the flesh, and the allurements of sin; so that the very thought which we bestow on the correction of such transgressions becomes in itself a new source of sin. Or to put the matter in a different light: other sins are outside of us; and whatever we do we do against others. But fornication defiles the fornicator both in conscience and body; and in accordance with the words of the Lord, “for this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh,” he too becomes one body with a harlot and sins against his own body by making what is the temple of Christ the body of a harlot.

c. 370–419 · Jerome, Letters 55.2

Not to pass over any suggestion of the Greek commentators, I shall give you one more explanation. It is one thing, they say, to sin with the body, and another to sin in the body. Theft, manslaughter, and all other sins except fornication we commit with our hands outside ourselves. Fornication alone we commit inside ourselves in our bodies and not with our bodies upon others. The preposition ‘with’ denotes the instrument used in sinning, while the preposition ‘in’ signifies the sphere of the passion is ourselves.

c. 384–394 · Ambrose of Milan, Concerning Repentance (De paenitentia) 1.14.75

Let us also pass over this fire of lust, fearing which Paul—but fearing for us, inasmuch as by buffeting his body he had come no longer to fear for himself—says to us: “Flee fornication.” Let us then flee it as though following us, though indeed it follows not behind us, but within our very selves. Let us then diligently take heed lest while we are fleeing from it we carry it with ourselves. For we wish for the most part to flee, but if we do not wholly cast it out of our mind, we rather take it up than forsake it.

1265–1273 · Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II, q. 72, a. 2, ad 4

Reply to Objection 4: As the gloss says, "in the sin of fornication the soul is the body's slave in a special sense, because at the moment of sinning it can think of nothing else": whereas the pleasure of gluttony, although carnal, does not so utterly absorb the reason. It may also be said that in this sin, an injury is done to the body also, for it is defiled inordinately: wherefore by this sin alone is man said specifically to sin against his body.

1546 · John Calvin, Commentary on 1 Corinthians, part 1 (chapters 1-14) 6.18

Having set before us honorable conduct, he now shows how much we ought to abhor fornication, setting before us the enormity of its wickedness and baseness. Now he shows its greatness by comparison — that this sin alone, of all sins, puts a brand of disgrace upon the body.

1647–1657 · Thomas Manton, Works, vol. V An Exposition, with Notes, upon the Epistle of Jude, Verse 7

From the first crime here specified, giving themselves over to fornication, that adulterous uncleanness doth much displease God. When they were given over to fornication they were given over to judgment. (1.) This is a sin that doth not only defile the soul but the body: 1 Cor. vi. 18, ‘Every sin that a man doth is without the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.’ Most other sins imply an injury done to others, to God or our neighbour. This more directly an injury to ourselves, to our own bodies. It is a wrong to the body, considered either as our ‘vessel,’ 1 Thes. iv. 4, or as ‘the temple of the Holy Ghost,’ 1 Cor. vi. 19. If you consider it as our vessel or instrument for natural uses, you wrong it by uncleanness—namely, as it destroyeth the health of the body, quencheth the vigour of it, and blasteth the beauty, and so it is self-murder. If you consider it as the temple of the Holy Ghost, it is a dishonour to the body to make it a channel for lust to pass through. Shall we make a sty of a temple? abuse that to so vile a purpose which the Holy Ghost hath chosen to dwell in, to plant it into Christ as a part of his mystical body, to use it as an instrument in God’s service, and finally to raise it out of the grave, and conform it to Christ’s glorious body? The dignity of the body well considered is a great preservative against lust.

1650 · Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living 2.3.2

The gospel hath added two arguments against uncleanness which were never before used, nor, indeed, could be; since God hath given the Holy Spirit to them that are baptized, and rightly confirmed and entered into covenant with him, our bodies are made temples of the Holy Ghost, in which he dwells; and therefore uncleanness is sacrilege, and defiles a temple. It is St. Paul’s argument, ‘Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?’ and ‘He that defiles a temple him will God destroy. Therefore glorify God in your bodies; that is, flee fornication. To which, for the likeness of the argument, add, that our bodies are members of Christ; and therefore God forbid that we should take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot.’

