ESTUDIO DEL VERSÍCULO
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 — The Body as the Spirit's Temple
Believers' bodies are the Holy Spirit's temple, redeemed by Christ's price, so they must glorify God in their bodies.
Escritura
- 19.¿O ignoráis que vuestro cuerpo es templo del Espíritu Santo, el cual está en vosotros, el cual tenéis de Dios, y que no sois vuestros?Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own;
- 20.Porque habéis sido comprados por precio; glorificad, pues, a Dios en vuestro cuerpo y en vuestro espíritu, los cuales son de Dios.for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body.
Qué significa este pasaje
These verses close a section on sexual purity with two foundational declarations about the believer's body. First, the body is described as a temple (or dwelling place) of the Holy Spirit, who is already present within the Christian and received from God. Because of that indwelling presence, the Christian no longer has unrestricted autonomy over the body; they are not their own.
Second, this ownership change rests on a transaction: the believer was bought with a price. The language of being "bought" establishes that the body now belongs to the one who paid, so the practical conclusion follows — glorify God in the body. The imperative ties bodily conduct directly to God's honor rather than to personal preference or comfort.
Because the original text provides no cross references or original-language entries, the meaning here is drawn only from the wording of these two verses and from the surrounding argument about avoiding sexual immorality.
Contexto
Verses 16-18 set the stage: union with the Lord makes one spirit with Him, while sexual immorality is singled out as a sin against one's own body, since it makes two bodies one. Verse 19 then grounds that warning in who indwells the body, and verse 20 supplies the basis — purchase by Christ — for the command to glorify God bodily.
The earlier part of the chapter moves from lawsuits among believers (vv. 1-8) to a list of those who will not inherit God's kingdom (vv. 9-11), and to the principle that the body is for the Lord (vv. 12-15). The body-as-temple saying in vv. 19-20 caps this argument, grounding ethical instruction in the believer's new identity and ownership.
Preguntas frecuentes
Why does Paul call the body a temple of the Holy Spirit?
According to verse 19, the Spirit whom God gave already dwells in the believer, so the body is described as His dwelling place. The point is ownership and presence, not architectural detail.
What does it mean that believers were 'bought with a price'?
Verse 20 states this as the reason the body now belongs to God. Paul does not define the price here; he simply grounds the command to glorify God in the fact that believers have been purchased and therefore are no longer their own (v. 19).
How does this passage relate to the warnings about sexual immorality in verses 16-18?
Verses 16-18 teach that sexual immorality uniquely sins against one's own body by making it one with another. Verses 19-20 supply the deeper reason: the body houses the Holy Spirit and has been purchased by Christ, so glorifying God in the body is the fitting response rather than misusing it.