Hebrews Lesson 151 March 12, 2009
Guest Speaker Dan Inghram, National Capitol Bible Church
NKJ Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
You have been studying the Doctrine of Inheritance, and you've seen that inheritance does not always mean necessarily the same thing in each passage. As a matter of fact, you've seen that to inherit eternal life of course is phase 1 sanctification. But does it always mean that? The answer of course is no, it does not. Tonight we are going to study a passage of Scripture continuing in this doctrine of the Doctrine of Inheritance; and we're going to see that inheriting the kingdom (using the word inheriting there, inheriting the kingdom) means something about our eternal future. But it doesn't mean salvation.
Let me begin tonight by saying that every now and then when we're watching television (and back when I used to have time it seems to watch television in the evening), every now and then you'd would have a couple, maybe a married couple. They would maybe have an argument or a disagreement. When one of the spouses (one of the mates maybe the male or husband, the husband or wife) would leave, the other one might turn to a friend who's standing there and say something to the effect of, "Well, he (or she) will get over it." And they probably will get over it. But what we realize in relationships is that if we have done something that has offended someone with whom we've had a relationship or if we've irritated them that there is generally a breaking of the fellowship, a breaking of that relationship. Will they get over it? The answer is yes, they will. But the question is - at what cost? At what cost will this rift affect us?
The same is true in our spiritual lives - that when we sin we rupture a relationship. Tonight very quickly I want to look at look at two verses as we get started to see that we have a ruptured relationship with God. That ruptured relationship has both temporary but also can have permanent effects or consequences.
NKJ Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened,
That's a figure of speech. It means that it's not restricted. His hand is not withheld here.
He's not unable.
That it cannot save;
Maybe a better word there is to deliver.
Nor His ear heavy,
Again, continuing with our figures of speech here. It's the Hebrew word kabod and it means weighty, heavy. Here it probably means dull so that it doesn't hear.
That it cannot hear.
NKJ Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.
When we sin, we rupture. We really disturb this relationship that we have with God. That's very close to another passage, very similar to Psalm 66:18.
Psalm 66:18, I think you've heard several times.
NKJ Psalm 66:18 If I regard iniquity
Iniquity being sin. If I know it's there, if I perceive it.
in my heart, The Lord will not hear.
So again we have ruptured a relationship with God. Sin has an impact in our lives; and I think very often more of an impact than we really understand or perceive - so the significance of sin in our lives. This is just part of the intro here, but it's setting the stage for what we're going to be seeing in our passage.
First of all, sin is repulsive to God. Sin is very repulsive to God. It is a horrendous thing. Sometimes because of God's grace procedures, we don't understand the significance of sin in our lives. God has a plan to address those sins. That of course is expressed very nicely in I John 1:9.
NKJ 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
He always does the same thing. He's righteous about it and He forgives us those sins. So we can use that. We need to use that. God knew that we would fail. His grace provision is always greater than our sins. So even if we say this is a horrible sin; we have to realize that God's grace provision is greater than our sins – and that's any of our sins, not just the ones that we think are fairly mild – all of our sins.
But we cannot treat sin in a cavalier way. We must take sin seriously. I'd like to talk tonight a little bit about what happens to our souls when we sin. I like that relationship between the couple when there is sin or the couple when there is an argument, a quarrel. We know that when that happens – yes, the relationship can come back together; but often it is never quite the same. It's never quite the same. When we sin even if we confess our sins, generally we never get back to quite that same level. Sometimes we can even confess fear and as soon as we confess it we're probably still afraid unless we use doctrine. Unless we use biblical truth (maybe the promises) to assuage our souls, we may still be fearful. We may still be jealous. We may still be angry. Sin has an impact on our souls. So sin has a significant affect on our souls. It immediately ruptures our relationship with God. That can be short term if we immediately confess our sins. But it has long term affects on our souls and our spiritual future. Sin can have a long-term affect on our souls and our spiritual future.
Tonight we are going to examine one of those the long term affects of sin on our lives. We are going to examine the long-term affect of sin on our lives. We are going to examine 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 - 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. This is a passage that I have had a chance to study. As a matter of fact early in my seminary career, one of the papers that I wrote was in 1 Corinthians and it just so happened to be this passage, I Corinthians 6:9-11. It became a favorite passage of mine. Tonight when Pastor Dean was not able to be here and he asked me if I would teach 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 or inheritance; I was pleased that I would have this opportunity.