1656 · John Owen, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers 6

Paul puts a difference between uncleanness and all other sins: 1 Cor. vi. 18, “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.” Hence, the motions of that sin are more sensible, more discernible than of others; when perhaps the love of the world, or the like, is in a person no less habitually predominant than that, yet it makes not so great a combustion in the whole man.

1674 · John Owen, Pneumatologia, or a Discourse Concerning the Holy Spirit (Books I-V) 4.4

There are some especial sins which have a peculiar pollution and defilement attending them, and which thereon are usually called “uncleanness” in a peculiar manner. The ground hereof is in that of the apostle, 1 Cor. vi. 18: “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.” All sins of that nature have a peculiar defilement and filth accompanying them.

c. 1714 · Simon Browne, Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6.12-20

Every sin that a man does is without the body; he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body (v. 18); every sin, that is, every other sin, every external act of sin besides, is without the body. It is not so much an abuse of the body as of somewhat else, as of wine by the drunkard, food by the glutton, &c. Nor does it give the power of the body to another person. Nor does it so much tend to the reproach of the body and render it vile.

c. 1714 · Simon Browne, Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6.12-20

Note, The sin of fornication is a great injury in a Christian to his head and lord, and a great reproach and blot on his profession. It is no wonder therefore that the apostle should say, "Flee fornication (v. 18), avoid it, keep out of the reach of temptations to it, of provoking objects. Direct the eyes and mind to other things and thoughts."

1830 · Philaret of Moscow, The Longer Catechism of the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church 3.591

What motives does holy Scripture set before us to make us flee fornication and live chastely? It bids us keep our bodies in purity, because they are the members of Christ, and temples of the Holy Ghost; while, on the other hand, he who committeth fornication sinneth against his own body; that is, corrupts it, infects it with diseases, and, further, hurts his mental faculties, such as imagination and memory.

1858 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 4 (1858) 208

“Flee fornication,” said one of old, and there was wisdom in the counsel; there is no way of overcoming it but by flight. If the temptation attack thee, shut thine eye and stop thy ear, and away, away from it; for thou art only safe when thou art beyond sight and earshot.

1863 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 9 (1863) 530

Other sins are without the body, but this pollutes both body and soul and often sends down to generations yet unborn a horrid curse—at the very thought of which the soul is sick! Of all sins, young man, young woman, take care that you stand aloof from this! Pass not by the house of the strange woman if you love your life, for her gates lead down to death, even to the chambers of the damned!

1871 · A. R. Fausset, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on 1 Corinthians 6.18

Flee—The only safety in such temptations is flight (Ge 39:12; Job 31:1). Every sin—The Greek is forcible. "Every sin whatsoever that a man doeth." Every other sin; even gluttony, drunkenness, and self-murder are "without," that is, comparatively external to the body (Mr 7:18; compare Pr 6:30-32). He certainly injures, but he does not alienate the body itself; the sin is not terminated in the body; he rather sins against the perishing accidents of the body (as the "belly," and the body's present temporary organization), and against the soul than against the body in its permanent essence, designed "for the Lord." "But" the fornicator alienates that body which is the Lord's, and makes it one with a harlot's body, and so "sinneth against his own body," that is, against the verity and nature of his body; not a mere effect on the body from without, but a contradiction of the truth of the body, wrought within itself [Alford].

1889 · Marcus Dods, The Expositor's Bible: The First Epistle to the Corinthians Chapter X. Fornication

And this is what Paul means when he goes on to say, "Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." He does not mean that this is the only sin committed by the body, for of many other sins the body is the agent, as in murder, lying, blasphemy, robbery, and thieving. Neither does he mean that this is the only sin to which bodily appetite instigates, for gluttony and drunkenness equally take their rise in bodily appetite. But he means that this is the only sin in which the present connection of the body with Christ and its future destiny in Him are directly sinned against. This is the only sin, he means, which by its very nature alienates the body from Christ, its proper Partner. Other sins indirectly involve separation from Christ; this explicitly and directly transfers allegiance, and sunders our union with Him. By this sin a man detaches himself from Christ; he professes to be united to what is incompatible with Christ.

