I Corinthians 6: 9 - 11

What is really going on in 1 Corinthians 6:9 - 11?

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 (ESV): Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 

1.  The sin list is a list of sins operative in that church. 

2. This text comes after a series of statements that highlight the identity and position in Christ of the members of the Corinthian church.

3. 1 Corinthians 6:11 (ESV): And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 

“Such were some of you,” does not mean that the people, in order to be in good standing in this church, which was a relatively new church too (the letter is from around 55 AD),  had to be mortifying their sins or else be purged from among them.  

Rather, Paul begins in Chapter 5 with a statement that he had written them a letter about sexual immorality in their church, to which they had reacted by pointing fingers at the people around them.  He tells them to purge the evil from among them, & then veers off into a discussion about litigiousness among them. 

Why do this? Pay careful attention to the flow of Paul’s discussion.  

The Corinthian church was heavily divided along party lines, & they had multiple issues related to these divisions. This explains the sin lists in Chapter 5 & Chapter 6.  

In Chapter 6, Paul is talking about the use of the civil courts in Corinth as a means to do vengeance on each other in the church, insofar as the rich & poor in the Corinthian church were using the courts to air out their dirty laundry in public, & the overall effect failed to adorn the Gospel & provide a substantive alternative to Greco-Roman religion. Paul’s questions remind them of who they are & who God intends them to be.  Moreover, he reminds them that there is still wisdom in this church, so all is not lost, there is hope for the future in that church. 

The sin list in 6:9-10 is not just a list of sins in the world around them.  It is also a list of the sins operative in their church.  That’s the whole point of the letter.  Paul is saying that their church looks like the world, but there is still hope for them, because they are “washed, set apart, & justified in the name of Christ by the Holy Spirit.” 

They are called “washed,” - the doctrine of regeneration.

They are called “set apart,” which is a reference to the doctrine of *adoption,* not just the doctrine of sanctification.  They have been set apart out of the world, yet in the world.

They are justified (declared righteous) - the doctrine of justification, in the name of Jesus Christ by (the power of) the Holy Spirit.

This text is not to be used as a bludgeon that keeps people outside the camp.  Is intended as a statement against spiritual abuse.  Even though it is part of an overall statement about church discipline, it is intended to remind both those who govern the church and those who are members of the church that the people targeted for church discipline and/or the threat thereof are brothers and sisters.  It also serves as a reminder that, no matter how one views what the Bible teaches on these subjects, LGBTQ people are not to be automatically looked upon with suspicion nor should those who can give (an otherwise) credible profession of faith be treated as unregenerate just because they disagree with traditionalism and/or are gay themselves, including those who are “practicing homosexuals.” 

I Corinthians 6:9-11 is not a text intended to put all homosexuals outside the camp.  Neither is it intended to put all idolaters outside the camp, insofar as it recognises that regenerate, justified people can and do have major moral problems, and church discipline is never to be as abusive as statements like “Revelation 21:8 states that homosexuals will not enter heaven.”  That’s just as abusive as crying out “Such were some of you!” to mean that only gay people who meet a (legalistic) moral threshold are welcome in church, which is just as ignorant as crying out, “Whosoever will!” as a refutation of the Doctrines of Grace.

As a reminder, Chapter 5 ends with “purge the sexually immoral from you.” If you use 1 Corinthians 6:9 - 11 as the epistemic basis of that purge, then it also becomes the epistemic basis of the purge of everybody else.

Psalm 130:1–4 (ESV): Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! 

 2  O Lord, hear my voice! 

  Let your ears be attentive 

to the voice of my pleas for mercy! 

 3  If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, 

O Lord, who could stand? 

 4  But with you there is forgiveness, 

that you may be feared. 

Thank you, God bless you all, & “Go & sin no more.”