"Hold Fast" in 1 Cor 6

"But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him." (1 Cor 6:17)

It dawned on me after recent studies in 1 Cor that this is alluding to two passages.

The first one is Genesis 2:24 - "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."

The other is actually Deut 10:20 - "You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear."

It's amazing to see the same imperative "hold fast" used in these two passages. The first talks about the oneness of human marriages, the second with regards to our relationship to God.

Paul makes the argument that sexual immorality is more than just sex. We become "one flesh". The choice is between a prostitute and bizarrely, God Himself.

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From wikipedia: "In literature, inclusio is a literary device based on a concentric principle, also known as bracketing or an envelope structure, which consists of creating a frame by placing similar material at the beginning and end of a section, although whether this material should consist of a word or a phrase, or whether greater amounts of text also qualify, and of what length the frames section should be, are matters of some debate. Inclusio is found in various sources, both antique and new." The Inclusio of the Book of Matthew is that it starts and ends with "Immanuel". At the start, after the genealogies we are told that Jesus fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah (Matt 1:22-23). "All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” It then ends with "Immanuel" being fulfilled in the act of discipling. "G...

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