Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6.1–7.9

“Does any of you, having a matter against another, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?” He means the unrighteous in two ways: both those who do not believe, and those who often interpret with flattery the laws entrusted by God to the world, ascribing their authority to idols, and are therefore unrighteous; and since there is more law in the church, where the Lord of the law is feared, he says it is better to plead a case before God's ministers; for out of the fear of God they more readily bring out the true sentence of the law.

“Or do you not know that the saints will judge this world?” The Apostle says nothing idly; he said “this world” to show that there is another; for the apostle John also says: “Do not love this world” (1 John 2:15). And the Lord in the Gospel says: “For God so loved the world”, and so on (John 3:16). It is this world, then, that is in error, not that higher one, in whose likeness this one was made. Hence man was placed here, made in the image of God, so that, just as in the higher world all things are from one God, so in this one all might have their origin from one man. Hence Moses says in Deuteronomy: “When the Most High divided the nations, as he scattered the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God” (Deut 32:8). What could be so plain as that this world is, for a definite reason, the image of the higher? For there is also a lower Jerusalem, and that higher one which the same Apostle calls our mother (Gal 4:26); there is a lower paradise, in which man was placed and received the command both to work it and to keep it (Gen 2:15); there is also that heavenly one into which the Apostle was caught up and heard secret words (2 Cor 12:2–4). The saints, then, will judge this world, because by the example of their faith the faithlessness of the world will be condemned. “And if the world will be judged by you.” This world will be judged by us then, if the work of faithless men is not found in us. “Are you unworthy, then, to judge even the smallest matters?” That is, those who are to judge the world itself are certainly not unworthy to judge the things that are of the world.

“Do you not know that we shall judge angels?” He added something more by saying “we shall judge angels”, that is, the spiritual powers which, he teaches in another place, dwell in the heavenly places; meaning that the angels are to be judged by us in the same way as the world will be judged.

“If, then, you have worldly judgments, appoint those who are contemptible in the church to judge them.” Worldly judgments are those concerning the body or bodily things. And since it ought not to be done in this way, he added: “I say this to your shame.” Since above he named a 'matter' but did not indicate what kind (for there are also divine matters, as the same Apostle says: “a helper of my business”, Rom 16:2), and since perhaps, because he had forbidden worldly judgments to be pleaded before unbelievers, they might think them to be heard or settled in the church, as they had heard, but by anyone at all, he says to shame them: “Appoint those who are contemptible in the church to judge.” For there are also wooden vessels in the church; for he indicated that they were so unmanageable and thoughtless that they might perhaps choose unskilled judges from among the brothers. The Apostle says this from experience; for he knew how lukewarm and short-sighted they had been found in other matters. “Is there thus no wise man among you who can judge between his brother?” Since, then, he says, there are wise brothers, let some of them be chosen to judge, whose judgment the world may admire. For it is a great shame if among those who are said to have known God there is not found one who can examine a matter according to the law of the gospel. He says a brother should be chosen as judge because a ruler of their church had not yet been ordained.

“But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers.” It is plain that by unbelievers he means either arbitrators who have been requested, as usually happens, or a public judge, to whom it is customary to say: “Today is a day of sacred rites; justice cannot be pronounced.”

“Already it is altogether a fault in you that you have lawsuits among you.” He indicates that it is a sin that brother quarrels with brother, when effort should be made that they be of one mind, like brothers by birth; especially since our faith strives for peace. For although a Christian ought not to go to law, yet if there is something serious that cannot be overlooked, let him bring the case to the church, lest he incur both present loss and perhaps offence.

“Why do you not rather accept injury? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves do injury and defraud, and that to brothers.” Now he reproves those whose injustice gives rise to the quarrel; for they are guilty not only through the fraud committed, but also share in the fault of those who, compelled by their injury or fraud, ask unbelievers to judge; and whereas they ought not to pursue the fraud or injuries done to them, they not only take vengeance but themselves commit fraud and injuries, so as to give their brothers examples deserving punishment. And what would one believe he does to others, who does not spare his own?

