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1 Corinthians 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.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

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

  • TYNDALE Tyndale New Testament (1534)

    Fle fornicacion. All synnes that a man dothe are with out the body. But he that is a fornicator synneth agaynst his awne body.

  • GNV Geneva Bible (1599)

    Flee fornication: euery sinne that a man doeth, is without the bodie: but hee that committeth fornication, sinneth against his owne bodie.

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Contradictions (1)

Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.

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Cross-references (17)

Passages linked to 1 Corinthians 6:18 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • 1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
  • 1 Thessalonians 4:3 For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality,
  • Colossians 3:5 Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
  • Romans 6:12-13 Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
  • 2 Timothy 2:22 Flee from youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
  • Hebrews 13:4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled; but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
  • 1 Corinthians 6:9 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,
  • Ephesians 5:3 But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints;
  • Proverbs 6:24-32 to keep you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the wayward wife’s tongue. Don’t lust after her beauty in your heart, neither let her captivate you with her eyelids. For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for your precious life. Can a man scoop fire into his lap, and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be scorched? So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife. Whoever touches her will not be unpunished. Men don’t despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry; but if he is found, he shall restore seven times. He shall give all the wealth of his house. He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul.
  • 1 Thessalonians 4:5 not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don’t know God,
  • 2 Corinthians 12:21 that again when I come my God would humble me before you, and I would mourn for many of those who have sinned before now, and not repented of the uncleanness, sexual immorality, and lustfulness which they committed.
  • Proverbs 5:3-15 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil, but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol. She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn’t know it. Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don’t depart from the words of my mouth. Remove your way far from her. Don’t come near the door of her house, lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one; lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man’s house. You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed, and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me! I have come to the brink of utter ruin, among the gathered assembly.” Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.
  • Genesis 39:12-18 She caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me!” He left his garment in her hand, and ran outside. When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and had run outside, she called to the men of her house, and spoke to them, saying, “Behold, he has brought a Hebrew in to us to mock us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice. When he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment by me, and ran outside.” She laid up his garment by her, until his master came home. She spoke to him according to these words, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought to us, came in to me to mock me, and as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment by me, and ran outside.”
  • Proverbs 2:16-19 to deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words, who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God; for her house leads down to death, her paths to the departed spirits. None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life.
  • Proverbs 7:5-27 that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words. For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice. I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding, passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house, in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness. Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent. She is loud and defiant. Her feet don’t stay in her house. Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner. So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him: “Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. Today I have paid my vows. Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you. I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let’s take our fill of loving until the morning. Let’s solace ourselves with loving. For my husband isn’t at home. He has gone on a long journey. He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon.” With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him. He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose. Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn’t know that it will cost his life. Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth. Don’t let your heart turn to her ways. Don’t go astray in her paths, for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army. Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the rooms of death.
  • Proverbs 9:16-18 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here.” as for him who is void of understanding, she says to him, “Stolen water is sweet. Food eaten in secret is pleasant.” But he doesn’t know that the departed spirits are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
  • Romans 1:24 Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves;

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (19 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 18. Flee fornication Every sin, etc. Having set before…

18. Flee fornication Every sin, etc. Having set before us honorable conduct, he now shows how much we ought to abhor fornication, setting before us the enormity of its wickedness and baseness. Now he shows its greatness by comparison — that this sin alone, of all sins, puts a brand of disgrace upon the body. The body, it is true, is defiled also by theft, and murder, and drunkenness, in accordance with those statements —

Your hands are defiled with blood. (Isaiah 1:15.)

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You have yielded your members instruments of iniquity unto sin, (Romans 6:19,)

and the like. Hence some, in order to avoid this inconsistency, understand the words rendered against his own body, as meaning against us, as being connected with Christ; but this appears to me to be more ingenious than solid. Besides, they do not escape even in this way, because that same thing, too, might be affirmed of idolatry equally with fornication. For he who prostrates himself before an idol, sins against connection with Christ. Hence I explain it in this way, that he does not altogether deny that there are other vices, in like manner, by which our body is dishonored and disgraced, but that his meaning is simply this — that defilement does not attach itself to our body from other vices in the same way as it does from fornication My hand, it is true, is defiled by theft or murder, my tongue by evil speaking, or perjury, and the whole body by drunkenness; but fornication leaves a stain impressed upon the body, such as is not impressed upon it from other sins. According to this comparison, or, in other words, in the sense of less and more, other sins are said to be without the body — not, however, as though they do not at all affect the body, viewing each one by itself.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Another argument why fornication is to be eschewed, because…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The apostle cometh to a new argument, by which…
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Flee fornication.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Flee fornication,.... As that which is hurtful, scandalous, and…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Flee fornication - All unlawful commerce with women, with…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 18. Flee fornication.] Abominate, detest, and escape from…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Flee fornication - A solemn command of God -…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Flee--The only safety in such temptations is flight (Gen…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 18. The apostle now breaks out in direct address,…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 18. Every sin that a man doeth is without…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (18) Flee fornication.—These last three verses of the chapter…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Flee fornication. In the battle against sensual sins, there…
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 18–20. Flee fornication. The sin must be fled. The…
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain 18. “Every sin which a man may do is…
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain Flee fornication . [As Joseph did-- Gen_39:12 ] Every…
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Run away from
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 6:18-20 For Christians, the body is the temple of…

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