1 Corinthians 6:18Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"Every sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the fornicator sins against his own body" (1 Cor 6:18). This is less weighty than what was said above. Yet, speaking of fornicators, he condemns their sin from every side.

He shows the gravity of their guilt by great things and by lesser things. The former was said for the more reverent, the latter for the weaker. The wisdom of Paul is shown precisely in this.

He instructs not only by presenting what is great, but also what is small, shameful, and indecent.

But you will say: does not the murderer, the covetous man, and the robber defile his hand? Everyone knows this. Yet since he could not say that no one is worse than a fornicator, he portrays the gravity of this sin in another way.

He explains that through fornication the whole body becomes unclean. It is defiled as though it had fallen into a filthy vessel full of impurity.

Therefore we have this custom: after acts of greed and plunder no one takes care to wash, but returns straight home. After adultery, however, men go to wash, as though they had become wholly unclean.

So especially does conscience feel shame for this sin. Both sins are grievous, covetousness and adultery, and both cast into Gehenna. Yet, acting with every care, Paul shows the gravity of adultery by every means he could.

But fornication cannot be committed without the body. Therefore the body is always defiled by it. Still, the Apostle intended to present the gravity of this sin in heightened form, since his present exhortation concerns it. Fornication is not, absolutely speaking, the worst of all vices.

I know other explanations of this matter. One is this: the fornicator sins against his own body because he joins himself not with the desire to beget children, as in union with a lawful wife, but uselessly corrupts it by emission of seed and thereby weakens it.

Another explanation is this: the fornicator sins against the woman with whom he joins himself. Through this she becomes his body. Therefore, if he joins himself to her unlawfully, he sins against her.

Yet the explanation of the great John Chrysostom is best of all. I mean the first explanation.

Further, some raise a difficulty and ask: what then? Does envy not waste the body? They resolve the question thus: envy is a passion, not an action. The Apostle is now speaking of an action, for these are his words: "every sin that a man commits." He is not speaking of a passion.

Indeed, envy is not produced by us, but arises within us.

At another time he advises deceiving the enemy by flight: “Flee fornication” (1 Cor 6:18).

If war comes from unbelief, it is useful to withstand it. If the enemy threatens by craft, an ambush is good against such opponents.

If the bow of slanders is drawn, it is useful to wrestle with falsehood face to face. But if a wanton image wounds, it is more useful to turn one's back and flee from direct encounter.

For adultery aims its arrows at the eyes. Therefore one must remember the command of the commander: “Flee fornication.”

Fornication is a vice from which one must flee more than from others.

Other evil forms of sin seem to spare the bodies of those who commit them. What has been done stops only with the one whom the deed has touched.

For example, in robberies only those who are robbed suffer harm. In the vice of envy, the force of the passion falls only on those who are envied.

In slanders, if they are believed, again the danger is only for the one slandered. In murders, the misfortune is for the one killed.

If someone considers the consequence of all unrighteous deeds, he will find that those who act unrighteously receive gain, while those who suffer wrong endure the harm.

But adultery does not know this division. It does not separate the deed of the one subjected to it from the deed of the one who commits it.

It harms both together, uniting the fornicator and the fornicator woman in a common bond of defilement. The one who dishonored the body is equally subjected to dishonor with the one dishonored.

Murderers, when they kill, do not happen to die together with those killed. But the one who defiles flesh himself shares in the defilement.

Look with me at this subtlety in the Apostle's words: “Flee fornication,” he says. Why? Because every sin that a man commits is outside the body.

That is, it does not harm the nature of the body, but is committed outside the body of the man who caused the harm.

“But he who commits fornication sins against his own body.” He is not like a murderer, who sins against another's body while keeping his own unwounded.

He is not like the covetous man, who harms another while guarding against harm to his own body.

The fornicator harms himself. He pierces himself with the arrow of dishonor.

The thief decides upon theft in order to feed the body, but the fornicator takes care to plunder his own flesh.

The covetous man is moved to rapacity by the thought of acquiring gain. Fornication inflicts loss on the purity of the body.

The envious man is made to suffer by another's glory, but the fornicator himself fashions his own disgrace.

For what is more dishonorable than the burden of fornication? Every slavery to sin is inglorious, for it dishonors the nobility of the soul.

But the fornicator is the most inglorious slave of sin. Condemned by it to rake out his own filth, he gathers heaps of uncleanness and performs unclean work.

