What Does the Bible Say About Sexual Purity?

The Bible celebrates sex within marriage (there's a whole book about it) while calling for boundaries outside it. The view is more 'pro-sex' than most people expect.

What Is Worship According to the Bible?

Biblical worship isn't limited to singing — it's presenting your whole life to God. The Bible's concept of worship is far bigger than a church service.

What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?

Several passages address same-sex behavior. Christians interpret them differently. Here's an honest look at all sides — without dismissing anyone.

What Does the Bible Say About Alcohol?

The Bible doesn't ban alcohol — Jesus drank wine, and Paul recommended it medicinally. But it strongly warns against drunkenness and excess.

0 Chapters0 Books0 People0 Places

Your Body Isn't Just Yours.

Q: What Does the Bible Say About Body Image?

God made you on purpose. Your worth is rooted in being made in God's image.

Q: Why Was the Temple So Important?

The temple was where God's presence dwelled on earth. Jesus said HE was the new temple. Paul said believers are too.

Q: What Does the Bible Say About Eating Disorders?

The Bible addresses the roots: shame, control, identity. Your body is fearfully made — not a project to fix.

Q: What Does the Bible Say About Self-Care?

God rested on day 7. Jesus withdrew from crowds. Elijah was fed by angels during burnout.

Q: What Does the Bible Say About Pornography?

The word 'pornography' isn't in the Bible, but Jesus' teaching on lust makes the principle clear. The direction is unmistakable.

Q: What Does the Bible Say About Tattoos?

Leviticus 19:28 prohibits tattoos — in the context of pagan mourning rituals. Whether that applies today depends on how you read the Old Testament law. Christians disagree.

1 Corinthians 6 — The Christ-bought body you keep treating like it's yours

6 min read

Key Takeaways

"You are not your own" — Paul argues that the Holy Spirit living in your body gives it more dignity, not less, and that changes how you treat it.

Paul's sin list wasn't written to condemn — it was written to remind the Corinthians that grace had already changed who they were.
If your 'freedom' has you trapped in patterns you can't escape, Paul says that's not freedom — it's just a different kind of slavery.
When believers drag each other to court instead of resolving conflicts internally, it reveals that something deeper in the community is already broken.

📢 Chapter 6 — Your Body Isn't Just Yours ⚖️

is still writing to the in , and he's not done being frustrated. The last few chapters dealt with their arrogance and a case of blatant immorality they were ignoring. Now he shifts — but the underlying problem is the same. These believers kept acting like their new hadn't changed anything about how they lived.

Inside this Chapter

Justice Identity Community Integrity Sexuality

Questions about this Chapter

application

What Does the Bible Say About Body Image?

culture

Why Was the Temple So Important?

application

What Does the Bible Say About Eating Disorders?

application

What Does the Bible Say About Self-Care?

application

What Does the Bible Say About Pornography?

application

What Does the Bible Say About Tattoos?

View all 17 questions →

From the Spotlight

news

The Addiction Epidemic

Paul wrote 'I do the very thing I hate.' Two thousand years later, that's still the most honest description of addiction.

Share this chapter

Link copied!

This chapter tackles two issues — lawsuits between believers and sexual immorality — connected by one thread: the Corinthians didn't understand what belonging to actually meant. For their conflicts. For their bodies. For everything.

Stop Suing Each Other ⚖️

Some of the Corinthian believers were taking each other to court — in front of Roman — over personal disputes. was stunned:

"When one of you has a problem with another believer, how do you have the nerve to take it before a secular court instead of letting the church handle it? Don't you realize that God's people will one day judge the world? And if you're going to judge the world, can't you handle a minor disagreement among yourselves?

We're going to judge angels — and you can't sort out everyday disputes?

I'm saying this to shame you. Is there really not a single wise person among you who can settle things between two believers? Instead, you've got brother dragging brother into court — in front of people who don't even share your faith."

