Talk about controversy. The next few verses are a hot mess of controversy. People have been arrested for reading them out loud. Folks have had their social media accounts banned for quoting them. In many places, the church is divided because of them. But, to be fair, these verses have also been abused and used as a gavel of judgment.
Let’s consider a few things before those controversial verses are quoted. Often missed is that these verses are directly connected to the controversy of running to unbelievers to settle matters between believers. Paul essentially said, “Why are you running to folks like this to settle your problems?” He then lists the elements of Corinthian society at that time. It reminds me of a line from Star Wars about another harbor town, “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.”
Well, here we go. “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 homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor those habitually drunk, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9–11, NASB 2020)
In an earlier verse, Paul said, “For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges.” (1 Corinthians 5:12–13a, NASB95) So we must be cautious; it’s one thing to recognize sin; it is another to condemn those outside the body of Christ. That’s not our job. But if we’re really honest, at some point in our lives, we were all included in that list.
Verse 11 is often left out or ignored, yet it is the most important word in the whole section. “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11, NASB95) “Such were some of you!” That’s the good news of the Gospel of Christ. You were washed and cleaned up. You were sanctified and made holy, set apart for God. You were justified, forgiven, and made right before God. The old is gone; the new is born and you have been made inheritors of the Kingdom of God. In our next article, we’ll take a side step out of Corinthians to explore what it means to “inherit the Kingdom of God.”
We often judge people in snapshots, as they are right now, with little consideration of their past wounds or future possibilities. We quickly condemn them as “unwinnable” instead of praying for God to rescue them. Perhaps, instead of quick condemnation, we should repent of our own sins and ask God to reveal to us His heart for the lost.
I want to close with a word to those who see themselves on Paul’s list. You, too, can be washed, sanctified, and justified. And yet, I also know that sometimes those sins seem impossible to walk away from. They may even be your identity, a huge part of how you see yourself. Let me tell you a secret: every believer struggles with sin; some are just more visible than others. What Jesus asks of us is a desire to turn from it and run into His loving and forgiving arms. The question I ask of you is this: if Jesus were to knock on your door and ask you to give up that sin, be it of word, thought, or deed, would you be willing to say yes?
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