Is it not vile to go about among filth, to rub oneself against shameful things, and to have a body no different from a rag?

For what difference is there between a rag and a fornicator? He is torn away from the body of the Church.

He is destroyed by daily decay, by sinful pleasures. He is cast aside like a useless rag and lies trampled underfoot by all demons.

The devil stamps his own rot upon him. The outward condition of the fornicator is no less evil than his inward state.

In homes people flee from him. In gatherings they turn away from him. He is an offense to those who draw near him, an object of contempt to those hostile to him, and a disgrace to relatives.

Servants curse him. He is grief to parents, a laughingstock to those of the household, and a subject of laughter and talk for neighbors.

He is rejected when he tries to marry. After marriage he is a suspect husband.

Seeing that fornication is the matter of such a multitude of evils, Paul commands a victorious flight: “Flee fornication.”

These words today reminded me of the chaste youth who triumphed by flight over Egyptian fornication.

Much inclined the youth to be carried away: the age in which love of pleasures is strong, the yoke of slavery, and the amorous enticement of his mistress.

For Scripture says: “It came to pass on such a day that Joseph went into the house to do his work, and there was no one of the household inside.

And his mistress caught him by his garments, saying, ‘Lie with me’” (Gen 39:11-12).

Great is the dignity of chastity! It made the mistress the slave of a slave.

The arrow of fornication had been set aflame, but it found no combustible matter in the soul and was extinguished in the garment.

She said, “Lie with me,” but chastity cried to the youth in reply, “Keep watch with me,” and by his deed he showed his wakefulness.

The vigilance of the spirit did not slumber because of enticements, and the mind did not fall asleep because of enchantments.

Yet for him the voice of the mistress commanding, “Lie with me,” was more bitter than battle.

The bridal escort of fornication, the devil, stood ready. Together with the harlot he pulled at the garments and took part in her snares.

But he did not know that he had entered a contest with a skilled and experienced athlete of chastity, one well able to slip away from her traps.

For Scripture says, “Leaving his garments in her hands, he fled and went outside” (Gen 39:13).

O nakedness more modest than covering with clothing! But what did the frenzy of Egyptian dissoluteness do?

It lays its own vices upon Joseph. Running to her husband, she says: “You brought in to us a Hebrew servant to mock us. He said to me, ‘I will lie with you.’

But when I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garments with me and fled” (Gen 39:14-15).

Again Joseph is slandered because of a garment. Earlier, his brothers took his garment and by it wickedly slandered him, saying that he had been torn by beasts.

Now a woman takes his garment and slanders him concerning fornication.

The words of the Lord fittingly apply to Joseph: “They divided My garments among themselves” (Ps 22:18).

But O righteous care of God for Joseph! He did not glorify Joseph before the temptations, but in dreams showed him the future.

He taught that from afar He had already prepared glory for the righteous. Yet He was pleased to test the youth by temptation, so as to stop the mouths of faultfinders.

If Joseph had not given proof of his virtue, the faultfinders would have said that the events in Egypt were the work of blind chance.

Joseph reigns, and a servant commands barbarians. What valor did he display? For what virtue did he attain this?

To forestall such talk about the righteous man, God consents to his temptation. Thus it became a testimony for the righteous man and stopped the mouths of faultfinders.

Therefore let us turn away from the arrows that a wanton image casts. Let us close our eyes to love of pleasure.

Let chastity keep watch over the guarding of the body. Let purity dwell in the members, so that the body may thus be the dwelling of the Spirit.

Let us also set down the very sentence that proclaims a fearful decree for the dissolute: “If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him” (1 Cor 3:17).

The murderer kills another, but the fornicator wrongs himself. Those who commit other transgressions commit them against another, but the lustful man shames himself and defiles himself.

For this reason those who have fallen into fornication wash themselves, thinking of their defilement and loathing the indecency of the deed.

Other transgressions harm the one who suffers the wrong, but this one harms the one who does the wrong.

Other sins are outside the body of the one who commits them, but this one defiles the one who commits it.

In other sins injury is inflicted on others. In fornication it is inflicted on oneself.

If you wish another door to be opened, consider this. Often, when exhorting a man who has not committed unforgivable sins, we say: “Brother, free yourself from this sickness. It is worse than all sicknesses.”

We say this not because it truly surpasses all sicknesses, but because we desire to free the brother even from this one.

Was it not for this reason that the Apostle said this about fornication? He spoke this word because he wished to bring the fornicator among the Corinthians to chastity.

If a third door is needed, consider this. One who throws a grain of wheat, or some other seed, into the sea sins against the seed, preventing it from bearing fruit.

So too, one who casts his seed into a harlot sins against his own body. For she not only destroys what has been conceived, but also prevents conception.

If you wish to open a fourth door, one should consider that the fornicator suffers in the same measure as he acts. If he did not suffer, he would not destroy himself.

But if he destroyed himself, then he corrupted himself. If he corrupted himself, then he insulted himself.

It is known that no act except the fleshly union of a man with a woman is said to corrupt a deceived maiden or youth.

If a fifth door is needed, consider this. If a child is born to one who has joined himself to a harlot, the child is raised for fornication.

Whoever later looks at him will say: “Truly, this man wronged himself. For behold, his seed, or rather his body, is given over to fornication.”

If you require a sixth door, know this. If someone enters into communion with a slave woman, then what is born will also be in slavery.

Does not the man who strives to beget a slave sin against himself?

If you wish for a seventh door, look at this. The one born also suffers injury, because he is called illegitimate and is everywhere subjected to dishonor.

If he enters a council or a court, from everywhere they drive him out. Through this the father also suffers shame, because he has left behind a memorial of his own baseness.

If you wish to open an eighth door, let us consider what else we may say.

Since the fornicator becomes one with the harlot, by making his members members of a harlot (1 Cor 6:15), he truly sins against himself.

Other things have been used for good by some: killing by Moses and Phinehas, and anger by the Apostles Peter and Paul. But no one has ever used fornication for good.

Therefore it defiles the one who commits it. I shall pass over in silence that those who kill in war are even deemed worthy of trophies and praises.

If you wish us also to turn to the path of allegory, let a ninth door be mentioned.

Since the Church is one body, and believers are members one of another (Rom 12:5), the fornicator sins against all. His transgression extends to the whole fullness of the Church.

For this reason the Apostle commanded that he be cut off from the Church until he repents.

If you wish to open a tenth door, one may say this. Those joined according to the law of honorable marriage become one body, for it is said, “The two shall become one flesh” (Gen 2:24).

Therefore the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does (1 Cor 7:4).

It is therefore just that a husband who commits fornication sins against his wife, that is, against his own body.

A wife who commits fornication likewise sins against her own body, that is, against the husband who has become her body.

Therefore, according to the law of what has been made one, other sins are not sins against one's own body.

If a husband breaks an oath, kills, steals, or does some other grave thing, the sin does not extend to the wife.

Likewise, if a wife kills or breaks an oath, the sin does not pass to the husband.

Fornication alone touches conjugal cohabitation and union. Each spouse inflicts injury on the other if he or she falls into fornication.

It makes the legitimacy of the children suspect and shakes the whole house to its foundation.

For this reason Christ said that a husband must bear all the shortcomings of his wife, since they do not pertain to him.

Only for fornication did He command a man to send his wife away from himself (Mt 19:9), because this injury extends to the spouse.

For whatever sins we do, they are all outside the body. We commit envy, theft, plunder, slander, false witness, blasphemy, and the rest. These sins are outside our body, insofar as they harm the soul and others, but cause no harm to our body.

The fornicator, however, by committing fornication harms and injures his own body, weakening it, defiling it, and making it unclean.

Notice here two things. First, the word "flee," which means swift and complete turning away from such a sin. Second, he did not say only as a lawgiver, "Flee fornication," but also declared as a teacher the reasons why one must flee it.

"Flee," he says, "fornication." Every other sin that you commit harms the soul, but not also the body. Fornication, however, harms our very body. This is one reason. Then he adds another, saying:

The bodily and spiritual union of Christians with the Lord is founded partly on our creation by the Lord the Creator. It is also founded partly on the Incarnation of the God-man Christ.

He became the Head of the whole body of His Church, in relation to which we are different members.

Our union with Christ concerns our body also, yet the binding power is rooted chiefly in the spirit, which governs the whole being of the Christian.

Whoever is united to Christ in spirit naturally becomes not only one body, but also one spirit with the Lord.

It is clear that such a person can no longer give himself decisively to anyone except the Lord.

