The Greek for Do you not know in this verse and in verse 16 is the same (see comments on 3.16). However, the content of the two verses suggests that verse 15a contains traditional teaching that the Corinthians had already been given. Verse 16a, though, introduces new teaching that should be immediately obvious to the Corinthian Christians, especially in the light of the Old Testament quotation in verse 16b.
As elsewhere, Rom 11.16-24 for example, Paul’s use of figurative language is a little confused. In this verse the bodies [plural] of Christians are described as parts or organs of the body of Christ. Later in 12.12-27 it is clear that Paul is describing individual Christians as parts or organs of the body of Christ, which is the church (see also Rom 12.5). The difference between this passage and chapter 12 is that Paul is not at present concerned with unity and diversity within the church, but rather with its purity. Members of Christ (Good News Bible‘s “part of Christ’s body”) here as in chapter 12 means the church. Paul’s point at the moment is that the members belong to Christ and must therefore be holy.
In the second half of the verse, as in verse 12b, Paul takes himself as an example. As in Rom 7.7-25, Paul writes I but includes other people in addition to himself. In some languages it may therefore be necessary to use an inclusive “we.” The meaning is not very clear either in Greek or in English, but Paul explains himself in the next verse. The meaning of the Greek word translated take is usually “take away” (Translator’s New Testament, An American Translation). Barclay brings out the full meaning by translating “And am I then going to take the limbs that rightly belong to Christ and make them the limbs that belong to a prostitute?” Shall I … take is a rhetorical question that in many languages may be translated as a statement; for example, “I would never take….”
The words take and make are really part of a single action or event, as in the English phrase “come and see.”
The word prostitute is clearly feminine in the Greek text. Prostitute in many languages will be expressed figuratively; for example, “woman who sells her body,” or “woman of the night.”
Never! translates a Greek phrase that is frequently used in the theological arguments of Romans and Galatians (see, for example, Rom 11.11; Gal 2.17), but it is not used elsewhere in 1-2 Corinthians. There is no reference to God here, although King James Version has “God forbid.” The phrase means literally “let (it) not be.” One could also render it as “certainly not” or “that is impossible!”
Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .