1 Corinthians 6:18
1 Corinthians 6:1818Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
Witnesses cite "flee from sexual immorality" as a clear command underwriting the seriousness of porneia and aselgeia. The verse is used in counsel to the young, in articles on dating and marriage, and as scriptural grounding for judicial response to sexual sin — including pornography classified as "brazen conduct." The body's uniqueness as the site of sexual sin is read as additional justification for the elders' protective discipline.
Affirm what the verse plainly says. Sexual sin is uniquely grave because it is sin against one's own body — the same body Paul calls a temple of the Holy Spirit in the very next verse. Protestant teaching does not soften this. The disagreement with the Watchtower is not about whether porneia is serious; it is about how the church responds to the believer fighting it. Pair this verse with (God provides the way of escape), (lust is heart-adultery), and (sanctification includes abstaining from sexual immorality). Then ask: when a brother takes "flee" seriously and confesses the fight, does the congregation supply the escape promised in 10:13, or supply a tribunal? The same scriptures that command flight also describe the rescue mechanism — mutual confession (), restoration in gentleness (), Spirit-empowered mortification (). Same sin; opposite system response.