Now I will also tell you, I will also say that the passage is a battleground. It is a battleground regarding what "inherit the kingdom" means. And, it's not easy to simply read the passage and come away with a clear understanding. That's why it is a battleground. That's why theologians battle over this passage.
What does it mean to inherit the kingdom of God? There are going to be several key words that we need to understand or at least have a reasonable grasp of tonight as we move forward. As we go hopefully I've tried to explain these words. They were not necessarily easy for me to understand the first time I worked my way through the passage; but every time I do I try to come up with maybe a little better way of explaining what these words mean. Tonight we'll see if I fair any better with this opportunity.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 - our question is - what does inheriting the kingdom mean? What does inheriting the kingdom mean? First of all let's read the passage. The focus of our study will be on the first two verses, 9 and 10. Verse 11 is helpful I think in shedding additional light on verses 9 and 10.
Let's read the passage.
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
There's our phrase – inherit the kingdom of God. That's the first time it's used in this passage.
Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
This passage screams out for about three or four weeks of simply studying some of these sins. We simply don't have time for that tonight. As a matter of fact, to handle the passage appropriately, it probably needs two sessions. But, I think we can handle this tonight. That's verses 9 and 10. Our phrase "will inherit the kingdom of God' is really our target. Verse 11 though, I think will help us to shed light once we've done a study. It will simply reinforce what we've learned in 9 and 10.
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:11 And such were some of you.
If we were giving this at least a moderately better southern translation; we would know that it is a plural you – y'all. So tonight I'll probably translate it that way.
Then we have the conjunction, the adversative conjunction, but. Then immediately on the other side we have the same second person plural pronoun.
But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
What's wonderful to think about this passage (and we have to see this) is the same people who are being addressed on the front side of the adversative conjunction (y'all) are the ones who are being addressed on the backside of the adversative conjunction (but y'all.)
Such were some of y'all; but y'all were washed.
Or we might say, you all were washed with the emphasis on the all. You all were washed but you all were sanctified but you all were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Spirit of our God.
We're going to come back to that hopefully at the end of our study and try to determine what "some" qualifies when we see y'all. See we have "such were some of y'all." Some is taking a smaller group of the word y'all. We just have to figure out the end here. What is this overall group and if we're taking "some" out of it, who are these? Who are the y'all and who are the some that is a smaller group? That I really enjoy and I think that's a fun way to end the study of this passage. But we need to look at the first two verses.
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
Our study tonight is going to focus on two major concepts around two major word groups. The first one is the unrighteous here. We're going to need to determine - who are the unrighteous? The second word group of course is going to be inherit. You've studied heirs, inherit and inheritance. So I'm going to review that a little of that tonight, but that should be common ground.
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
There is our real target passage. I say that after a casual reading of this passage - what might be the possible interpretations if someone is committing those sins?
Now many people look at those sins and say, "Those are pretty serious sins."
However a couple of them (revilers or swindlers), we probably may not say that we swindle someone sometimes; but we've probably have in our past managed to put ourselves first in a few relationships or in some of the things that we've done. Anyhow let's move on and see - what are some of the possible ways to translate this or to interpret? (That's really a better word here, interpret.)
First of all, could it be that we have an unbeliever? If it's an unbeliever, might therefore be no chance of salvation? In other words, is a believer committing these sins and it says you're not going to inherit the kingdom of God? Is that a possibility? There are some theologians who take that position. Well, if
that's the case then; what do we do with I John 2:1-2 that says:
NKJ 1 John 2:1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin.
In other words John is writing to them in hopes that they wouldn't sin. Now John is writing to believers. We're going to see that Paul in Corinthians is writing to believers in Corinth. So he's writing Church Age doctrine (biblical truth) to them in hopes that they would not sin. However, what happens if they do?
And if anyone sins, we
And we do sin.
have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
NKJ 1 John 2:2 And He Himself is the propitiation,
The satisfaction
for our sins and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
So if we say we're unbelievers in our passage in I Corinthians 6 and those sins indicate that if we commit those sins and we're unbelievers we can't be saved, then what do we do with this passage that says our Lord Jesus Christ paid for the sins? On the cross He provided propitiation (the satisfaction) to God the Father for those sins - for all of them, the entire world. That's a problem if we say there are certain sins that we commit that will prevent us from being believers.
