In the sixth chapter, we get a glimpse of what it is that Paul just might be getting at in the eleventh chapter. There, in the midst of exhortations that are focused on the way the community of the church should ideally function (6:1-8), reflections on a primary focus of Jesus’ ministry by some always important mentions of the kingdom of God (6:8,10), and then a short digression on food, Paul writes about “the body.” With a stunning demonstration of linguistic creativity and dexterity, Paul weaves an elaborate web of individualism and community, doing so in the context of proper behavior as part of the church as it lives within the world as representatives of the kingdom of God.
He writes, “The body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Now God indeed raise the Lord and He will raise us by His power” (6:13b-14). Here, though we generally want to make a merely personal application of the words concerning the body and sexual immorality, and though there is, without a doubt, a personal ethical and moral dimension to the statement, we should not dwell on the individual application to the exclusion of the corporate vision, as Paul goes on to speak about the Lord raising “us.” With that mindset created, it is not at all difficult, though we may not yet understand how or why, to hear a reference to the body of believers in that thirteenth verse.
Continuing, Paul writes “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” (6:15) Here, some translations of the passage will complete what appears to be implied in the statement, reading “members of Christ’s body,” thus continuing to intertwine the personal with the communal, as this intertwining hangs upon the ever-present thread of the kingdom of God. Building on the question that begins the fifteenth verse, Paul goes on to ask “Should I take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!” (6:15b) In all honesty, this seems like a strange turn, unless, that is, we keep the larger movement of Paul’s letter in mind, while also keeping in mind that this letter from Paul was designed to be read to the gathered community, who may have been able to look around and at themselves in such a way as to cause the full and stinging weight of the Apostle’s words to come crashing down upon them, as Paul may have expected.
Continuing in this stream of thought, Paul goes on, writing “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.’” (6:16) Paul then hammers home the communal aspect of his use of “body,” thus enabling us to read “But the one united with the Lord is one spirit with Him” (6:17). To this is then added “Flee sexual immorality!” (6:18a) Having made this statement, Paul goes on to quote what must have been a portion of what has been reported to him about this church, writing “Every sin a person commits is outside of the body” (6:18b).
This seems to have unavoidable communal implications, as if Paul was being informed that practices in which some were engaging, which it could be argued did not rightly bear out the image of God, as was intended for ambassadors of the kingdom of God that had been established upon the earth, should not have a negative effect on the way that Paul views this church or the way that the church is viewed by the community in which it is present---especially if the practices would not have been considered scandalous to the observing community or if it might have been proposed that it was a means of outreach and inclusion in the mold of Jesus’ inclusion, at His tables, of those outside the boundaries of the covenant people. To this, Paul replies “but the immoral person sins against his own body” (6:18c). The use of “immoral” is clearly linked with the previously referenced sexual immorality and the mention of prostitutes, while the use of “body,” if we consider the union and uniting aspects that Paul has already mentioned, should be taken as a reference to the church. Therefore, Paul’s critique is to be understood as a critique of practices that are allowed within the church that cause the church to fall short of its responsibility to bear the image of God, which it can only do as it imitates Jesus---seeing the Father in Him and in the deeds and practices of His ministry. Naturally, he is not buying their argument.
The dissertation closes with Paul writing “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? For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body” (6:19-20). With this, there are obviously and unmistakably individual and corporate applications and implications; and clearly, if all is considered within the responsibility of the church and its members to be representatives of a kingdom (a community), one is not to be separated from the other.
Returning to the thirteenth verse, it is most interesting to note that this is written immediately after “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both” (6:13a), which in turn follows Paul’s rejoinders of “but not everything is beneficial” and “but I will not be controlled by anything” (6:12b,d), which are his apparent responses to the statement that has come to him (again, presumably from this church) that “All things are lawful for me” (6:12a,c). The juxtaposition of an elaboration on what is lawful, beneficial, controlling, and food, against a statement about sexual immorality and the body, cannot help but cause one to consider yet another common and accepted aspect of ancient meal practice upon which we have yet to elaborate. This practice may be quite telling for our understanding of the issues at hand in the church at Corinth.
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