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Paul’s quotation of the same slogan in 6:12 and 10:23, Everything is permissible, suggests that there is some kind of inner connection within chs. 6-10 (Conzelmann, 109). Paul accepts and modifies what must have been a Corinthian motto. He concedes, “That’s true, but. . . .”
Paul urges his hearers to continue to flee from sexual immorality (v.18), and provides several reasons for sexual purity. Sexual sins are especially sinful because they are inherently self-destructive (see Pr 6:23-35; Sir 23:16). Paul rejects the notion, held by sophisticated pagans in his day and ours, that what one does with one’s body is one’s own business. On the contrary, he reminds his readers that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Unlike 3:16, here Paul refers to the individual bodies of his hearers as dwelling places of the Holy Spirit, whose holy presence demands individual lives of sexual purity (see 1Th 4:3-8).
God’s gift to believers places a claim on their lives: You were bought at a price (6:20; see 7:23). The mercantile imagery of the transfer of slaves underlies this claim. Paul’s anthropology leaves no room for the notion of absolute freedom. Human beings always live under the influence of one lordship or another. We are not free to be free but to choose our master. Sinners are helpless slaves to sin. As believers, we are not our own property; we belong to God. Since he is our Lord, we are to honor him with our bodies.
In the Wesleyan tradition this passage has a long history of application to personal vices beyond the sexual realm. And rightly so; fornication is not the only sin we may commit against our own bodies. The lordship of Christ requires us to put aside every “right” that threatens to compromise our exclusive bodily allegiance to him. It is not enough simply to abstain from evil; we are to praise God by the active giving of ourselves to his service in daily life.