Alright, another possibility is if a believer, possible loss of salvation. There are theologians who would take that position. They think this teaches loss of salvation. If that's the case, what about John 10:28-30?
NKJ John 10:28 "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
NKJ John 10:29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.
NKJ John 10:30 "I and My Father are one."
This seems to say that if we're believers, we can't lose our salvation – once saved, always saved. So those first two interpretations I believe are not only problematic; but they're not our choice. The two previous interpretations might be considered possible if the meaning of the verb inherit is understood as to enter. They will not be able to enter the kingdom of God - kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God depending on which book we're studying in the gospel. But here, we're not going to inherit the kingdom here is all we have. So we're going to see that "inherit" does not have the sense of "to enter." It does not have that.
So we have these three possibilities I believe. The last possibility is if a believer - possible loss of rewards, possible loss of rewards. Three opportunities; and I think we can cross the first two out. But we need to look at the passage and we need to exegete several words. We need to make sure we understand two families of words before we can move on and determine or nail down the proof (the facts) that this is referring to a believer and possible loss of rewards.
Paul has introduced rewards in I Corinthians. So this is not a new subject that Paul is introducing here. In 1 Corinthians 3:8 and also 14 and 15 where he sort of concludes the context on rewards, he says:
NKJ 1 Corinthians 3:8 Now he who plants
This is Paul again talking to the Corinthians and he was really addressing the various speakers, apostles, Bible teachers who had come through Corinth.
and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
Paul we'll see had planted the church at Corinth, but others had come behind him who were sound teachers (Apollos being one of them - Timothy being another.) and taught behind him. He's saying that they've watered. That's the idea here.
NKJ 1 Corinthians 3:14 If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
NKJ 1 Corinthians 3:15 If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
What Paul is saying there is that if we have in fact (We have to study the passage in more detail, but I think you have at times). If it's producing fruit (rewards) then those rewards will endure into eternity. They're not wood, hay and stubble; but they're gold, silver, precious stones. So he's talking about in this passage in 1 Corinthians 3, he has introduced the subject of rewards.
Now a little background on Corinth because it helps us to establish the sense of the believers to whom Paul is writing. First of all, Paul is writing to believers. We have to always nail that down. It seems that in many instances as we're reading a passage of Scripture we'll say, "Well now, is he addressing unbelievers or believers?" Paul is addressing believers in Corinth. Epistles are written to believers and Paul is writing to believers in Corinth. Secondly, Paul had planted the Corinthian church. He had gone to Corinth and he had started that church. It was on his second missionary journey circa 52 AD. Paul knows the believers in that church. Not only does he know the believers in that church, he knows the character from which that church is cut – the people who live in Corinth. He also knows them. He knows who they are. He also knows that the church at Corinth was not progressing but was struggling with various problems - problems in their spiritual lives, problems within the church (the body of Christ there). There were problems that those believers were facing. The text of the epistle of I Corinthians is a running commentary of Paul's answers to a list of Corinthian church problems. There were church problems; and he's addressing them. They had come to his attention and now he is going through 1 Corinthians and he's addressing them by problem, by problem, by problem.
In 1 Corinthians 6 (to get a little closer to our passage), we're going to see that Paul first of all addresses the problem with litigation. Believers were dragging other believers into court. Let's just get a grasp on that context.
In verse 1 he says:
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:1 Dare any of you,
Referring to believers.
Y'all, plural here.
having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?
We have the word "the unrighteous" here and remember that's a word that we need to address. I've underlined the word "the" because while it's not real critical, it's going to help us identify who the unrighteous are. If I just use the word unrighteous, we might not know the subject of unrighteous because the word unrighteous is used as an adjective. It's modifying a noun, but we don't have the noun there. So we have to look in the context to find out who the unrighteous are – unrighteous believers, unrighteous unbelievers, unrighteous males, unrighteous females. What do we have here? We have to figurer that out.
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
Can't you handle these small rather insignificant (They may seem significant to you.) - but can't you handle the small problems amongst yourselves?
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:3 Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:4 If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge?
In other words what Paul is saying is take those who are capable in the church to hear these matters of litigation and go before them.
