Fathers

1 Corinthians 6

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Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbor, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Don’t you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Don’t you know that we will judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? If then you have to judge things pertaining to this life, do you set them to judge who are of no account in the assembly? I say this to move you to shame. Isn’t there even one wise man among you who would be able to decide between his brothers? But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers! Therefore it is already altogether a defect in you, that you have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? No, but you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that against your brothers. Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortionists, will inherit God’s Kingdom. Some of you were such, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God. “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are expedient. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be brought under the power of anything. “Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods,” but God will bring to nothing both it and them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. Now God raised up the Lord, and will also raise us up by his power. Don’t you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or don’t you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, “The two”, he says, “will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

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What the Fathers say

1 Corinthians 6:13

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

"Meats for the belly." By "the belly" here he means not the stomach, but the stomach's voraciousness. As when he says, "Whose God is their belly:" not speaking about that part of the body, but about greediness. To prove that so it is, hear what follows: "And the belly for meats; but the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord." And yet "the belly" also is of "the body." But he puts down two pairs of things, "meats" and gluttony, (which he terms "the belly;") "Christ," and "the body." What then is the meaning of, "Meats for the …

Homily on 1 Corinthians 17 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

By "belly" he means gluttony, not a member of our body; and by "food" he means the immoderate use of food. So the meaning of the words is this: the immoderate use of food is in friendship and kinship with gluttony, and vice versa. Neither one can bring us to Christ; on the contrary, they mutually pass those devoted to them from one to the other — immoderation to gluttony, and gluttony to immoderation. Not the belly, but gluttony, and not food, but immoderation in food. …

Commentary on 1 Corinthians ↗

Clement of Alexandria

With milk, then, the Lord's nutriment, we are nursed directly we are born; and as soon as we are regenerated, we are honoured by receiving the good news of the hope of rest, even the Jerusalem above, in which it is written that milk and honey fall in showers, receiving through what is material the pledge of the sacred food. "For meats are done away with," as the apostle himself says; but this nourishment on milk leads to the heavens, rearing up citizens of heaven, and members of the angelic choirs.

The Instructor Book 1 ↗

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

Wherefore, lest either gluttonous appetite throw the one sort off their guard, or the afflicted flesh trip up the other by elation, let the former hear this from the mouth of the Truth, "And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged in surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this world." And in the same place there is added a profitable fear; "And so that day come upon you unawares. …

THE BOOK OF PASTORAL RULE, Part 3, Chapter XIX ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Then when he says, Food is meant for the stomach, he assigns a reason for what he has said. First, why all things are lawful, saying, Food is meant for the stomach, in order, namely that after the stomach has done its work, it may nourish the entire body; and the stomach for food, i.e., it serves to receive food and work on it. …

Commentary on 1 Corinthians ↗