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not possess the kingdom of God?” By this saying he shows that they did not sin unknowingly, and therefore are to be punished more severely. For if the unmerciful are guilty before God, how much more the unrighteous? “Do not be deceived; for neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor those who lie with males, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will possess the kingdom of God.” He did not mention these things as though they did not know them, those among whom he stayed a year and six months teaching the gospel of God; but he reminded them, so as to restore in them reverence for the law and the merit for the kingdom of heaven (Acts 18:11).

“And such indeed you were.” So that he might not seem to ascribe this to all, or else to make all free of these crimes, if he did so (for he seemed to have forbidden their crimes, not exposed them), he speaks thus: “And such indeed you were.” And lest he provoke them to anger, he adds: “But you were washed”; so that, recognizing their crimes and made guilty, they might at once breathe again on hearing, “But you were washed.” For some are apt to feel shame and amend when they hear good things of themselves. “But you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” All these benefits of purity are known to be obtained in baptism, which is the foundation of the gospel truth. For there, all sins having been put away, the believer is washed and justified in the Lord's name, and through the Spirit of our God is adopted as a son to God. By this he reminds them how great and of what kind is the grace which they obtained through the true tradition; but afterwards, thinking contrary to this rule of faith at the prompting of bad teachers, they stripped themselves of these benefits. Hence he acts so as to call them back to the true and first belief, so that they might recover what they had obtained.

“All things are lawful for me, but not all things are expedient.” To some it seems that the Apostle said “All things are lawful for me”, etc., because of the freedom of choice granted, so that it would be lawful to commit fornication, though not expedient. But how is what is forbidden lawful? Or surely, if all things are lawful, nothing can be called unlawful. 'But it is lawful, though not expedient': this they mutter rather than assert, being either forgetful or careless. For John the Baptist said to Herod: “It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife” (Mark 6:18). But perhaps John, inspired in the womb, was unacquainted with human eloquence; for if this were so, he ought to have said: 'It is lawful for you, but not expedient.' But the Lord too likewise says to the Canaanite woman: “It is not lawful to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs” (Matt 15:26). And again the Lord says to the Jews: “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, how he went into the house of the Lord and took the loaves of the presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat?” etc. (Mark 2:25–26). Everything, then, that is forbidden is not lawful; and everything that is not lawful is forbidden; but sometimes, when some reason intervenes, a thing is lawful but not expedient. “All things are lawful for me, but I will be brought under no one's power.” He says all things are lawful for him, namely those things which were lawful for his fellow apostles too, which the natural law contains, not Moses'; for Moses forbade many things because of the hardness of heart of an unbelieving and stiff-necked people (Matt 19:8). Yet if you look at the occasion, the Apostle had something else in mind in saying these things; for he set them down first, intending afterwards to deal with this case, as he also did about the man who had committed incest; for he sets it forth to indicate what he would deal with later. Indeed, having briefly commended the matter for the time being, he at once returns to the earlier sense; for he said this because it was lawful for him to accept support from them. But since he knew that the false apostles were seeking an occasion for accepting, he refused to accept from them, lest the vigour of the gospel truth should grow torpid for the sake of the belly. For if he accepted from those whom he was rebuking for such great vices, he would bend the authority of teaching granted him by the Lord; for one cannot firmly rebuke someone from whom one accepts, especially when that person is quick to give precisely so as to humble the one set over him. Hence he also says: “But I will be brought under no one's power.”

“Food for the belly and the belly for food, but God will destroy both it and them.” The destruction of the belly is when the function of eating ceases; the destruction of food will be when birth has stopped. The false apostles, however, who went about not for the sake of religion but for gain, did not want to be disliked by sinners. “But the body is not for fornication but for the Lord.” Now he returns to the earlier sense: “and the Lord for the body.” What is the Lord for the body? It is understood that he will grant immortality to it when raised; for the body dedicated to God will be rewarded with a spiritual gift by the merit of its leader, that is, the mind.

“But God has both raised the Lord and will raise us by his power.” The sense is the same, which he wished to confirm by the example of the Lord's resurrection; for Christ is the power of God, by which he will raise us, and has raised him, the Lord. He said this because the Lord himself raised his own body, as the Lord himself says: “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days. But he said this of the temple of his body” (John 2:19, 21).