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:5 I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren?
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:6 But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers!
I've underlined unbelievers because that is what the unrighteous means in this paragraph, in this context. That's who the unrighteous are. But we had to look in the context to determine who the unrighteous were. They're unbelievers and they're judges. And by the way, I've underlined the word "the" because in the New Testament Greek we do have that definite article. "The" is there. What that does is it helps us define unrighteous. It tells us a distinct person or entity.
Well, they also had believers doing wrong, believers wronging believers. That was the next paragraph in chapter 6 where it says, "Actually then, it is already a defeat for you that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged?"
That happens to be a verb and you might be surprised to hear the "wronged" is the verb of that adjective that we just looked which was unrighteous. So we're in the same family of words. We're going to see that in a minute.
It says, "Why not be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? On the contrary you yourselves wrong and defraud…
Who? The judges? No, other believers. They're defrauding other believers.
"You do this even to your brethren."
So we have believers wronging believers, verses 7-8. Then in verse 9 we're introduced to the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Here is where we're going to start getting a little bit detailed.
The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. We might ask the question – here it is. "Or do you know that will not inherit the kingdom of God." Our words unrighteous and inherit. Those are the two words we're going to pick up now in our study.
Why will they not inherit the kingdom of God? It's this list of sins. They're not going to inherit the kingdom of God because of this list of sins - verses 9b through 10.
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:9 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,
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
That's why we're not going to inherit (whoever this is) the kingdom of God.
So our question – what does it mean to inherit the kingdom of God? That's our question – one of these three possibilities. One of these three possibilities and I believe that we're going to discover that it's #3.
The historical setting – very quickly – very quickly through the historical setting. It's a city of vices and worldly activity. Corinth was probably one of the cities that was almost a poster child for degeneracy. It was a seaport city and there was anything you could possibly imagine in that seaport city as far as recreation was concerned. I'll leave recreation to your imagination. Paul knows his audience. He knows they're a rough bunch. Thirdly, Paul was addressing Christian conduct. In short, it's post salvation sins. These Corinthian have become believers. But what's happened? They have not been doing what? They have not been transforming their minds and in so doing transforming their lives. That's the problem in Corinth and sometimes it's a problem for us.
What does Paul mean by the word unrighteous in verse 9? I'm going to go through a little bit of a study here in unrighteousness and being unrighteous. What does it mean? And this is an important part of the study and I'm hoping that I can properly present this because it helps us to understand inheriting the kingdom. And it also addresses one of the problems that theologians have when they say unrighteous is addressing unbelievers in the first paragraph, 1-6. Therefore it has to mean unbelievers in our paragraph. Now I'm going to try to prove to you that that's not true; and why it's not true.
Our word adikos is "unrighteous". What does it mean? Well, the alpha privative a is "not", attached to the word justice meaning unjust or unrighteous. Unrighteous is a good translation, adikos.We're told that it means pertaining to acting in a way that is contrary to what is right - acting in a way that is contrary to what is right, unjust, dishonest, untrustworthy, adikos.
Now I want you to observe something here. It seems like a minor point, but it's important. Adikos is an adjective. It is an adjective so it modifies another word. That's the normal use of an adjective. It's going to modify another word. So we would say that it's specific in quality. It gives us a quality of that noun. But what doesn't it do? But it's only general in category or identity. Even used as a substantive or by itself (and I'm going to give you an example), it lacks the specificity of a noun. An example would be if I used the word holy. I could just say, "Holy." And you would immediately say, "Holy what? Holy city? Holy cow? Holy Bible?"
So we have the word holy. It gives us the quality, but I haven't told you anything yet about the noun that it modifies. Now if we know what the noun is and I say the Holy One or if I say the holy will enter the church and we know that maybe I've addressed believers.
You'll say, "Well, he's talking about believers – the holy believers will enter."
Another example might be the word dead. If I say the word dead, you'd say, "Dead what?" Is he talking about a dead tree? Dead fish? Dead party? Dead ones?
So when we use the word unrighteous by itself, it doesn't really tell us what is unrighteous. It tells us the quality of what we're addressing, but it doesn't tell us what we're addressing. We always have to look in the context to determine the entity that this adjective is addressing.
