Bible Strands
1 Corinthians 6:15
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul addresses the Corinthian believers who are debating whether physical indulgence carries spiritual consequence. He speaks at a moment when they claim moral neutrality for bodily actions, prompting him to ground his correction in their union with Christ.
The words — The Greek phrase τὰ σώματα ὑμῶν μέλη Χριστοῦ (ta somata hymōn melē Christou) literally renders "the bodies of you [are] members of Christ." Paul uses μέλη (melē) to designate the physical body as an integral part of Christ's own being.
The thread — Paul echoes this bodily union with Christ in Ephesians 5:30 and extends the corporate body metaphor in Romans 12:5, where believers are identified as members belonging to one another.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to acknowledge that their physical existence is intrinsically joined to Christ, making sexual union with a prostitute a direct violation of that reality. It demands a practical rejection of bodily indulgence that contradicts this identity.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Ephesians 5:30 For we are members of His body.
- Romans 12:5 so in Christ we who are many are one body, and each member belongs to one another.
- Ephesians 4:15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head.
- Colossians 2:19 He has lost connection to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and knit together by its joints and ligaments, grows as God causes it to grow.
- 1 Corinthians 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a member of it.
- Ephesians 4:12 to equip the saints for works of ministry and to build up the body of Christ,
- 1 Corinthians 6:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
- 1 Corinthians 11:3 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
- Luke 20:16 He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” And when the people heard this, they said, “May such a thing never happen!”
- Galatians 6:14 But as for me, may I never boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.