What does 1 Corinthians 6:20 mean?
Paul now concludes his teaching on why it matters that Christians run away from sexual immorality. His final point, begun in the previous verse, is that Christian people do not belong to themselves. We have been purchased by God. We are free in the sense that we have been freed from the law of sin and death (Galatians 3:13), but we are not free in the sense that we are now self-owned and self-determined (1 Corinthians 6:12–13).If we are truly in Christ, we are truly not our own. Our lives, including our bodies, belong to God. This gives Him the ultimate authority to tell us what to do and what not to do with our bodies.
It's important to notice something about this last argument against sexual immorality. It applies only to believers. Only those in Christ have been redeemed by His blood and brought from darkness to light (1 Corinthians 1:12–13). These words are not for those who remain in darkness. Paul is not commanding those outside the church, unbelievers, to live according to God's standards for sexual morality (1 Corinthians 5:12). Their sin is still sin, but one cannot expect them to recognize it as such (1 Corinthians 2:14).
Rather, it is those who belong to God—and not to themselves—who are commanded to glorify God with their bodies. In fact, only those in Christ have an opportunity to use their bodies to bring glory to God. In fact, that is now the purpose our bodies are designed to serve. Selfishly participating in sexual sin keeps us Christians from fulfilling our purpose.
First Corinthians 6:12–20 describes Paul's objections to those in the Corinthian church who had a casual attitude about sexual immorality. Beyond formal, literal laws, Paul insists the standard for Christian behavior must be whether a practice is helpful or enslaving. Sex is more than a mere bodily function; God designed it to unite two people into one body in marriage. That union with another person drags Christ, to whom we are also united, into the union with us. Our bodies will be resurrected and are meant even now to bring glory to God.
First Corinthians 6 continues Paul's confrontations of the Corinthian Christians over issues in the church. Earlier passages discussed problems of division into factions, and tolerance of heinous sexual sin. Paul is also outraged that they would take one another to court in a lawsuit over minor issues. Instead of suing each other before unbelievers, they should settle trivial issues in the church. Second, Paul urges them to live up to their new identities in Christ instead of living down to the sexually immoral standards of the culture. This sets up discussions of marriage in chapter 7.