The intimate relation into which adulterers enter is revealed from this alone: they enter a union similar to marriage, of which it was said in ancient times that the two become one flesh.

How the whole body is defiled through fornication is revealed by the great perversion of nature that takes place here.

This perversion is very often accompanied by the most destructive consequences for the body and soul of sinners of this kind.

Both the Apostle himself and his interpreters dwell especially on the highest motives for bodily abstinence.

For example, Saint John Chrysostom says: “The body was not created so that you might live without restraint and commit fornication, just as the belly was not made so that you might give yourself to gluttony.

It was created so that it might serve Christ as Head, and that He might be Lord for the body.

Let us then be ashamed and afraid. We have been deemed worthy of such honor and have become His members, yet we dishonor ourselves with vices.

If our body is a member of Christ, and Christ is risen, then the body without doubt will follow its Head.”

To this His Grace Theophan adds: “By awakening thought of the brightness of the risen Lord's body, the Apostle makes us imagine in what brightness our body will rise.

In this he prepares the strongest inducement to flee fornication, which darkens both soul and body.

The vision of the brightness of the future body served for all ascetics as a powerful motive to refine the body as much as possible, and especially not to allow lustful excitements.

When any of them, by the grace of God, was deemed worthy that lust within him was extinguished and died away, people said of him that before the general resurrection he had tasted its power.

Some of them, when grace-filled movements awakened during prayer, sometimes became wholly luminous. In others, the hands raised to heaven became luminous.

All these are tangible signs that they had tasted the power of the future resurrection.

The Christian body is pure, holy, and akin to the body of Christ, since it is in mystical union with it.

The passion of fornication makes the body dark and shameful. When fornication is committed, the darkness becomes impenetrable and the stench unapproachable.

Fleshly people do not see or perceive this. Spiritual people and the angels see and perceive it.

Fornication completely tears one away from the Lord, for what is dark and foul-smelling can no longer be one with the Lord.”

From this it is clear why the Apostle says, “Flee fornication.” That is, withdraw from this vice swiftly and irreversibly, as from the lowest and most shameful of all.

But what is the meaning of this: every sin is outside the body, but the fornicator sins against his own body? Some say that other sins, though committed by bodily members as instruments, have the sin itself outside the body. In fornication, however, the sin itself is in the body.

Others say that other sins are committed by one member, which they defile, but fornication defiles the whole body. Still others say that the fornicator sins against his own body because he exhausts it, tears away a part of it, and casts it away senselessly.

Let us make extracts from our commentators. Chrysostom says: "You will say, does not the murderer, the covetous man, and the robber defile his hand? Everyone knows that they do.

But the Apostle wished to suggest that no one is worse than the fornicator. Since he did not wish to say this directly, he depicts the gravity of this sin in another way.

He explains that through fornication the whole body becomes unclean. It is defiled as though it had fallen into a filthy vessel filled with impurities.

Therefore we have this custom: after acts of greed and vengeance no one takes care to wash, but returns straight home. After lustful sin, however, men go to wash, as though they had become wholly unclean.

So especially does conscience feel shame for this sin. Both sins are grievous, covetousness and lustful sin, and both cast into Gehenna. Yet, acting with every care, Saint Paul shows the gravity of adultery by every means he could."

Theodoret writes almost the same: "Whoever commits thousands of other sins, breaks oaths, defiles the tongue with blasphemies, or appropriates what in no way belongs to him, does not feel the sin so vividly.

But the man who has become a slave of uncleanness immediately feels the evil after committing the sin, and loathes the body itself. Therefore, going to the baths, he washes the body, thinking that by this he will cast off some of the foulness."

Oecumenius says: "Other sins arise from a passion of the soul, such as vainglory, covetousness, or envy. In lustful sin, however, the source of desire proceeds from the body itself."

He also cites the opinion of Saint Athanasius: "Other sins harm the soul alone, but the lustful man corrupts and destroys both soul and body, exhausting the psychic and vital power."

And Photius says: "The lustful man does evil to this very body and to himself. This does not happen in any other sin. Other sinners harm others, but the lustful man does evil to himself."

A man surrendered to this passion quickly exhausts the powers of body and soul and descends into the grave. In this respect he greatly resembles a drunkard. What could apply to both of them the Apostle applies to the fornicator alone, because he is speaking about him.

The fornicator thinks that he is delighting himself. In reality, it turns out that he is preparing a grave for himself.