1 Corinthians 6:15

1 Corinthians 6:15 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
• New International Version (NIV)Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!
• English Standard Version (ESV)Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!
• New King James Version (NKJV)Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not!

Context of 1 Corinthians 6:15

13Some of you may say, ‘God made food to feed our bodies. That is why people have stomachs. But one day God will destroy both stomachs and food.’ Yes, but the Lord gave our bodies to us. Our bodies belong to the Lord. So you should not use your bodies to have sex in a wrong way. 14God raised the Lord Jesus after he died. And God will use his power to make us alive again too. You know that your bodies are parts of Christ's own body. So you must never take your body and make it join with a prostitute's body. That is like you have done it with part of Christ's body. Never let that happen! 16Anyone who makes his own body join to a prostitute becomes one body with that prostitute. You should know that. It says in the Bible: ‘The man and the woman become as one body.’ 17But everyone who is united to the Lord has the same spirit as him.

1 Corinthians 6:15 word by word

Οὐκ οἴδατε ὅτι τὰ σώματα ὑμῶν μέλη Χριστοῦ ἐστιν; ἄρας οὖν τὰ μέλη τοῦ Χριστοῦ ποιήσω πόρνης μέλη; μὴ γένοιτο.Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• Know yeεἴδωeidō · to perceive: understandG1492
• notοὐou · noG3756
• thatὅτιhoti · that/since: thatG3754
• yourσύsu · youG4771
• bodiesὁho hē to · the/this/whoG3588
• bodiesσῶμαsōma · bodyG4983
• areεἰμίeimi · to beG1510
• the membersμέλοςmelos · memberG3196
• of ChristΧριστόςChristos · ChristG5547
• shall Iαἴρωairō · to take upG142
• thenοὖνoun · therefore/thenG3767
• and makeποιέωpoieō · to do/make: doG4160
• of an harlotπόρνηpornē · prostituteG4204
• God forbidμήmē · notG3361
• God forbidγίνομαιginomai · to beG1096

Cross-references for 1 Corinthians 6:15

• 1 Corinthians 6:19Remember this: Your body is the home of God's Holy Spirit. God gave his Holy Spirit to you and he lives in you. You do not belong to yourselves any longer.
• 1 Corinthians 11:3This is something that I want you to know: Christ has authority over every man, as his head. Also, the head of a woman is her husband. And the head of Christ is God.
• 1 Corinthians 12:27All of you together are Christ's body. And each of you is a part of that body.
• Romans 12:5In the same way, we are many people, but we all belong to Christ, like one body. We also belong to each other, like the different parts of one body belong to each other.
• Ephesians 1:22God has put all things under Christ's authority. He has made Christ the ruler over all things. He has done this to help his people, the church.
• Ephesians 4:12He gave all these gifts to help God's people to serve him in different ways. As a result, the church, which is like Christ's body, would become strong.
• Ephesians 5:23A husband has authority over his wife, in the same way that Christ has authority over the church. The church is like Christ's body. As its head, he saves her.
• Colossians 2:19False teachers like that do not receive their message from Christ. As God's people, we are like a body and Christ is like our head. He is the one who causes the whole body to be strong. He helps us to work well together, like the different parts of a body. Then we can all grow properly, because it is God who is helping us to grow.
• Genesis 44:17But Joseph said, ‘I would not do a thing like that! Only the man who had the cup will be my slave. The rest of you can return to your father. You may go as my friends.’
• Luke 20:16I tell you, he will come to those farmers and he will kill them. Then he will give the garden to other people to take care of it.’ When the people heard this, they replied, ‘That must never happen!’
• Romans 3:3But you may say, ‘Some Jews did not believe God's messages as they should have done. Because of that, maybe God will not do what he said he would do.’
• Romans 6:2No! Certainly we should not do that! Sin does not rule our lives any longer. That old life is dead! So it is not right that we should continue to do wrong things.
• Romans 7:7So someone might say, ‘God's Law must be bad.’ No! Certainly, it is not bad! Without that law, I would not have known what sin really is. One rule says, ‘You must not want to take things for yourself that belong to other people.’ Without that command, I would not have known that it is wrong to want other people's things.
• Galatians 2:17So then, we Jews become right with God when we believe in Christ. That means that we no longer obey all the Jewish rules. But that does not mean that Christ causes us to do wrong things. Certainly, it does not mean that!
• Galatians 3:21So should we say that God's Law works against God's promises? No, certainly that is not true! It is not possible for the rules of any law to give us life with God. If that could happen, then God would have accepted us as right if we obeyed those rules.
• Galatians 6:14But I do not want to say any great things about myself. The only thing that makes me great is our Lord Jesus Christ's death on the cross. Because of Christ's sacrifice on the cross, it is like I have also died. The things that belong to this world have become dead to me, and I have become dead to them.

Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 6:15

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 15Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? - Because he has taken your nature upon him, and thus, as believers in him, ye are the members of Christ. Shall I then take, etc. - Shall we, who profess to be members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, connect ourselves with harlots, and thus dishonor and pollute the bodies which are members of Christ? God forbid! These passages admit of a more literal interpretation. This, if given at…Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 15Know ye not … - This is the third argument against licentiousness. It is, that we as Christians are united to Christ (compare the notes at John 15:1 ff); and that it is abominable to take the members of Christ and subject them to pollution and sin. Christ was pure - wholly pure. We are professedly united to him. We are bound therefore to be pure, as he was. Shall that which is a part, as it were, of the pure and holy Saviour, be prostituted to impure and…Read the comment
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 12-20Verses 12-20 Some among the Corinthians seem to have been ready to say, All things are lawful for me. This dangerous conceit St. Paul opposes. There is a liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, in which we must stand fast. But surely a Christian would never put himself into the power of any bodily appetite. The body is for the Lord; is to be an instrument of righteousness to holiness, therefore is never to be made an instrument of sin. It is an honour…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 15-17Being a Christian means being spiritually connected to Christ in both life and death (see Romans 6:3–11). Because of this, believers' bodies are parts of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 12:12–28; Romans 12:4–5). This spiritual connection (see John 14:20; 17:21–23) means they should not misuse their bodies by joining with a prostitute.Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1515. Resuming the thought in 1Co 6:13, "the body is for the Lord" (1Co 12:27; Ep 4:12, 15, 16; 5:30). shall I then--such being the case. take--spontaneously alienating them from Christ. For they cannot be at the same time "the members of an harlot," and "of Christ" [Bengel]. It is a fact no less certain than mysterious, that moral and spiritual ruin is caused by such sins; which human wisdom (when untaught by revelation) held to be actions as blameless as…Read the comment

Topics related to 1 Corinthians 6:15

• Adultery
• Assurance
• Body
• Chastity
• Fellowship
• Lasciviousness
• Righteous

In the dictionaries

• Christ
• God
• Christ, Messiah
• god, false god, goddess, idol, idolater, idolatrous, idolatry
• Angel
• Extortioner
• Harlot
• Judgment
• Price
• Resurrection of the dead

Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 6

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Illustrated New Testament
• Burkitt’s Expository Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Family Bible Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• The People’s New Testament
• Robertson’s Word Pictures
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings