Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
Parallel translations
- WEB Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
- BSB Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
- NKJV Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
- NASB Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
- NLT Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Flee sexual immorality, for it is a sin against one's own body. It matters because this sin uniquely defiles the very body united to Christ.
Overview
Paul commands not to resist but to 'flee' immorality, as Joseph did. He explains that unlike other sins, sexual sin is committed against one's own body in a peculiar way, violating the one-flesh design and the body's belonging to the Lord. The urgency of flight reflects how deeply this sin assaults the believer's God-given identity.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- 1 Pet 2:11Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
- 1 Th 4:3For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
- Col 3:5Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
- Rom 6:12–13Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
- 2 Tim 2:22Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
- Heb 13:4Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
- Eph 5:3But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
- 1 Cor 6:9Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
- 1 Th 4:5Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:
- Prov 6:24–32To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.
- 2 Cor 12:21And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.
- Prov 5:3–15For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
- Gen 39:12–18And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.
- Rom 1:24Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
- Prov 9:16–18Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him,
- Prov 7:5–27That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.
- Prov 2:16–19To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
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Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.
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Original language
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