1 Corinthians 6:20 - Exposition

Ye are bought with a price . That price is the blood of Christ, wherewith he purchased the Church ( Acts 20:28 ; Hebrews 9:12 ; 1 Peter 1:18 , 1 Peter 1:19 ; Revelation 5:9 ). This metaphor of ransom ( 1 Corinthians 7:23 ; 2 Peter 2:1 ) has its full and absolute applicability to man. The effect of Christ's death for us is that we are redeemed from slavery and prison, and the right of our possession is with Christ. Thus by various metaphors the effects of redemption are revealed to us on the human side. When we unduly press the metaphor, and ask from whom we were purchased, and to whom the price was paid, we build up scholastic systems which have only led to error, and respecting which the Church has never sanctioned any exclusive opinion. The thoughts touched upon in this verse are fully developed in the Epistle to the Romans. Glorify God; by behaving as his redeemed children, and therefore by keeping yourselves pure. In these few brief words St. Paul sums up all he has said, as he did in 1 Corinthians 5:13 . In your body. The following words, "and in your spirit, which are God's," are a perfectly correct and harmless gloss, but are not found in the best manuscripts, and are foreign to the drift of the passage. Your body is a temple, and in that temple God must be honoured. "Unchastity dishonours God, and that in his own temple ( Romans 2:23 )" (Meyer). In these clauses St. Paul has touched on three subjects which occupy important sections of the remainder of the Epistle, namely,