To us, just as to you, the explanation you provide seems strange. The Apostle Paul, as far as can be understood, is speaking about the following...
To us, just as to you, the explanation you provide seems strange. The Apostle Paul, as far as can be understood, is speaking about the following. He who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body. Conversely, the apostle writes, he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit. The apostle uses the verb kollao in both cases, literally meaning "to glue, to cleave, to join." He is appealing to the imagery conveyed in the Book of Genesis by the words "and a man shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." This is where the verb "cleave" comes from.
Just as the words "they shall become one flesh" do not imply merging, so in the second case the bold imagery of the apostle does not imply the merging of the human spirit with God. On the contrary, the apostle is faithful to the tradition of the Old Testament, which uses marriage as an image of the relationship with God, where there is essential unity, the closest of bonds, while preserving the distinction of persons, where the persons do not merge into one, but become inextricably together. In the union of people "in one spirit with the Lord" there is similarly no merging, the essential distinction of individualities similarly remains, but the closeness of this unity is such that it is impossible to imagine one without the Other.
Thus, it refers to what the theology of the first millennium (so-called patristic theology) termed "theosis" (deification). The Lord Jesus Christ spoke of this: "that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us." This is the entering of people into the mystery of the love of the Trinity, such love that overcomes difference and unites without violating freedom and individuality. Just as the Father and the Son are one, so too can a person who has cleaved to the Lord be one with God and other people. Strictly speaking, this unity without merging is paradoxical; human thought knows no examples of it other than the Trinity. And such union with God is precisely the ultimate goal of our lives.
Therefore, the Apostle Paul is speaking in a somewhat unusual manner about the covenant (union) with God, to which humanity is called.
6
6:12 All things - Which are lawful for you. Are lawful for me, but all things are not always expedient - Particularly when anything would offend my weak brother; or when it would enslave my own soul. For though all things are lawful for me, yet I will not be brought under the power of any - So as to be uneasy when I abstain from it; for, if so, then I am under the power of it.
6:13 As if he had said, I speak this chiefly with regard to meats; (and would to God all Christians would consider it!) particularly with regard to those offered to idols, and those forbidden in the Mosaic law. These, I grant, are all indifferent, and have their use, though it is only for a time: then meats, and the organs which receive them, will together moulder into dust. But the case is quite otherwise with fornication. This is not indifferent, but at all times evil.For the body is for the Lord - Designed only for his service.And the Lord, in an important sense, for the body - Being the Saviour of this, as well as of the soul; in proof of which God hath already raised him from the dead.
6:16 Gen 2:24.
6:17 But he that is joined to the Lord - By faith. Is one spirit with him - And shall he make himself one flesh with an harlot?
6:18 Flee fornication - All unlawful commerce with women, with speed, with abhorrence, with all your might. Every sin that a man commits against his neighbour terminates upon an object out of himself, and does not so immediately pollute his body, though it does his soul. But he that committeth fornication, sinneth against his own body - Pollutes, dishonours, and degrades it to a level with brute beasts.
6:19 And even your body is not, strictly speaking, your own even this is the temple of the Holy Ghost - Dedicated to him, and inhabited by him. What the apostle calls elsewhere "the temple of God," Co1 3:16-17, and "the temple of the living God," Co2 6:16,he here styles the temple of the Holy Ghost; plainly showing that the Holy Ghost is the living God.
6:20 Glorify God with your body, and your spirit - Yield your bodies and all their members, as well as your souls and all their faculties, as instruments of righteousness to God.Devote and employ all ye have, and all ye are, entirely, unreservedly, and for ever, to his glory.