“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
The Basket Case Chronicles #54
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed . . .” (1 Cor. 6:9-11a).
There are three things to note about this passage. The first is to mark now naturally it follows from his previous assertions about Christians in lawsuits with one another. He has just finished telling us that the true path to take is that of being more willing to suffer fraud than to disgrace the gospel by arguing your case in front of unbelievers. But no, he says, “ye do wrong, and defraud.” Refusal to be defrauded is actually an admission that you are hell-bent on defrauding someone else. Paul says this, and moves right into “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit . . .” and he begins with a laundry list of big ticket sexual sins. So depend upon it—if a professing Christian is willing to get down and dirty in unbelieving court rooms with fellow Christians, no one should be surprised two years later when the mistresses, or the porn, or the child abuse, or the sodomy come into view. Sins are like grapes; they come in bunches.
The second thing to note is that he says twice that a certain class of people will not inherit the kingdom of God. He emphasizes this because it is easy to miss—in fact he warns us not to be deceived on the point. Those who fornicate, those who worship idols, those who commit adultery, those who are catamites, those who are sodomites, those who steal, those who covet, those who get drunk, those who revile, those who extort are all lost and condemned. They will not inherit the kingdom. But there is no reason to lose hope. The ranks of the Corinthian church were filled up with people who had all those sins and more filling up their resume. There is not a sin on that list that can’t cause someone to miss inheriting the kingdom, and there is not a sin on that list that can’t be washed clean.
For those who like to pretend that the Scriptures are ambiguous about homosexual sin, the reverse is the case. The reference to catamites and sodomites is very specific—these are two kinds of male homosexuals, the kind the plays the passive, receptive role, and the one who plays the active male role. But whether the man is pitching or catching, the sin is unrighteousness that shuts him out of the kingdom of God.
And third, it should be noted that these are all high-handed shameless sins—and it is not surprising that the apostle had to speak to them about their shame (v. 5). When you are not ashamed when you ought to be, it is often the case that you are not ashamed later when you really ought to be.