“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” Our bodies are members of Christ, but into the new man who has been created according to God (Eph 4:24), since he is the head of the church. “Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Far from it.” He says “Far from it” because members that cling to a harlot cease to be members of Christ.

“Or do you not know that whoever clings to a harlot becomes one body?” He says this because one who mingles himself with defilement becomes one with the one with whom he mingles. For fornication makes both one, so that as they are in nature, so they are one in stain. “The two”, he says, “will be in one flesh” (Gen 2:24). It is plain that, since the woman is from the man, both are in one flesh.

“But whoever clings to the Lord is one spirit.” Because in those who do good, the Spirit of God is shared between God and men.

“Flee fornication.” He rightly warns that fornication must be fled, by which sons of God become sons of the devil. “Every sin that a man commits is outside the body.” For other sins, even if they are produced through the body, do not bind the soul and make it liable to carnal desire in the way that the act of lust, at work in carnal fornication, makes the soul mingle with the body itself; for the soul is so glued to the body that at that moment a man cannot think of or attend to anything else; for the very submersion and absorption in lust and carnal desire makes the mind itself captive. Hence it is added: “But whoever commits fornication sins against his own body.” He shows it is a most grave sin, because by it the whole body perishes; but in other sins a portion perishes, not the whole. For the whole body is man and woman, because woman is a portion of man. For whoever commits another sin sins outside himself; but the fornicator sins against his own flesh. Suppose someone ends his life with a noose or kills himself with a sword: he does not seem to sin against his body but against his soul, on which he does violence. But fornication is a bodily offence, which affects both body and soul; for not without desire of the flesh, since the flesh too has its own motion, does the soul desire to sin against the flesh, although the flesh can do nothing without the soul. By the fact, then, that he sins against the flesh which is from himself (for he referred it to the origin), he is said to sin against his own body; so that he may cease from fornication, as if sparing himself. To Novatian, however, the one who commits fornication here seems to sin not against his own body but against Christ's; for he pronounces it otherwise, so as to say that even the fornicator sins against the Holy Spirit, for the reason for which he was cut off from the church. This can by no means be maintained; for the body of Christ is not one or two Christians, but all, and individuals are members. How, then, does the fornicator sin against the body of Christ, since he does not defile everyone? If it were as Novatian thinks, all other sins would be outside God, and fornication alone would be a sin against God. Even one who goes to the idols would not sin against God, nor one who denies in persecution; for every sin that a man commits is outside the body of Christ, as he thinks. But if he wishes to pronounce this otherwise too, so as to deny that any sin is outside the body of Christ, he will be forced to say that everyone who commits any sin sins against God and against the Holy Spirit; so that the thief and the perjurer and the liar would be said to sin against the Holy Spirit. And how does that stand which the Lord says: “All sins and blasphemy will be forgiven men; but whoever sins against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither here nor in the age to come” (Matt 12:31–32)? It is certainly clear that, apart from the other sins, there is another sin which is called the sin against the Holy Spirit. To some, again, it seems that the fornicator is said to sin against his own body because he is a member of the church, and in defiling himself he sins against the church, of which he is a member. Then it must be said to one who is a member of the church, when he commits fornication, that he sins not against himself but against the church. But the Apostle says that the fornicator, by sinning against his own portion, sins against his own body.

“Or do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God?” Above (1 Cor 3:16) he said the temple of God, here the temple of the Holy Spirit; because in substance the Spirit is what God is. He said this so that we may keep our bodies undefiled, so that the Holy Spirit may dwell there.

“And you are not your own; for you were bought at a great price.” It is plain that one who has been bought is not his own master but belongs to the one by whom he was bought, so as to do not his own will but his. And since we were bought at a dear price, we ought to serve our Lord the more readily, lest, offended, he return us to the death from which he redeemed us. For at how very dear a price did he buy us, that he gave his blood for us! “Glorify and carry God in your body.” To glorify and carry God in the body is this: to walk according to his law; for through his law he himself is seen in us. To carry God, however, is to show the image of God in deeds well done.

“Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman.” Disturbed by the perverse opinions of the false apostles, who taught out of hypocrisy that marriage was to be spurned, so that they might seem purer than others, they asked the Apostle about these things by letter; for since they were not pleased with this opinion, they passed over the other matters and asked only about this. To them, however, he answered that it is indeed good not to touch a woman, although he does not assert that simply.

“But because of fornication”, that is, lest something against the law be committed while what the law does not forbid is avoided, “let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.” For those who seek a short cut tend to go astray. For how could it be that these men, whom he found in such great vices, should abstain from their wives? He therefore does not permit it, lest, abstaining from lawful things, they presume to do forbidden ones, as the Manichees do.

“Let the husband render to the wife what is due, and likewise the wife to the husband.” They are subject to each other in this matter, so that, since they are one body, they may have one will in the law of nature. “Let the woman not have power over her own body, but the husband; and likewise let the husband not have power over his own body, but the woman.” He says this because it is lawful neither for husband nor for wife to give his or her body to another; for in this matter they are debtors to each other, lest an occasion for sin be given.

“Do not defraud each other.” He says this so that they may agree in marital matters, lest disagreement give rise to fornication. “Unless by consent for a time”; that is, so that they abstain by agreement for the sake of thanksgivings. “So that you may be free for prayer.” For although one must pray without ceasing (for this meditation is to be practised every day), yet so that they may apply themselves to prayer, he commands them to be free for this, with intervals of time set aside for winning the Lord's favour; for in order that he may have mercy, he must be entreated with greater purity. Although marriage is clean, yet one must abstain even from lawful things, so that prayer may be brought to effect more easily. For in the law too, those who wished to be sanctified, among other things, by the Lord's command, abstained even from raisins, so as to become holier (Num 6:3–4). For when someone does not touch even things permitted, he shows that he wishes to receive what he prays for. “And come back together again.” Since he gives counsel to spouses that after the days of prayer they ought to return to natural relations: “lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” He warns them to abstain at intervals of days, lest an occasion be given to the devil, as the apostle Peter says: “Behold, the devil like a roaring lion goes about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet 5:8). For if a wife is taken for the sake of begetting children, not much time seems to be granted for that use itself; for both feast days and days of procession, and the very course of conception and childbirth according to the law, show that it ought to cease at these times.

“But I say this by way of indulgence, not by way of command.” It is plain that he gives this counsel to exclude fornication, not to close the way to those striving for a better life. “But I wished all men to be as I myself am.” As far as concerns a kindly and caring teacher, then, he wished all, if it could be, to be as he himself was. What he himself was, he shows at once in what follows: “But each has his own gift from God, one in this way, another in that”; that is, each has God's gift according to his own wish, so that, if he wishes, he obtains the ability by the nod of God himself. Therefore no one ought to be constrained, lest, prohibited from what is lawful, he commit unlawful things; but let him choose for himself what he will follow.

“But I say to the unmarried and to widows: it is good for them if they remain so, as I also do.” He would not say, “it is good for the unmarried to be as I also am”, unless he were intact in body. Nor would he say, “I wished all men to be as I myself am”; for if he had had a wife and said this, he would not have wanted them to be virgins. But far from it; for he served from boyhood in such a way as to have no interest in this matter, since as a young man he was anticipated by the grace of God. After saying that each has his own gift from God, he shows in what matter it is better to be more inclined; for one is helped in that which he is seen to seek with eagerness of mind.

“But if they do not contain themselves, let them marry.” He wants them to strive in this matter, so that they may contain themselves. But if they see that, under the impulse of the flesh, they cannot persevere, because they are not eager enough in this very thing to be helped by God (for God helps the one whom he sees striving with his own strength), let them certainly marry, if they fear to burn. For perhaps they will be able to attain this afterwards; for once the obstacle has been worked off, the will recovers itself with stronger strength. “For it is better to marry than to burn.” He did not say “for it is better to marry than to burn” as if it were good to burn and marrying better; but he followed common usage. For we are accustomed to say: “It is better to make a profit than a loss.” To burn, however, is to be driven or overcome by desires; for when the will consents to the heat of the flesh, it burns; whereas to suffer desires and not be overcome is the mark of an illustrious and perfect man.