1 Corinthians 6:13

My Notes

What Does 1 Corinthians 6:13 Mean?

The Corinthians had developed a slogan — probably from Paul's own teaching about freedom — that they were applying to sexual behavior: "meats for the belly, and the belly for meats." The logic: just as food is designed for the stomach and the stomach for food (a natural, morally neutral pairing), so the body is designed for sexual expression and sexual expression for the body. It's natural. It's appetitive. It's no different from eating.

Paul interrupts the slogan with a correction: "but God shall destroy both it and them" — the stomach and food are temporary. They belong to this age and will be dissolved. The body, however, is not temporary in the same way. The body will be resurrected (v. 14). Food and the stomach pass away. Your body is eternal. And therefore what you do with your body carries a weight that what you do with your lunch does not.

The correction: "the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body." The Greek to sōma tō Kyriō kai ho Kyrios tō sōmati — the body for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. The pairing isn't body-and-sex. It's body-and-Lord. Your body was designed for Christ the way the stomach was designed for food — as a natural, fitting, intended pairing. And Christ was designed for your body. The reciprocal belonging is the foundation of Paul's sexual ethic.

Reflection Questions

• 1.Have you been operating under the assumption that your body is yours to do with as you please? How does 'the body is for the Lord' challenge that?
• 2.What does it mean that 'the Lord is for the body' — that God is not against your physical existence but for it?
• 3.Where have you reduced your body to an appetite — treating it like a stomach for food rather than an instrument for the Lord?
• 4.How does the promise of bodily resurrection (v. 14) change the weight you give to what you do with your body now?

Devotional

The Corinthians said: the body is for sex the way the stomach is for food. Natural appetite, natural fulfillment, no moral weight. And Paul said: wrong pairing. The body isn't for fornication. The body is for the Lord. And the Lord is for the body. That's the natural pairing. That's the design. Your body was made for Christ the way a glove was made for a hand.

This reframes sexuality entirely. The modern assumption is that your body belongs to you and you can do what you want with it. Paul says your body belongs to the Lord (v. 19: "ye are not your own"). The freedom to do whatever you want with your body is an illusion — not because God is controlling, but because your body was designed for a specific partnership, and using it for something else is like using a violin as a hammer. It might work in the short term. But you're destroying the instrument.

The phrase "the Lord for the body" is the part that gets overlooked. The Lord is for your body. He's not against it. He's not embarrassed by it. He doesn't wish you were a disembodied soul. He made your body and He's for it — He intends to resurrect it (v. 14), indwell it (v. 19), and glorify it (Philippians 3:21). The God who is for your body cares about what happens to it. Sexual ethics in Paul's framework aren't restrictive. They're protective. The Lord who is for your body is protecting the thing He made from being reduced to something less than what it was designed for.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture