Commentary on 1 Corinthians
Lecture 3
The body is for God
6:13 Meat for the belly and the belly for the meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. [n. 295] But the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord: and the Lord for the body. [n. 297]
6:14 Now God has raised up the Lord and will raise us up also by his power. [n. 300]
6:15 Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot? Never! [n. 302]
6:16 Or know you not that he who is joined to a harlot is made one body? For they shall be, he says, two in one flesh. [n. 304]
6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. [n. 305]
6:18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is without the body: but he who commits fornication sins against his own body. [n. 306]
6:19 Or know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God: [n. 309] and you are not your own? [n. 310]
6:20 For you are bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body.
297. After rebuking the Corinthians about lawsuits, the Apostle now returns to reprehending the sin of fornication, which he mentioned above (1 Cor 5:11) and in the judgment of which the Corinthians had been negligent. He condemns fornication for four reasons:
the first of which is taken from God’s ordinance;
second, from one’s union with Christ, at know you not that your bodies;
third, from bodily defilement, at flee fornication;
fourth, from the dignity of grace, at or know you not that your members.
In regard to the first he does two things.
First, he presents God’s ordinance;
second, the end of the ordinance, at now God has raised.
298. In regard to the first it should be noted that some take their argument for lascivious conduct from God’s ordinance. For those who fornicate use their body for a use established by God. But he excludes this, saying that food is ordained to the stomach and the stomach to food, but the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, i.e., it had been ordained to this, namely, that it be for the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord for the body, i.e., Jesus Christ was given to man in order that human bodies be conformed to his glory: he will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body (Phil 3:21).
299. But against this seems to be the fact that just as the stomach is ordained to the use of food, so certain members of the human body are ordained by God to be used for generation, i.e., the members by which fornication is performed.
But attention must be paid to the difference between the two. First, the Apostle spoke above about one member of the body, namely, the stomach, but here he is speaking about the entire body, which is not ordained to fornication any more than it is ordained to eating food; rather, food is used for the benefit of the body and the body exists for the sake of the soul, from which it receives life according to its condition. And because all things are ordered to God as to an end, the body should be subjected to the Lord and dedicated to him.
Although he spoke above about the eating of food in general terms without disorder, fornication is a disordered use of the member used in fornication. Hence, the members exist not for fornication, but for generation ordained by reason, which the members of the body should serve, just as even the stomach is not for gluttony and drunkenness, but for the proper use of food.
300. Then when he says, now God has raised up, he indicates the end of the above-mentioned ordination.
First, he indicates what God had done in regard to the Lord, saying, now God has raised up the Lord, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ, from the dead, from whom Christ himself petitions in a psalm: do you, O Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up (Ps 41:10). But God is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; hence Christ himself, who is the Son of God, also raised himself and arose by his own power: I will lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the Lord sustains me (Ps 3:5), and: he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God (2 Cor 13:4).
Second, he indicates what he will do in regard to us saying, and will raise us up also by his power, by which he also raised up Christ, as it is said: he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies (Rom 8:11).
301. It should be noted that when speaking above about food and stomach, which pertain to the use of animal life, he said that they would be destroyed by God; but now, speaking of the body and of the Lord, he makes mention of the resurrection, because when animal life ceases, the nature of the body will be transformed into something better. Hence it is clear that the body should not be used for fornication, which impedes future incorruption according to Galatians: he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption (Gal 6:8).
302. Then when he says, know you not that your bodies, he presents a second reason, which is taken from the human body’s affinity to Christ, namely: the fornicating man’s members are the prostitute’s members, but a man’s members are Christ’s members. Therefore, by fornicating, Christ’s members become the prostitute’s members, which is unbecoming.
In regard to this he does four things: first, he presents the major, saying, know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? As if to say: you should not be unaware of this, because all of you reborn in Christ have become members of Christ, as it says below: now you are the body of Christ and members of member (1 Cor 12:27), and this not only as to souls justified by him but also as to bodies, which will be raised up by him, as has been stated.
303. Second, he presents the conclusion, saying, shall I then take the members of Christ, i.e., remove them from the service of Christ to whom they should be dedicated, as it says in Romans: yield your members to God as instruments of righteousness (Rom 6:13), and make them the members of a harlot by fornicating? Never! For this is a horrible sacrilege. Hence it says: Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord which he loves and has married the daughter of a foreign god (Mal 2:11).
304. Third he presents the minor premise, saying, or know you not that he who is joined to a harlot, namely, by fornicating, is made one body? Namely, by an unclean union.
To prove this he appeals to the authority of Genesis, saying, he says, namely in Genesis, they shall be. . . two (Gen 2:24), namely man and woman, in one flesh, i.e., by the carnal union they are made one flesh, and so the members of one become the other’s members. For these are Adam’s words about husband and wife, which the Apostle here relates to fornication, because there is no specific difference between the two acts.
But it should be noted that, as the Philosopher says in the book, On the Generation of Animals, the active principle of generation is in the male, and the passive in the female. And just as in a plant whose life is ordained chiefly to generation, there is always one body in which both principles are united, so in animals, which are ordained to higher acts of life, there is not always one body with these two principles, but one is made from two in the act of generation. In the case of humans, it is not only the man’s body, because as it says below: the husband also has not power of his own body: but the wife (1 Cor 7:4).
