ordinary christianity for the world.
Corinth, A Church Divided, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Poetic Praise
Righteousness
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Paul plainly said that, "the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God" (v. 9). Righteousness is the foundation of the kingdom of God. Because God is perfect He cannot allow or tolerate any unrighteousness. To do so would be to pollute and destroy His kingdom. And exactly where is the kingdom of God? It is obviously in heaven, but remember that Jesus taught us to pray "Our Father … Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).
However, Paul is not calling the Corinthians to greater effort on their part to achieve personal righteousness through a commitment not to sin any more. Rather, Paul is calling them to Jesus Christ because he knows very well that they — we — have no personal righteousness. The only righteousness available to them — and to us or to anyone at any time — is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Paul is painfully aware of the sins of the Corinthians. And he is painfully aware that too many of them have hold of the righteousness stick by the wrong end. He knew that they had been chasing worldly foolishness and forsaking Godly wisdom.
That's the reason that he wrote the letter. He wrote to them in order to help solve some of the very serious church problems that they were having. The church is the leading edge of the kingdom of God on earth, and Paul was trying to help them get it right because he saw that they had it wrong. Paul's letter contains admonishment, instruction and encouragement. Paul was not teaching them how to get to heaven. He was teaching them how to manifest heaven on earth through the proper functioning of the church.
But before we get into the content of this section, look again at who Paul wrote the letter to. Like any letter, if it's not written to you, you will have trouble understanding what it says or benefiting from its instruction. "To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours" (1 Corinthians 1:2).
Paul's salutation began very broadly and then narrowed down the group of recipients with several additional phrases. He began, "To the church of God" — not to everyone in the world, but only to those who comprise the church. This means that he was writing to all of God's saints throughout time, and by extension it includes faithful saints of all ages.
Then he begins narrowing down the list. This process is both inclusive and exclusive. He was writing to the particular branch of God's church that was in Corinth. But he didn't stop there. He was not writing to every member of the Corinthian church, but only "to those sanctified in Christ Jesus." He means to address those who are growing in the Lord, those who are in the process of being sanctified by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives, those who are regenerate, born again.
And to make sure that he is speaking to the right people he added, "those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." To call upon the name of Jesus is to be actively engaged in prayer. Thus, he was addressing those who prayed a lot, who prayed everywhere they went. And finally, just to make sure, he added that he was addressing those who actually believed in the same Lord as he did, "both their Lord and ours." He meant to insure that there was no misunderstanding about who would benefit from his letter — growing, praying, born again Christians who have a right understanding about God and Jesus. Interestingly, those who are not intended recipients find the letter to be of little interest or value.
What was Paul trying to say to these Christians? "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, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God" (vs. 9-10). The Greek word translated unrighteous literally means unjust. He means to say that the unjustified, those who are not justified by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, are not and cannot be part of the kingdom of God.
Paul was not saying that only those who work hard to satisfy the demands of God's righteousness would inherit the kingdom. Paul was not lobbying for works-righteousness here. Rather, Paul was speaking of being justified. He was speaking about the doctrine of justification, and that one's justification needed to be right, prior to entrance into the kingdom. And how are people justified? By the unmitigated grace of God through the propitiation of Jesus Christ. He was not calling the Corinthians to increased godliness that would result in their inheritance of the kingdom. Rather, he was calling them to faith in Jesus Christ, who is alone righteous, and is the only means of entry into the kingdom.
Of course, the result of faith in Christ is an increase in personal righteousness over time, though never perfect nor sufficient. But in Christ the Holy Spirit supplies what we lack.
But it was not Paul making the determination that unrighteous, unjustified sinners would not enter the kingdom. Jesus said the same thing. "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment" (John 5:25-29). There is a fork in the road at judgment. The goats and the sheep will be separated.
Few people actually believe this. They don't now, nor did they then. So, Paul warned believers about being deceived, which means that believers can be deceived about what they believe. Not all believers believe correctly. Salvation does not make people instant winners of the orthodoxy contest. Of course, we are not saved by what we believe. Rather, we believe because we have been saved, which also means that our ultimate salvation does not come into doubt when our beliefs are wrong. So, Paul does not mean that believers can lose their faith if they believe wrongly. Though wrong belief has many unfortunate and unpleasant consequences, from which believers are not spared. At the same time, the Lord values right belief.
Similarly, there are many fortunate and pleasant consequences of right belief, many of which are also enjoyed by unbelievers. In other words, when God's church believes and teaches the Gospel right, benefits accrue to both the saved and the lost. Conversely, when God's church believes and teaches the Gospel incorrectly, liabilities accrue to both the saved and the lost. God wants people to believe and understand His gospel message correctly. It is important to Him because He uses the correct proclamation of the gospel as a means of salvation.
"But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?" (Romans 10:14). In other words, we could think of the process of salvation as logging into the data base of the Holy Spirit. Bear with me. It is as if the Lord has installed a special password in the hearts of the elect. Proper preaching of the Gospel contains a automated login script that is activated by that password. But if that automated login script contains junk code, it interferes with the correct execution of the script. Orthodox preaching contains elements of that script that trigger the pre-installed login password of believers. So, to get the gospel wrong interferes with the hearing of the Gospel by the elect. It doesn't keep anyone from salvation, it just gums up the process.