1930–1933 · A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament: 1 Corinthians 6.18

Even gluttony and drunkenness and the use of dope are sins wrought on the body, not "within the body" (εντος του σωματος) in the same sense as fornication. Perhaps the dominant idea of Paul is that fornication, as already shown, breaks the mystic bond between the body and Christ and hence the fornicator (ο πορνευων) sins against his own body (εις το ιδιον σωμα αμαρτανει) in a sense not true of other dreadful sins. The fornicator takes his body which belongs to Christ and unites it with a harlot. In fornication the body is the instrument of sin and becomes the subject of the damage wrought. In another sense fornication brings on one's own body the two most terrible bodily diseases that are still incurable (gonorrhea and syphilis) that curse one's own body and transmit the curse to the third and fourth generation.

c. 180 · Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 5.6.2

As also the Lord speaks in reference to Himself, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. He spake this, however,” it is said, “of the temple of His body.” And not only does he (the apostle) acknowledge our bodies to be a temple, but even the temple of Christ, saying thus to the Corinthians, “Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot?” He speaks these things, not in reference to some other spiritual man; for a being of such a nature could have nothing to do with an harlot: but he declares “our body,” that is, the flesh which continues in sanctity and purity, to be “the members of Christ;” but that when it becomes one with an harlot, it becomes the members of an harlot.

c. 386–397 · John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians 18.3

“Ye are members of Christ,” saith he, “ye are a temple of the Spirit.” Become not then “members of a harlot:” for it is not your body which is insulted; since it is not your body at all, but Christ’s. And these things he spake, both to make manifest His loving-kindness in that our body is His, and to withdraw us from all evil license. For if the body be another’s, “you have no authority,” says he, “to insult another’s body; and especially when it is the Lord’s; nor yet to pollute a temple of the Spirit.”

c. 386–397 · John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians 18.4

Wherefore he saith, “He that is joined to a harlot is one body; but he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit.” For such an one becomes thenceforth Spirit, although a body envelope him. For when nothing corporeal nor gross nor earthly is around him, the body doth but merely envelope him; since the whole government of him is in the soul and the Spirit.

413–426 · Augustine of Hippo, City of God 21.25

Neither can these persons be said to eat the body of Christ, for they cannot even be reckoned among His members. For, not to mention other reasons, they cannot be at once the members of Christ and the members of a harlot.

1546 · John Calvin, Commentary on 1 Corinthians, part 1 (chapters 1-14) 6.15

Here we have an explanation, or, if you prefer it, an amplification of the foregoing statement. For that expression, the body is for the Lord, might, owing to its brevity, be somewhat obscure. Hence he says, as if with the view of explaining it, that Christ is joined with us and we with him in such a way, that we become one body with him. Accordingly, if I have connection with an harlot, I tear Christ in pieces, so far as it is in my power to do so; for it is impossible for me to draw Him into fellowship with such pollution. Now as that must be held in abhorrence, he makes use of the expression which he is accustomed to employ in reference to things that are absurd — God forbid Observe, that the spiritual connection which we have with Christ belongs not merely to the soul, but also to the body, so that we are flesh of his flesh, etc (Ephesians 5:30.) Otherwise the hope of a resurrection were weak, if our connection were not of that nature — full and complete.

1546 · John Calvin, Commentary on 1 Corinthians, part 1 (chapters 1-14) 6.17

He that is joined to the Lord. He has added this to show that our connection with Christ is closer than that of a husband and wife, and that the former, accordingly, must be greatly preferred before the latter, so that it must be maintained with the utmost chastity and fidelity. For if he who is joined to a woman in marriage ought not to have illicit connection with an harlot, much more heinous were this crime in believers, who are not merely one flesh with Christ, but also one spirit. Thus there is a comparison between greater and less.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 1 Corinthians 6.15

God had declared that the man and his wife became one; in a similar sense in unlawful connections the parties became one. But he that is joined to the Lord - The true Christian, united by faith to the Lord Jesus; see Joh 15:1 ff. Is one spirit - That is, in a sense similar to that in which a man and his wife are one body. It is not to be taken literally; but the sense is, that there is a close and intimate union; they are united in feeling, spirit, intention, disposition.

1871 · A. R. Fausset, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on 1 Corinthians 6.17

In the case of union with a harlot, the fornicator becomes one "body" with her (not one "spirit," for the spirit which is normally the organ of the Holy Spirit in man, is in the carnal so overlaid with what is sensual that it is ignored altogether). But the believer not only has his body sanctified by union with Christ's body, but also becomes "one spirit" with Him (Joh 15:1-7; 17:21; 2Pe 1:4; compare Eph 5:23-32; Joh 3:6).

