The Unrighteous Will Not Inherit the Kingdom

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Before we resume our study of chapter six let’s quickly review the context. There were leaders in the church at Corinth who disagreed with Paul’s humble style and with his politically incorrect emphasis on the crucified life. Therefore they were determined to lead the church in a new direction, one that harmonized with the philosophy and wisdom of the popular culture. In this letter Paul is confronting these leaders and those following them and he is addressing the problems resulting from their ways.

Look at 1 Corinthians 4:17-20 “For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church. Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills, and I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power. For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.”

As we saw when we studied chapter four, the power of the kingdom of God that Paul was looking for primarily refers to power to live godly; it is power over sin and power over the flesh and the devil. The most important thing is not our talk but our walk. Where is the power in us to live godly lives in this world?

As evidence that these believers in Corinth lack the power of the kingdom of God Paul draws attention in chapter five to the fact that there is sexual immorality going on in the church. And again in chapter six he draws attention to the fact that the believers are taking each other to court. And he says, contrary to their opinion, this is not a powerful church; this is an utter failure of the church. There are two appalling sins that Paul identifies as evidence that the church in Corinth is lacking the power that characterizes God’s kingdom: The fact that there is sexual immorality among them and the fact that the church tolerates it.

Now verses 9-11 of chapter 6 pull all of chapters five and six together and help explain why the Christian is to distance him/herself from the world’s way of living and from the world’s way of resolving conflict; because we are a new creation. Since we’ve been born again, we are now radically different creatures than those of the world who have never been born again. Yes, we still live in bodies which are identical to those of the world but on the inside we are completely changed. No longer children of Adam (though we live temporarily in bodies that are descended from Adam) on the inside we are no longer related to Adam but are now children of God.

And not only are we an entirely new race of people on the inside but we are citizens of a foreign kingdom. “Our citizenship is in heaven”; this earth is not our home. (Philippians 3:20) There is a very real and literal sense in which we are not citizens of Canada but are disguised (as it were) as Canadian citizens working undercover for our King. But in reality we are a totally different race of people citizens of a totally different Kingdom and that will be reflected in our nature. We are to live in this world but to never forget that we are not of this world. This passage is contrasting the nature of those who are citizens of this earth with those who are citizens of heaven (the kingdom of God).

Vs. 9-10

“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?” Here the word “unrighteous” is the same word used in verse 1 to describe non-Christians of the world in contrast to the saints of the church. 1 Corinthians 6:1 “Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?” (Notice the two natures).

The unrighteous are the unsaved; they are unbelievers; they have not been born again; they are not children of God. Whatever we may think of them, in God’s sight they are unrighteous, meaning that they are wicked and unjust, separated from God and all His ways. And verse nine makes it clear that they will not inherit the kingdom of God, meaning that they will not take possession of the kingdom of God. They will not be citizens of God’s kingdom nor will they even dwell as aliens in God’s kingdom. They will never have any part in it.

The kingdom of God in this context refers to the future kingdom that Jesus will set up on earth when He returns following the great tribulation, at the end of history, to conquer the Antichrist and to destroy all the kingdoms of earth and to establish His own kingdom on earth. One aspect of the kingdom of God is what we refer to in general as “heaven”. The Bible makes it clear that the unrighteous will never see that place.

Matthew 5:20 “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The kingdom of God is the kingdom of heaven, and one day it will be the kingdom of this earth. But for now, until Christ returns to establish His throne on the earth, the kingdom of God on earth is somewhat in disguise and relatively unseen.

As we look at the following verses notice that one of the characteristics of those who are part of the kingdom of God is that they act differently than those who are not part of the kingdom. This is because by nature we are different beings.

Galatians 5:20-21 “. . . Envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Ephesians 5:3-5 “But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.”

Notice that 1 Corinthians 6:9 goes on to say, “Do not be deceived.” The enemy will try to deceive you to believe that someone can choose to continue living a life of unrepentant sin and still be a Christian. But that is a lie; do not be deceived. When you are born again, you become a new creature with a new righteous nature from God filled with new righteous desires. True, genuine salvation is powerful and it is life-changing. At the very core of our being our nature is changed and the person we used to be has died; a new life has begun with new interests, new passions and a new desire for the righteous things of God.

This passage is very relevant for us today. Many believers in Calgary today have been deceived in this matter. Many believers in Calgary today believe that Christians can choose to live together before they get married. Many in Calgary believe that Christians can choose to practice homosexuality if that is their preference. Or another example is the prevalence of professing Christian businessmen who have a bad reputation for cheating and ripping others off, and yet other Christians dismiss this as acceptable conduct that goes with the territory and is just part of being a successful, shrewd businessman. If you have been led to believe this you have been deceived. It is all a lie. These are all characteristics of the unrighteous and strong indicators that such an individual has perhaps never been born again.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.”

Notice that this list of wicked behavior is essentially the same list that was given back in chapter five with a few more additions. 1 Corinthians 5:11 “But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner— not even to eat with such a person.”

The Bible does not recognize such a person as a genuine believer but only as one who goes by the name of Christian. As we saw with the man in the Church who was boldly living in unrepentant immorality in chapter 5:1-5, those who profess to be Christians but who are unrepentant of their sinful way of living are to be put out of the church and not to be treated as Christians. They are to be considered as unbelievers for the simple reason that on the basis of their willful, persistent sin, the evidence weighs against them indicating that they most likely are not born again, they do not possess the nature of God to hate those sins.

