Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Oh Ian, come on. This is one of the reasons why I hate Paul. He is so judgemental. Now you are going back to those lists of sins again.
I am merely giving you a look at the balance of what is in Scripture. Isn’t it interesting that left to our choices we will gravitate to the nice verses, the promises, the light and fluffy stuff. But the other is there as well. You have to take the “good” and the “bad”. Interesting isn’t it. We can say amen to the preacher when he is talking about the wonders of heaven or the grace of God or other such niceties. But it is not so easy to do when he is mirroring my sin before me. Shouldn’t I thank him or “amen” him for that too? Amen just simply means “so be it”, let it be established like you say. I have noticed the positive responses to Gems and the “like” on FB have stopped. Maybe I should stop this stuff and get back to the “good stuff”. My flesh tells me yes, just the good stuff; my spirit tells me, no, tell it all. This is what I like about working through a book of the Bible systematically because when we do it all, all matters are handled not just ones we would choose. WE NEED TO HEAR IT ALL PEOPLE.
Notice what Paul has done here. He has repeated the list from 1 Cor 5:10-11 again in 1 Cor 6:9-11:
| 1 Cor 5:10-11 | 1 Cor 6:9-11 |
|---|---|
| But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers | Don’t you realize that those who do who indulge in wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? |
| sexual sin | sexual sin |
| greedy | worship idols |
| cheat people | greedy people |
| worship idols | cheat people |
You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that.
I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in
| sexual sin, | sexual sin |
| Greedy | worships idols |
| worships idols | Greedy |
| a drunkard | drunkards |
| abusive | abusive |
| cheat people | cheat people |
| commit adultery | |
| male prostitutes | |
| practise homosexuality | |
| thieves | |
| Don’t even eat with such people. | None of these will inherit the Kingdom of God |
Time for me to leave you to ponder this for a day. Think deeply about what Paul is doing. How can Paul be so black and white in what he is saying? It is offensive, is it not? Paul lacks grace, he is full of judgement. He puts you off Christianity, doesn’t he?
We all make mistakes. The wise admit & learn from them. The insecure deny them. The foolish repeat them. The godly forgive them.
Rick Warren
Waste your money and you are just out of money. Waste your time and you’ve lost part of your life.
Michael LeBoeuf