Verse 20. Ye are bought with a price] As the slave who is purchased by his master for a sum of money is the sole property of that master, so ye, being bought with the price of the blood of Christ, are not your own, you are his property. As the slave is bound to use all his skill and diligence for the emolument of his master, so you should employ body, soul, and spirit in the service of your Lord; promoting, by every means in your power, the honour and glory of your God, whom you must also consider as your Lord and Master.
There are strange discordances in MSS., versions, and fathers, on the conclusion of this verse; and the clauses kai en tw pneumati umwn, atina esti tou qeou, and in your spirit, which is God's, is wanting in ABC*D*EFG, some others, Coptic, AEthiopic, Vulgate, and Itala, and in several of the primitive fathers. Almost every critic of note considers them to be spurious. Whether retained or expunged the sense is the same.
Instead of price simply, the Vulgate and some of the Latin fathers, read, pretio magno, with a great price; and instead of glorify, simply, they read glorificate et portate, glorify and carry God in your bodies. These readings appear to be glosses intended to explain the text. Litigious Christians, who will have recourse to law for every little difference, as well as the impure, may read this chapter either to their conviction or confusion.
That is, be it ever so small a price, yet if given and taken on the account of espousals, it made them valid; and it was an ancient rite in marriage used among other nations for husband and wife to buy each other: Christ, indeed, did not purchase his church to be his spouse, but because she was so; but then his purchasing of her with his blood more clearly demonstrated and confirmed his right unto her, as his spouse; he betrothed her to himself in eternity, in the everlastingcovenant of grace; but she, with the rest of the individuals of human nature, fell into sin, and so, under the sentence of the law, into the hands of Satan, and the captivity of the world; to redeem her from whence, and by so doing to own and declare her his spouse, and his great love to her, he gave himself a ransomprice for her; which lays her under the greatest obligation to preserve an inviolable chastity to him, and to love and honour him. Therefore glorifyGod in your body and in your spirit , which are Gods; by God is here meant more especially the LordJesusChrist, by the price of whose blood the bodies and souls of his people are bought, which lays the obligation on them to glorify him in and with both; and contains a very considerable proof of the deity of Christ; who is glorified, when all the perfections of the divinenature are ascribed to him; when the whole of salvation is attributed to him, and he is looked unto, received, trusted in and depended on as a Saviour, and praise and thanks are given unto him on that account; and when his Gospel is embraced and professed, and walked worthy of, and his ordinances submitted to, and his commandments kept in love to him: and he is to be glorified both in body and spirit; in body, by an outward attendance on his worship, and a becoming external conversation; by confessing and speaking well of him; by acting for him, laying out and using time, strength, and substance, for his honour and interest; and by patient suffering for his names sake: in spirit, which is done when the heart or spirit is given up to him, and is engaged in his service, and when his glorylies near unto it; the reason enforcing all this, is because both are his; not only by creation, but by his Fathers gift of both unto him; by his espousal of their whole persons to himself; and by his redemption of both soul and body from destruction: the Vulgate version reads, bear or carry God in your body, and leaves out the next words, and in your spirit, which are Gods; and which also are left out in the Ethiopic and in the Alexandrian copy, and some others.
Verses 12-20 - Some among the Corinthians seem to have been ready to say, All thing are lawful for me. This dangerousconceit St. Paul opposes. There is liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, in which we must stand fast But surely a Christian would never put himself into the power of an bodily appetite. The body is for the Lord; is to be an instrument of righteousness to holiness, therefore is never to be made an instrumen of sin. It is an honour to the body, that JesusChrist was raised from the dead; and it will be an honour to our bodies, that they will be raised. The hope of a resurrection to glory, should keep Christian from dishonouring their bodies by fleshly lusts. And if the soul be united to Christ by faith, the whole man is become a member of his spiritual body. Other vices may be conquered in fight; that her cautioned against, only by flight. And vast multitudes are cut off by this vice in its various forms and consequences. Its effects fall no only directly upon the body, but often upon the mind. Our bodies have been redeemed from deserved condemnation and hopeless slavery by the atoning sacrifice of Christ. We are to be clean, as vessels fitted for our Master's use. Being united to Christ as one spirit, and bought with a price of unspeakable value, the believer should consider himself a wholly the Lord's, by the strongest ties. May we make it our business to the latest day and hour of our lives, to glorifyGod with ou bodies, and with our spirits which are his __________________________________________________________________
6:20 {For ye were bought with a price} (egorasqete gar times). First aorist passive indicative of agorazw, old verb to buy in the marketplace (agora). With genitive of price. Paul does not here state the price as Peter does in #1Pe 1:19 (the blood of Christ) and as Jesus does in #Mt 20:28 (his life a ransom). The Corinthians understood his meaning. {GlorifyGod therefore in your body} (doxasate de ton qeon en twi swmati humwn). Passionate conclusion to his powerful argument against sexual uncleanness. de is a shortened form of ede and is an urgent inferential particle. See on Lu 2:15. Paul holds to his high ideal of the destiny of the body and urges glorifying God in it. Some of the later Christians felt that Paul's words could be lightened a bit by adding "and in your spirits which are his," but these words are found only in late MSS. and are clearly not genuine. Paul's argument stands four-square for the dignity of the body as the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit united to the LordJesus.
