1 Corinthians 6:15

Members of Christ. The church is the body of Christ, and He is the head of the body, the individual believers being members of the body (see 1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 1:22, 23; 4:12, 13, 15, 16; 5:30). The believers are as closely and vitally united with Christ as the hand or foot is with the physical body. As the members of the physical body are controlled and guided in the performance of their respective functions by the head, so believers receive from Jesus, the spiritual head, guidance and strength to perform their Christian duties.

The third argument against licentiousness is given in this verse (cf. on vs. 13, 14). It is that Christians are united to Christ, and it is unthinkable to take the members of Christ and pollute them by immorality. Christ is wholly pure. His followers, being united to Him, are bound to be pure as He is, and those who hope to meet Him at His second advent will continually strive to preserve that purity (see 1 John 3:3). Could a true Christian put what belongs to Christ, and is a part of Him, one of His members, to such a vile use? Christians have been called with a high and holy calling, and cannot accept the low standards of the unbelieving world as a standard for their behavior (see Phil. 3:14; 1 Thess. 1:4; 2 Tim. 1:9; Heb. 3:1). The believer is baptized “into Christ” (Gal. 3:27), and becomes a member of Christ, and is required to preserve that sacred relationship, keeping all his body consecrated to the Lord.

God forbid. See on Rom. 3:4, 31. This expression forcibly voices the hope that something suggested by a previous statement will never happen. The phrase is found 15 times in the NT, and 14 of these are in the writings of Paul. In this verse the phrase shows the apostle’s abhorrence of the very thought that members of Christ should be severed from Him and become “members of an harlot.”