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Avoiding Sexual Sin

12 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. 13 You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 14 And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead.

15 Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.”[a] 17 But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

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Footnotes

  1. 6:16 Gen 2:24.

Glorify God in Body and Spirit

12 “All things are permitted for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are permitted for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,”[a] and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for sexual immorality but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.(A) 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power.(B) 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!(C) 16 Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, “The two shall be one flesh.”(D) 17 But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.(E) 18 Shun sexual immorality![b] Every sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person[c] sins against the body itself.(F) 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple[d] of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?(G) 20 For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.(H)

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Footnotes

  1. 6.13 The quotation may extend to the word other
  2. 6.18 Or prostitution
  3. 6.18 Or the one who hires a prostitute
  4. 6.19 Or sanctuary