Paul was trying to ungum the process that was in effect in Corinth as a result of those who had been teaching the foolishness of the world in the guise of the wisdom of God. "Do not be deceived," he said, because he believed that they were in the process of being deceived. Deceived about what? About, among other things, who would inherit the kingdom of God. He had previously identified the fact that one of their leaders had been involved in gross immorality — shameful even by pagan standards. It wasn't that this person had committed a sin so vile that could not be forgiven. Not at all! God can forgive any sin, save one.
It was not the sin that was the problem. Paul knew that all Christians are sinners. "And such were some of you." he said. "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" (v. 11). The problem was not that some of the members of the Corinthian church were living in sin, who isn't? The problem was that some of the members of the Corinthian church had not repented of their sin. They were in process of justifying it to themselves and to the church, making it okay in the eyes of God by suggesting that God forgives everyone of everything, that in the light of the amazing grace of Jesus Christ repentance and turning from sin doesn't matter.
The rationalizations go like this: Salvation is all of grace, it's all God's work and none of mine — which are true enough, of course. But the rationalizations go further: Since God saved me from time immemorial, before I was born, and my salvation does not depend on anything I do or can do, then God doesn't care what I do. It doesn't make any difference to my salvation. So, I can do whatever I want. Wrong! God does care what we do. He cares about what believers do and he cares about what unbelievers do. If he didn't care, he wouldn't impose His law on everyone or bring judgment on anyone. But he does! God's law applies to all of humanity. And God will bring everyone into judgment before the bench of Jesus Christ.
The point is that apart from Jesus Christ there is no correct (objective, rational or perfect) morality, which means that only Christians can teach morality correctly (objectively, rationally, perfectly) by teaching biblical morality correctly. However, this does not mean that Christians are perfect. Perfection is like calculus, one approaches a definitive answer, and makes some valid assumptions and conclusions about it. And what is more, morality effects everyone. It's not that Christian morality only effects Christians or that Pagan morality only effects Pagans. Rather, we are all interdependent — saved and lost. So, the wrong morality brings God's curses upon everyone, just as the right morality brings God's blessings upon everyone. That doesn't mean that everyone will be saved — and it certainly does not mean that anyone is saved by moral behavior, it just means that life will be better for everyone when God's love, peace, justice and mercy provide the dominant social morals.
Paul created a short list of those who will not inherit the kingdom of God: "neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God" (v. 10). The list could be longer. If you aren't on that list, you might find yourself on Timothy's list.
"We know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted" (1 Timothy 1:11). Note that Paul tells us that God is so concerned about unbelievers that he has set the law out for them in particular. And that "whatever is contrary to sound doctrine" is equivalent to lawlessness.
What is this difference between believers and unbelievers? Paul said that there was no difference regarding sin. Believers are no less sinners than unbelievers. It is not sin that makes the difference. Paul noted that the Corinthian believers were just as guilty of sin as the Corinthian unbelievers, "but," he went on to say, "you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God" (v. 11) — washed, sanctified and justified.
Matthew Henry says of this verse, "The wickedness of men before conversion is no bar to their regeneration and reconciliation to God. The blood of Christ, and the washing of regeneration, can purge away all guilt and defilement." Paul mentioned three things: washed, sanctified and justified.
The Greek word translated as washed is not an allusion to baptism. It is not the word baptizo. Paul was not talking about the sacrament or ceremony of baptism. He could have used that word if he wanted to, but he didn't. The word here literally means to wash off. It means to bathe in such a way as to remove something (dirt) that has attached itself to the body. The allusion here is to the cleansing of the body, the "cleaning up of one's act," if you will. It's not so much a spiritual thing as it is a bodily thing, a moral thing. He means that one's life, one's habits, one's actions and activities have been cleansed of filth — that which is offensive to God.
Yet, Paul does not neglect the spiritual aspects of this difference between believers and unbelievers. He simply makes the point that the difference is not merely spiritual. It also manifests in the flesh.
The other two words deal with the spiritual aspects of this difference, one is centered in God and one is centered in the individual. The one centered in God pertains to justification, and means everything that the Protestant Reformers discuss under the title of forensic justification. It refers to God's act of justification, wherein God transfers the righteousness credit earned by Jesus Christ to the account of an individual sinner. It is an action of God in heaven that transfers Christ's righteousness to believers. It doesn't make sinners suddenly righteous. Rather, it acknowledges the promise and power of Jesus Christ to complete what God has begun. God has adjusted the heavenly balance sheet by transferring the credit earned by Christ on the cross to the debt of individual sinners. The debt of sin has been paid by Jesus Christ. That's what justification is.
But that's not the end of the process. While the debt has been paid, and God no longer looks upon the sinner as a debtor, God is not stupid. He still knows the hearts of men, and while the hearts of believers have been changed, there is still much to do to bring believers into full ownership of the righteousness that is now theirs. The seed of righteousness has been planted, but it has yet to grow to maturity.
And the process of that growth, powered by the presence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of individuals, is the process of sanctification. It is a process of growth and maturity in Christ, "until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes" (Ephesians 4:13-14).
"You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God" (v. 11). That's the difference between believers and unbelievers. And to blur that difference is to lose sight of the purpose of God and the purpose of salvation. To ignore or confuse the difference between believers and unbelievers is to deny the power and purpose of God Himself.