1891 · G. G. Findlay, The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Galatians The Ethical Application. Chapter v. 13-vi. 10, Chapter XXIV. The Works of the Flesh

In writing to Corinth, the metropolis of Greek licentiousness, Paul deals very solemnly and explicitly with this vice. He teaches that this sin, above others, is committed "against the man's own body." It is a prostitution of the physical nature which Jesus Christ wore and still wears, which He claims for the temple of His Spirit, and will raise from the dead to share His immortality. Impurity degrades the body, and it affronts in an especial degree "the Holy Spirit which we have from God." Therefore it stands first amongst these "works of the flesh" in which it shows itself hostile and repugnant to the Spirit of our Divine sonship. "Joined to the harlot" in "one body," the vile offender gives himself over in compact and communion to the dominion of the flesh, as truly as he who is "joined to the Lord" is "one spirit with Him" (1 Cor. vi. 13-20).

c. 207–212 · Tertullian, Against Marcion (Adversus Marcionem) 5.7

What has the heretic to say? That these members of Christ will not rise again, for they are no longer our own? “For,” he says, “ye are bought with a price.” A price! surely none at all was paid, since Christ was a phantom, nor had He any corporeal substance which He could pay for our bodies! But, in truth, Christ had wherewithal to redeem us; and since He has redeemed, at a great price, these bodies of ours, against which fornication must not be committed (because they are now members of Christ, and not our own), surely He will secure, on His own account, the safety of those whom He made His own at so much cost! Now, how shall we glorify, how shall we exalt, God in our body, which is doomed to perish?

c. 1714 · Simon Browne, Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6.12-20

The body is not for fornication; it was never formed for any such purpose, but for the Lord, for the service and honour of God. It is to be an instrument of righteousness to holiness (Rom. vi. 19), and therefore is never to be made an instrument of uncleanness. It is to be a member of Christ, and therefore must not be made the member of a harlot, v. 15.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 1 Corinthians 6.12

With this Paul connects also the subject of fornication - the subject particularly under discussion. This was defended as "lawful," by many Greeks, and was practiced at Corinth; and was the vice to which the Corinthian Christians were particularly exposed. Paul designed to meet all that could be said on this subject; and to show them that these indulgences could not be proper for Christians, and could not in any way be defended - We are not to understand Paul as admitting that fornication is in any case lawful; but he designs to show that the practice cannot possibly be defended in any way, or by any of the arguments which had been or could be used.

1871 · A. R. Fausset, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on 1 Corinthians 6.13

Meats doubtless are indifferent, since both they and the "belly" for which they are created are to be "destroyed" in the future state. But "the body is not (created) for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body" (as its Redeemer, who hath Himself assumed the body): "And God hath raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us" (that is our bodies): therefore the "body" is not, like the "belly," after having served a temporary use, to be destroyed: Now "he that committeth fornication, sinneth against his own body" (1Co 6:18). Therefore fornication is not indifferent, since it is a sin against one's own body, which, like the Lord for whom it is created, is not to be destroyed, but to be raised to eternal existence.

1871 · A. R. Fausset, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on 1 Corinthians 6.12

lawful … brought under the power—The Greek words are from the same root, whence there is a play on the words: All things are in my power, but I will not be brought under the power of any of them (the "all things"). He who commits "fornication," steps aside from his own legitimate power or liberty, and is "brought under the power" of an harlot (1Co 6:15; compare 1Co 7:4). The "power" ought to be in the hands of the believer, not in the things which he uses [Bengel]; else his liberty is forfeited; he ceases to be his own master (Joh 8:34-36; Ga 5:13; 1Pe 2:16; 2Pe 2:19).

1930–1933 · A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament: 1 Corinthians 6.13

Both the belly (ταυτην) and the foods (ταυτα) God will bring to an end by death and change. But the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body (το δε σωμα ου τη πορνεια αλλα τω κυριωι, και ο κυριος τω σωματι). Paul here boldly shows the fallacy in the parallel about appetite of the belly for food. The human body has a higher mission than the mere gratification of sensual appetite.

c. 210–220 · Tertullian, On Modesty (De pudicitia) 16

“Every sin which a human being may have committed is extraneous to the body; but whoever fornicateth, sinneth against his own body.” And, for fear you should fly to that statement for a licence to fornication, on the ground that you will be sinning against a thing which is yours, not the Lord’s, he takes you away from yourself, and awards you, according to his previous disposition, to Christ: “And ye are not your own;” immediately opposing (thereto), “for bought ye are with a price”—the blood, to wit, of the Lord: “glorify and extol the Lord in your body.”