305. Second he proves the minor premise, saying, but he who is joined to the Lord, namely, by faith and charity, is one spirit with him, namely, because he is united to him in a spiritual, not a bodily, unity. Hence it says: anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him (Rom 8:9), and: that they may be one in us, as we are one (John 17:21), namely by a connection of the Spirit. And because the body serves the spirit, it follows that our bodies too are members of him to whom we are united by the Spirit, not of course, by a bodily but by a spiritual union.
From the two reasons given above one reason can be formed, namely, that because our body is not destined for fornication but for the Lord in such a way that our members are Christ’s members, as he explains later, we should not make them members of a prostitute by fornicating.
306. Then when he says, flee fornication, he presents a third reason, which is taken from the body’s contamination.
First, he presents the conclusion, saying, flee fornication. Here it should be noted that other vices are overcome by resisting, because the more a man considers and deals with particulars, the less will he find in them anything in which to take delight, but more to be cautious about. But the vice of fornication is not overcome by resisting, because the more a man considers the particular case the more is he inflamed; but it is overcome by fleeing, i.e., by avoiding entirely all unclean thoughts and all occasions whatsoever, for it is said: flee from the land of the north (Zech 2:6).
307. Second he assigns the reason, saying: every other sin a man commits is outside the body. To understand this it should be noted that some sins do not end in carnal delight, but only in spiritual, and are then called spiritual sins; for example, pride, greed and spiritual apathy. But fornication is entirely completed in carnal delight. According to this it could be understood what is said here: every sin that a man does is without the body, namely, because it is completed outside the pleasure of the body. But he who commits fornication sins against his own body, namely, because the sin is completed in the flesh.
308. But the fact that the sin of gluttony is terminated in bodily pleasure seems to be contrary to the above explanation.
A possible answer might be that the sin of gluttony is contained under lust, inasmuch as it is ordained to it, as it is said: and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery (Eph 5:18).
But it is better to say that the Apostle is not saying that he who commits fornication sins with his own body, which would agree with the first explanation, but he sins against his own body by corrupting and contaminating it beyond the bounds of reason. Hence: you still have a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments (Rev 3:4), and: it is these who have not defiled themselves with women (Rev 14:4).
Or in another way according to Augustine: whoever fornicates sins against his own body, because his soul is totally subjected to the flesh in that act, so that it cannot at that time think of anything else. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding (Ps 32:9).
Or in another way: he sins against his own body, i.e., against his wife, who is called the husband’s body, against whom other sins are not as directly opposed as the husband’s fornication. Hence it is said: that each one of you know how to take a wife for himself in holiness and honor (1 Thess 4:4).
Or again according to Augustine, it can be understood of spiritual fornication through which the soul clings through love to the world and recedes from God: those who are far from you shall perish (Ps 73:27). The sense, therefore, is that he who commits fornication and recedes from God for love of the world sins against his own body, i.e., by bodily desire. But every other sin, for example, which one commits from forgetfulness or ignorance or negligence, is without the body, i.e., outside of bodily desire.
309. Then when he says, or know you not that your members, he presents the fourth reason, which is taken from the dignity of grace, which arises from two sources, namely, from the grace of the Holy Spirit and from the redemption of Christ’s blood.
In regard to this he does three things: first, he declares the dignity of our body, which it has from the grace of the Holy Spirit, saying, or know you not, as though you should not be unaware of it, that your members, namely, bodily, are the temple of the Holy Spirit, just as he said above: know you not that you are the temple of God (1 Cor 3:16).
Then he assigns a reason for this, saying, who is in you. God’s house is called a temple. Therefore, because the Holy Spirit is God, it is correct to say that anyone in whom the Holy Spirit exists is called a temple of God. But the Holy Spirit is chiefly in the heart of men, in whom the love of God is poured out by the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5). But secondarily, he is also in the bodily members, inasmuch as they perform acts of charity. Hence it is said: my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God (Ps 84:2).
But lest they ascribe this dignity to themselves, he adds, whom you have from God and not from yourselves. Hence: I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh (Joel 2:28); and: the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to all that obey him (Acts 5:32).
310. Second, he mentions the dignity our bodies have from the redemption of Christ, saying, and you are not your own but Jesus Christ’s: whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s (Rom 14:8); those who live no longer live for themselves (2 Cor 5:15).
He assigns the reason for this when he says, you are bought with a great price; therefore, you are slaves of him who has redeemed you from the slavery of sin; hence it says below, he who is called, being free, is the slave of Christ (1 Cor 7:22); and: you have redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth (Ps 31:5).
The price of redemption is called great, because it is not corruptible, but has everlasting power, since it is the blood of the everlasting God. Hence: you know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things, such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ (1 Pet 1:18).
311. Third, he draws the intended conclusion, saying, glorify and bear God in your body. For since your members are a temple of God, nothing should appear in your body except what pertains to God’s glory: and this is to glorify God in your body, because it is said: in his temple all cry: glory (Ps 29:9); and again, then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle (Exod 40:34). Furthermore, because you are not your own, but you are slaves of God, you should carry God as a horse or other animal carries its lord. Hence it is said: I was like a beast towards you (Ps 73:23). Our body carries the Lord, inasmuch as it is deputed to a divine ministry. Thus, therefore, a man should avoid sinning against his own body by fornicating, which is against the glory of God and against the ministry our body owes to God.