Then Paul pushed even harder:

"The fact that you have lawsuits against each other at all is already a loss. Why not just accept being wronged? Why not let yourself be cheated? Instead, you're the ones doing the cheating and the wronging — and you're doing it to your own family."

This wasn't about legal systems being bad. Paul's point was about what it says when believers can't resolve their own conflicts. If you're supposed to be a — people united by something deeper than contracts and courts — then airing your grievances in front of outsiders is an admission that the isn't working.

And Paul's frustration wasn't just the lawsuits. They were the ones causing the harm. The was supposed to be different. They were proving it wasn't.

Who You Were vs. Who You Are 🔄

wasn't being gentle here. He was being honest:

"Don't you know that people who live in unrighteousness won't inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves. The sexually immoral, Idol worshippers, adulterers, those who practice homosexuality, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, swindlers — none of them will inherit what God has prepared."

That's a heavy list. Paul meant it to land heavy. But he didn't leave it there:

"And that's what some of you were. But you were washed. You were set apart. You were declared righteous — in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

Were. Past tense. Paul didn't write that list to condemn them — he wrote it to remind them who they aren't anymore. Every person in that had a past. Some of them had been on that list. And didn't just cover it — it changed them. Washed. . .

The point isn't "look how bad you were." The point is "look at what happened to you — so stop living like it didn't."

Freedom Doesn't Mean Everything Is Smart 🔓

Addiction

Now addressed a slogan the Corinthians loved to throw around. They'd taken Christian and turned it into a blank check:

"'Everything is permissible for me' — sure, but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible for me' — but I refuse to be controlled by anything.

'Food was made for the stomach and the stomach for food' — and God will do away with both of them. But the body is not meant for sexual immorality. It's meant for the Lord — and the Lord for the body. God raised Jesus from the dead, and he will raise us up too by his power."

The Corinthians were arguing: "We're free in , so nothing we do with our bodies really matters." Paul didn't deny their freedom — he reframed it. Freedom isn't the absence of all boundaries. It's the refusal to be enslaved to anything. If your "freedom" has you trapped in a pattern you can't stop, that's not freedom. That's a different kind of chain.

The question isn't "am I allowed?" It's "is this making me more free, or less?"

Your Body Is a Temple 🏛️

Sexuality

reserved his most striking argument for last:

"Don't you know that your bodies are parts of Christ himself? Should I take what belongs to Christ and unite it with a prostitute? Absolutely not.

Don't you know that whoever joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? Scripture says, 'The two will become one flesh.' But the person who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

Run from sexual immorality. Every other Sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against their own body."

Then he landed the argument with one of the most quoted lines in the New Testament:

"Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit — who lives in you, who you received from God? You are not your own. You were bought at a price. So honor God with your body."

This is where everything in the chapter connects. The lawsuits. The list of . The slogan about . All of it was pointing here. The Corinthians kept acting like their bodies were their own property. Paul said the opposite — your body is occupied territory. The lives there. And the price wasn't symbolic. It was a .

That phrase — "you are not your own" — runs against everything our culture tells us. And Paul isn't arguing for control or . He's arguing that belonging to gives your body more dignity, not less. Every choice you make with your body matters — not because is watching like a surveillance camera, but because your body is where he chose to live. That changes everything.

Key Takeaways

📢 Chapter 6 — Your Body Isn't Just Yours ⚖️

Inside this Chapter

Questions about this Chapter

What Does the Bible Say About Body Image?

Why Was the Temple So Important?

What Does the Bible Say About Eating Disorders?

What Does the Bible Say About Self-Care?

What Does the Bible Say About Pornography?

What Does the Bible Say About Tattoos?

From the Spotlight

The Addiction Epidemic

My Notes

Stop Suing Each Other ⚖️

Who You Were vs. Who You Are 🔄

Freedom Doesn't Mean Everything Is Smart 🔓

Your Body Is a Temple 🏛️