1 Corinthians 6:19

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Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

1 Corinthians 6:19 (NKJV)

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.

1 Corinthians 6:19 (NIV)

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

1 Corinthians 6:19 (KJV)

Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself.

1 Corinthians 6:19 (NLT)

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own.

1 Corinthians 6:19 (ESV)

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

1 Corinthians 6:19 (NASB)

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is within you, whom you have [received as a gift] from God, and that you are not your own [property]?

1 Corinthians 6:19 (AMP)

Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMP), Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own.

1 Corinthians 6:19 (AMPC)

Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMPC), Copyright © 1954, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

Didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for?

1 Corinthians 6:19 (MSG)

Scripture quotations from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.

New Covenant Meaning

Naos: The Inner Sanctuary, Not Just the Temple Complex

Paul uses the specific Greek word naos for the temple of the Holy Spirit in the believer's body, not the general word hieron. Naos referred to the inner sanctuary of the temple, the holy of holies where the presence of God resided. The hieron was the broader temple complex including courts and outer buildings. When Paul says the body is a naos, he is saying it is not merely part of a religious system or a place of religious activity. It is the specific inner dwelling place of the divine presence. In the old covenant, the holy of holies was entered once a year by the high priest alone. In the new covenant, every believer's body is the naos, the specific dwelling of the Holy Spirit.

"You Are Not Your Own": Ownership Has Changed

Verse 19 closes with a theological declaration that follows directly from the temple identity: "you are not your own." The body is not the believer's private property to be used however they please. It has been bought at a price (v. 20) and is now inhabited by the Holy Spirit. This is not a threatening diminishment of personal freedom. It is a statement about belonging: the believer belongs to the God who purchased them and dwells within them. The implication for how the body is used flows naturally from the ownership: the body is to be used in ways that honor the one who owns it and the one who inhabits it.

The immediate context of 1 Corinthians 6:19 is sexual immorality (v. 18), specifically the argument that the body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body (v. 13). Paul is arguing against the Corinthian slogan "all things are lawful" (v. 12) as justification for sexual license. His counter-argument is not primarily a list of prohibited behaviors but a reconfiguration of the believer's understanding of what the body is and to whom it belongs. If the body is the naos of the Holy Spirit, then what the body does with itself is not a matter of personal preference. It is a matter of what is appropriate to a sanctuary.

Application for Your Life

The Body Is Sacred, Not Secular

The common division between the spiritual and the physical, in which the soul matters to God and the body is neutral or even an obstacle to spiritual life, is directly contradicted by 1 Corinthians 6:19. The body is the naos. It is the specific dwelling place of the Spirit. This means what you do with your body is spiritual activity. How you eat, sleep, exercise, rest, use your physical energy, express yourself sexually, and inhabit your physical existence all has spiritual significance because the body that does these things is the temple of the Holy Spirit. There is no purely secular use of the body for the believer.

Honor God in Your Body

Verse 20 gives the practical conclusion: "Therefore glorify God in your body." The positive implication of the temple identity is not primarily a list of prohibitions but a call to active glorification. The body that is the dwelling place of the Spirit is used to glorify God: in worship, in service, in the embodied expression of love for God and others. The believer who understands that their body is the naos of the Holy Spirit approaches bodily existence with a sense of sacred purpose, not merely a checklist of things to avoid.

Prayer Based on This Verse

Holy Spirit, I receive this truth. My body is Your temple, Your specific dwelling place. You live in me. I am not my own. I have been purchased at a price. I want to honor the one who inhabits me and the one who bought me in everything I do with this body: how I use my time, my physical energy, my sexuality, my capacity. Cleanse me of any use of the body that is inconsistent with being Your sanctuary. And fill me afresh. Let everything that flows out of this body be a reflection of the one who dwells within it. In Jesus name. Amen.