MISREADING I CORINTHIANS 6:19

My wife has been interested in our family history for some time now. And she came across a note in the flyleaf of the Bible belonging to one of our ancestors. It read: “I Corinthians 6-19 prooves (sic) we have no free moral will.”

That seemed to be a rather strong statement, even coming from a strict Calvinist, so I looked at that verse myself to see if I would reach the same conclusion. Here is how the NRSV renders that passage:

“Or do you not know that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?”

Then, as I do whenever I hear a somewhat dubious interpretation of a given verse, I began to read the surrounding context of those words. And I didn't have to go very far afield in either direction in order to find ample contradiction of that ancestor's explanation of v. 19. In fact, the strongest indications that he was incorrect came from just looking at the previous and subsequent verses.

Thus, verse 19 is prefaced by these words: “Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself.” If we have no free moral will at all, then why did Paul waste his time telling us to avoid certain sinful actions if we had no control over those actions in the first place?

At this point, the only statement in I Corinthians 6:19 which might possibly lead one to say that we had no free will is the final phrase: “you are not your own.” However, the subsequent verse goes on to clarify the meaning of that phrase when it says, “For you were bought with a price.” In other words, a believer is supposed to be no longer free to go ahead doing whatever selfish act he or she wishes since Christ sacrificed on our behalf and we now belong rightly to Him.

If that were not enough to challenge this ancestor's interpretation, verse 20 concludes by urging believers to “glorify God in your body.” This serves as a positive expansion of the negative admonition in verse 18. So together, the two bookend verses to the one in question state that we do have control of our moral will and need to direct it not only away from sinful activities but also toward those actions which will glorify God at the same time.

The only remaining question I ask myself is, “Why did this ancestor go so much out of his way to misconstrue this passage? (It happened to be the only passage in his Bible on which he bothered commenting.) I know from his background that he wasn't necessarily raised in strict Calvinist congregations.

The most probable answer comes from my wife's genealogical research, in which it becomes apparent that this person had made some horrible life choices which negatively impacted a number of people in his family. My educated guess, although I don't want to appear too judgmental of other people since I have enough reason to be ashamed of things I have done, is that this was his way of reconciling himself to his past behavior. It is like Skip Wilson's favorite line: “The Devil made me do it!” It is always a lot easier to blame God or Satan for one's own shortcomings rather than facing up to them and then asking for forgiveness. But then, most of us tend to take the easy way out.