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1 Corinthians

About this book
Chapter 6

1 When any of you has a legal dispute with another, does he dare go to court before the unrighteous rather than before the saints? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you not competent to settle trivial suits?⁠ 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? Why not ordinary matters! 4 So if you have ordinary lawsuits, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? 5 I say this to your shame! Is there no one among you wise enough to settle disputes between fellow Christians? 6 Instead, does a Christian sue a Christian, and do this before unbelievers? 7 The fact that you have lawsuits among yourselves demonstrates that you have already been defeated. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? 8 But you yourselves wrong and cheat, and you do this to your brothers and sisters! 9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals, 10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Some of you once lived this way. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 12 “All things are lawful for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “All things are lawful for me”—but I will not be controlled by anything.⁠ 13 “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both.” The body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 Now God indeed raised the Lord and he will raise us by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that anyone who is united with a prostitute is one body with her? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”⁠ 17 But the one united with the Lord is one spirit with him. 18 Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin a person commits is outside of the body”—but the immoral person sins against his own body.⁠ 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,⁠ whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Corinthians 6:19 and 2 Clement 9:3

New Testament · Early Christian

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Summary

In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul calls the body a temple of the Holy Spirit to urge sexual restraint. In 2 Clement, the preacher applies the same temple image to flesh, using it to argue that the flesh will be raised and judged.

Passages

1 Corinthians 6:19

New Testament
15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that anyone who is united with a prostitute is one body with her? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But the one united with the Lord is one spirit with him. 18 Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin a person commits is outside of the body”—but the immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.
55–57 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Corinthians

2 Clement 9:3

Early Christian
1 And let none of you say that this flesh is not judged or does not rise again. 2 Understand this: in what were you saved? In what did you recover your sight—if not in this flesh? 3 We ought therefore to guard the flesh as a temple of God: 4 for just as you were called in the flesh, you shall also come in the flesh. 5 If Christ the Lord who saved us, being first spirit, then became flesh and so called us, then in the same way, in this flesh we shall receive our reward. 6 Let us therefore love one another, that we may all enter the kingdom of God.
130–160 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Clement

References

“... While a Pauline origin of this idea is not necessarily to be denied, it seems quite likely that it may quickly have become a Christian commonplace. ‘Clement’ is clearly making a point that is consistent with Pauline precedents, but he uses σάρξ rather than σῶμα. It is quite possible that the whole of 2 Clem. 9. 1–6 reflects Pauline teaching about the resurrection such as is found in 1 Cor. 15, though Donfried’s claim that ‘it is likely that the author of 2 Clement has 1 Corinthians 15 in mind’ seems to claim too much. ...”
Andrew Gregory and Christopher Tuckett, eds., The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 284.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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1 Corinthians 6:19 and 2 Clement 9:3

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