Let’s quickly look at the list of sins which are evidence of one who is not part of God’s kingdom. Each of these adjectives describes a willful, habitual unrepentant way of living. Based on all that has preceded in this epistle, and what follows, the context suggests that these adjectives do not describe those who once, or on occasion, have stumbled into this kind of sin. This is not describing those who genuinely hate their behavior and strongly desire to change. These terms in verses 9-10 do not describe the individual who is going through a Romans 7 struggle and find themselves doing the very thing that they hate to do and not doing the thing they so desire to do. Rather these adjectives describe the one who argues to justify their behavior, they describe those who refuse to seek counsel to change, but willfully choose to do the things that they do and resent being told that it is wrong. These adjectives describe those who when confronted are persistently unrepentant about the behavior they have chosen to participate in.

“Fornicators” – is a very broad term usually meaning any kind of sexual relationship outside of marriage. Sometimes the word “fornication” is used specifically to refer to premarital relationships (as it seems to be in this context where it is cited alongside other specifically identified sexual sins). Fornication is the sin of having sexual relations with your boyfriend or girlfriend. Fornication is the sin of a man and a woman living together before marriage.

Many try to justify sex before marriage by saying, “everybody is doing it.” Sleeping together without getting married is a rampant sin in our culture like it was in Corinth. Statistics reveal that in the year 2000, over 75% of all couples who got married lived together before they got married. (David Olson and Amy Olson-Sigg quoting the U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2000, “Overview of Cohabitation Research: For Use with Prepare-CC”, Enrich Canada Counselor’s Manual) But the Bible calls it fornication and condemns it in the strongest way, classifying it together with adultery and homosexuality. And the message of chapters five and six is that the unrepentant fornicator is not a child of God and has no inheritance in the Kingdom of God.

“Idolaters” – refers to those who embrace other gods besides the one true God. In its most blatant form, idolaters is a word that describes those who are comfortable praying to Allah or some other god, or who consult spirit guides or horoscopes as a legitimate source of direction and authority for life.

“Adulterers” – refers to those who are unfaithful to their spouse.

“Homosexuals and sodomites” – are two words with very similar meaning that refer to both the passive and aggressive partners in a gay relationship. (Gordon Fee, p. 244) These are very controversial statements to take in our society but the Bible is very clear in warning us not to be deceived. The practice of homosexuality in any form is incompatible with the kingdom of God. But so is the practice of any form of sexual immorality incompatible with Christianity. The homosexual is not to be treated any differently than any other unbeliever. The sin of homosexuality is no worse than the sin of fornication or any other sin in this list and God is just as willing to save the homosexual who repents as He is to save the adulterer who repents and turns to Christ in faith. But like everyone else on this list, the unrepentant, practicing homosexual is not a child of God and has no inheritance in His kingdom.

Vs. 10

The rest of this list describing those who will not inherit the kingdom of God is a repeat of the list Paul gave in 5:10-11 which was a list describing the immoral, unsaved people of the world. Twice in these two verses the Bible has emphasized, so that we don’t miss the point that what is being described are those who will not inherit the kingdom of God. They may be found in the church but they are not of the church. We need to recognize that sometimes genuine believers may get caught up in these types of behavior because no one ever confronted them with their sin and showed them from scripture that it was wrong. But according to chapter five, and Matthew 18, if any such people profess to be Christians but persist unrepentant in their sin they are to be put out of church fellowship and to be treated as an unbeliever in need of salvation.

But in contrast to the list in verses nine and ten, the Bible now describes the genuine members of the church in verse eleven.

Vs. 11

The believers at Corinth were first generation Christians. Some of them had been Jews before they heard the Gospel, but many of them had been pagans. And formerly some of them had been fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, drunkards and so on. But that was before they embraced the Gospel and were born again. Now they had a new identity in Christ. Now they were righteous saints. To be born again is a powerful experience that changes our very nature. If our nature remains unchanged then it is a very strong indicator that we have not been born again.

Notice that three times in verse 11 the Bible uses the word “but” to emphasize the contrast between the old life that they had been set free from, and their new life in Christ. “But you were washed . . .” to be made morally clean, purified by the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. “But you were sanctified . . .” to be made holy, set apart from the world and now belonging to God and to be for His glory. “But you were justified . . .” means to be made sinless in your spirit, to be made acceptable and loveable before God and to be in right standing with God. So that now they can inherit the kingdom of God.

And this miraculous change in their nature from sinner to saint was accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit when they trusted in the name of Jesus Christ. All genuine believers receive a new identity in Christ Jesus with His life indwelling us to give us victory over sin.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (NLT)

Again we see that true, genuine salvation is powerful and it is life-changing. At the very core of our being our nature is changed and the person we used to be has died; a new life has begun with new interests, new passions and a new desire for the righteous things of God. As I said at the beginning, in reality we are a totally different race of people citizens of a totally different Kingdom. We are to live in this world but to never forget that we are not of this world.

Do you want to be saved from your sin? Do you want to become a child of God and a citizen of God’s kingdom? Do you want to receive a new, righteous nature? You can be changed and made righteous today by putting your faith in Jesus Christ as the Scriptures declare:

Romans 10:9-11 “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.””

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