What Does 1 Corinthians 6:18 Mean?
Flee the selling of bodies. Every shortcoming that a person does is outside the body; but the one who sells bodies misses the mark against his own body.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.THE KEY
The body is not outside this act; it is where the verse says the harm lands.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the reader now: fornication is named as an act against one’s own body, while other sin is described as outside it. Its opening command is flight, so the text treats distance from the act as part of recognizing where it lands.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that sexual conduct can remain external to the self is undone here: the verse says this act is against one’s own body.
THE ROOT
σῶμα
sōma
GROWS FROM
σῶμα
sōma
body; the embodied self
Related forms keep the bodily sense visible. The verse’s contrast therefore lands in the reader’s lived body: it is not outside the event but the part against which the act is turned.
ALSO GROWS
sōmatikos: bodily; physical
σωματικός
This form retains the concrete bodily sense carried by σῶμα.
sōmatikōs: bodily; in bodily form
σωματικῶς
This adverb keeps the same word family tied to what happens in the body.
φεύγω
pheugō
GROWS FROM
φεύγω
pheugō
to flee; to escape
“Flee” in this verse is pheugō. The word names movement away, not simply an inward refusal. Its related forms name flight and a fugitive, making the command a change of distance from what the verse names.
ALSO GROWS
phygē: flight; escape
φυγή
The noun gives a name to the movement commanded here.
phygas: fugitive; one who flees
φυγάς
This branch describes a person by the same act of leaving.
πορνεία
porneia
GROWS FROM
πορνεία
porneia
sexual immorality
“the selling of bodies” in this verse is porneia. This word belongs to a family naming sexual conduct. The sentence then makes its consequence specific: the act is against one’s own body.
ALSO GROWS
pornē: prostitute
πόρνη
This related noun shows the word family’s association with sexual conduct.
porneuō: to commit sexual immorality
πορνεύω
This verb names the act described in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Across scripture, the text treats distance from a dangerous entanglement as a meaningful response in itself.
And she seized him by his garment, saying, Lie with me. And he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and went outside.So, my beloved, flee from the service of images.Flee the youthful cravings, but pursue alignment, trust, love, and wholeness, with those who call upon the Lord out of a clean heart.THE THREAD
Flee the youthful cravings, but pursue alignment, trust, love, and wholeness, with those who call upon the Lord out of a clean heart.Both verses use the same Greek verb for fleeing, so the connection is carried by the text’s own word for movement away. Here the body is named as the place the act turns against; in 2 Timothy, the same movement marks distance from youthful desires.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us