1 Corinthians 6:18

Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin a person commits is outside of the body” ¹  – but the immoral person sins against his own body.

biblegateway 1Co 6:18

Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.

biblegateway 1Co 6:18

Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.

biblegateway 1Co 6:18

Run away from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.

biblegateway 1Co 6:18

There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for "becoming one" with another.

SABDAweb 1Co 6:18

Keep away from the desires of the flesh. Every sin which a man does is outside of the body; but he who goes after the desires of the flesh does evil to his body.

bibleoremus 1Co 6:18

Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself.

biblegateway 1Co 6:18

Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

biblegateway 1Co 6:18

Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin a person commits is outside of the body” ¹  – but the immoral person sins against his own body.

¹ sn It is debated whether this is a Corinthian slogan. If it is not, then Paul is essentially arguing that there are two types of sin, nonsexual sins which take place outside the body and sexual sins which are against a person’s very own body. If it is a Corinthian slogan, then it is a slogan used by the Corinthians to justify their immoral behavior. With it they are claiming that anything done in the body or through the body had no moral relevance. A decision here is very difficult, but the latter is to be preferred for two main reasons. (1) This is the most natural understanding of the statement as it is written. To construe it as a statement by Paul requires a substantial clarification in the sense (e.g., “All other sins…” [NIV]). (2) Theologically the former is more difficult: Why would Paul single out sexual sins as more intrinsically related to the body than other sins, such as gluttony or drunkenness? For these reasons, it is more likely that the phrase in quotation marks is indeed a Corinthian slogan which Paul turns against them in the course of his argument, although the decision must be regarded as tentative.