1 Corinthians 6:18

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Paul writes to the Corinthian church, sandwiching this command between two claims about the body: union with the Lord (v. 17) and indwelling of the Holy Spirit (v. 19).

The words — Φεὐγετε (pheugete) is a present imperative: "keep fleeing," a continuous posture of escape rather than a single act of avoidance.

The thread — 1 Thessalonians 4:3, 1 Peter 2:11, and Colossians 3:5 all command abstention from sexual immorality, but Paul's "flee" language is distinctive to this passage.

Why it lands — Paul isolates sexual sin as the only category committed against the body itself, not merely by it, making the body the victim rather than the instrument.

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

Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

Cross-references

1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.
1 Thessalonians 4:3 For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;
Colossians 3:5 Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.
Romans 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires.
2 Timothy 2:22 Flee from youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
Hebrews 13:4 Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
1 Corinthians 6:9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,
Ephesians 5:3 But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed.
Proverbs 6:24 to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
1 Thessalonians 4:5 not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God;