1692 · Thomas Watson, The Ten Commandments 2.7

1 Cor 6: 20. Now he who is bought is not his own; it is a sin for him to go to another, without consent, from Christ, who has bought him with a price. As by virtue of baptism thou art a Christian, and professes that Christ is thy head, and thou art a member of Christ; therefore, what an injury is it to Christ, to ‘take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot’? 1 Cor 6: 15. It is injurious to God the Holy Ghost; for the body is his temple. ‘Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you?’ 1 Cor 6: 19. And how great a sin is it to defile his temple!

c. 1714 · Simon Browne, Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6.12-20

The fifth argument against this sin is that the bodies of Christians are the temples of the Holy Ghost which is in them, and which they have of God, v. 19. He that is joined to Christ is one spirit. He is yielded up to him, is consecrated thereby, and set apart for his use, and is hereupon possessed, and occupied, and inhabited, by his Holy Spirit. This is the proper notion of a temple—a place where God dwells, and sacred to his use, by his own claim and his creature's surrender.

1820 · John Tillotson, Works, Volume 8 200

More particularly the apostle useth it as an argument to flee from fornication, because our bodies also are “the temples of the Holy Ghost:” (1 Cor. vi. 18, 19.) “Flee fornication; for every sin that a man doeth,” that is, other sins which men commit, “are without the body; but he that committeth fornication, sinneth against his own body;” that is, pollutes and defiles it. And then it follows: “What, 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? for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 1 Corinthians 6.19

The Holy Spirit dwells in us; our bodies are his temples; and they should not be defiled and polluted by sin; see the note at 1Co 3:16-17. As this Spirit is in us, and as it is given us by God, we ought not to dishonor the gift and the giver by pollution and vice. And ye are not your own - This is the sixth argument which Paul uses. We are purchased; we belong to God; we are his by redemption; by a precious price paid; and we are bound, therefore, to devote ourselves, body, soul, and spirit, as he directs, to the glory of his name, not to the gratification of the flesh; see the note at Rom 14:7-8.

1871 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 17 (1871) 1004

In this particular instance he sets the sin of fornication in the light of the Holy Spirit; he holds up, as it were, the seven-branched candlestick before it, and lets us see what a filthy thing it is. He tells us that the body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and therefore ought not to be profaned; he declares that bodily unchastity is a sacrilegious desecration of our manhood, a violation of the sacred shrine wherein the Spirit takes up its dwelling-place; and then, as if this were not enough, he seizes the sin and drags it to the foot of the cross, and there nails it hand and foot, that it may die as a criminal; for these are his words: “Ye are not your own: for ye are bought with a price:” the price being the blood of Jesus.

1871 · A. R. Fausset, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on 1 Corinthians 6.19

In this consists the sin of fornication, that it is a sacrilegious desecration of God's temple to profane uses. The unseen, but much more efficient, Spirit of God in the spiritual temple now takes the place of the visible Shekinah in the old material temple. The whole man is the temple; the soul is the inmost shrine; the understanding and heart, the holy place; and the body, the porch and exterior of the edifice. Chastity is the guardian of the temple to prevent anything unclean entering which might provoke the indwelling God to abandon it as defiled [Tertullian, On the Apparel of Women].

1930–1933 · A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament: 1 Corinthians 6.20

Paul holds to his high ideal of the destiny of the body and urges glorifying God in it. Some of the later Christians felt that Paul's words could be lightened a bit by adding "and in your spirits which are his," but these words are found only in late MSS. and are clearly not genuine. Paul's argument stands four-square for the dignity of the body as the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit united to the Lord Jesus.

1930–1933 · A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament: 1 Corinthians 6.19

Ye do not belong to yourselves, even if you could commit fornication without personal contamination or self-violation. Christianity makes unchastity dishonour in both sexes. There is no double standard of morality.