unrighteousness — Faves of Dave - Bible Study

1Cor. 6:9 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 men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. 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.

If we had not been following along in the text week after week and simply opened the Bible to this text, we might be struck by the directness of this writing and perhaps understand its meaning at a cursory level. But, we should not miss the conjunction “or” that begins this section. It should tell us that we’ve jumped into the middle of a conversation and, like jumping into the middle of any conversation, we’re probably going to miss critical elements of how this fits with the overall message Paul is sending to the Corinthian Christians

I summarize a key theme that Paul is driving home to these believers: "It is important that your lives and your behavior to each other look different to the world around you.”

In these three verses, I see four key truths Paul wants them (and us) to understand. The first is that the “unrighteous” will " not inherit the kingdom of God. If you are at all familiar with Paul’s writings in the New Testament, this should get your attention. Why? Because in Romans Paul says,

10 as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;

11 no one understands;

no one seeks for God.

12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

no one does good,

not even one. (Rom 3:10-12 citing Ps. 14:1-3 & Ps. 53:1-3

Essentially, we are all in trouble. No one can assume they are better than others or more deserving of God’s mercy than others because none of us are righteous and none of us deserve to inherit the kingdom of God. So, where is the hope? We’ll get to that.

The second key truth is that unrighteousness has characteristics. Paul lists some of these characteristics from verse 9 through verse 10. Summarizing once again, these characteristics include sexual immorality, idolatry which is an expression of valuing something more than God, and many other things, which are evidenced by people indulging their own selfish desires over the good of others. We have a problem in a culture that rejects the notion of absolute truth. If there is no absolute moral truth, then everyone can do what they want. Much of the conflict we see in our society today lies in the fact that we have competing relative truths. It says, “I want what I want because that is what is right and you are wrong.” This will never lead to harmony and peace within a family, community, church, or society at large.

The third key truth is that Christians are not above indictment of these unrighteous characteristics or exempt. Paul reminds them, “Such were some of you.” (v. 11) In other words, he’s saying, “You Christians have manifested these unrighteous characteristics in your lives in the past.” This reflects that truth from Romans 3, doesn’t it? There is no one who is righteous, not one. I am not more deserving of God’s mercy than anyone else because, like everyone else, I have acted unrighteously at times in my life.

This brings us to the fourth key truth and a return to the question, “Where is the hope?” The hope lies in how Paul follows that indictment. He says, “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.” Jesus, the Son of God who is righteous, “washed” us. That’s a picture of us being cleansed of our unrighteousness. It is also by Jesus that we were “sanctified.” That means that having been cleansed of our unrighteousness; we were set apart for a holy and divine purpose. I take that to be inheriting and serving the kingdom of God. Finally, Paul says that we were “justified” by Jesus. This does not mean that God ignores our unrighteousness. It means we are declared not guilty. God cannot and does not ignore sin. The just punishment for sin was incurred by Jesus’ death on the cross. These Corinthian believers have appropriated these benefits of Jesus’ death on the cross through faith in him.

This should raise the question, “Why would a Christian who has received the benefits of Christ’s death on the cross want to continue practicing the unrighteous things they did for which Christ died? That is the fundamental issue with the man having sexual relations with his father’s wife. He was a professing believer, but his lifestyle was worse than the non-Christians. Paul’s counsel to them was for the purpose of correcting that and bringing him back into the community of faith.

Prayer: Lord, help us humbly pursue a life that is consistent with your holiness. Forgive us when we act in ways that are unrighteous and make our lives an enticement to the good news of Jesus.