Paul uses adikos three times. And this is important for us to see how Paul uses it. First of all in Romans 3:5 he says:
NKJ Romans 3:5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.)
Well, unrighteous happens to be addressing the character of God here. Unrighteous is addressing the character of God. The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous. "Is" happens to tell us that the unrighteous (I'm going to use another grammar, another term here.) happens to be a predicate adjective that refers back to what? To God. The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous. It modifies God. It modifies the character of God here. So we notice that in Romans 3:5 adikos refers to quality, the quality of God's character. Here it's not unrighteous. He is righteous, the quality of God's righteousness. He is not unjust in His actions. That's what we are being told here. Again this is somewhat technical, but stay with me on this one.
Secondly Paul uses it in 1 Corinthians 6:1, the passage that we saw at the beginning of chapter 6.
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?
Do we know who the unrighteous are? No, we don't. If he said unrighteous judges that would help us. That would help us to understand that. But what he has done is he said "the unrighteous." So he is referring to a specific – you might say person, group of people. Later in the context we can pick that up when he uses the word unbeliever.
Then, he uses it in our passage, 1 Corinthians 6:9.
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:9 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,
You'll notice I have underlined the word "the" again, only it's in italics. What does the italics mean in most of our English translations? It means it's not there in New Testament Greek. But it reads a lot better if we put it in English. So we could say here, "Or do you not know that unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God." So by leaving out the definite article in the Greek, very often it tells us we're talking about the quality of our subject – not defining it specifically. We're talking about the quality of it. Those are the three times that Paul uses unrighteous.
NKJ Romans 3:5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.)
Talking about His character.
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?
We know that later on in the context it's the unbelieving judges.
In 1 Corinthians 6:9 "the" (We put it in so it reads a little smoother in English, but it's not there.) - so, we're talking about the quality here. We don't know who this is. Unrighteous will not inherit. I don't believe we can go right back to 1 Corinthians 6:1 and say it's referring to that group of people. See, Paul has been talking to believers.
He simply says, "Believers, you should not drag each other in front of the unrighteous. And, I'm referring to the unbelieving judges."
Why would Paul now switch in the middle of 1 Corinthians and start addressing the unrighteousness of these judges? No, he is addressing the believers. He is continuing to address the problems of the Corinthians.
So again in 3:5 adikos refers to quality. Now we need to make the determination in the other 2 verses. Does it refer to an unbeliever or does it refer to a believer? That's our choice – unrighteous unbeliever which would mean unsaved or unrighteous believer meaning carnal believers or those who are sinning the sins that we have listed here. The context must provide that answer.
The believers at Corinth, what was their quality? What's their quality? First of all they're quarreling in chapter 1. Secondly they're boasting in 1 and 3 and 4. Those are our chapters. They're arrogant in 3:6 and 4:18 – 1 Corinthians 3:6 and 4:18. There's incest in 5:1. I am painting a little picture for you here. We don't have time to go to these verses. Immoral believers in 5:11. They have lawsuits in 6: 1. That's our passage. That's where we begin our context - defrauding each other in 6:7, wronging each other, dragging them into court, defrauding, swindling, immorality in 6:18 and 7:2. In 10:14 it's idolatry. Drunkenness at the Lord's Table in 11:17. These are the Corinthians. So when we get to this list of sins, we should not be surprised that this could possibly be referring to the believers in Corinth.
So what do we have here? The question is: are the unrighteous of verse 9 the same unrighteous believers Paul's been addressing throughout the entire book or is he now reverting to talking about judges?
Let's talk about the quality of judges in Corinth. I say that with a little bit of sarcasm because I don't think he would do that. As a matter of fact, he doesn't. Is it possible that these unrighteous are the same ones that are continuing to do wrong in verses 7 and 8? Look at verses 7 and 8 one more time. It says:
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:7 Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you
Plural
not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated?
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:8 No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren!
Wronged here – see if this sounds familiar. Our word is adkios, unrighteous. This is adikeo. So the word "wronged" used twice in verse 7 and 8 is related to adikos. We translate it wronged, but we could say that there is unrighteousness going on there. But this is the verb adikeo. It's in the family of adikos, and it means to do wrong, to injure, to harm or to act unjustly. So we now have believers. We continue to look at the believers. They're doing wrong to each other. I want you to see that relationship between adikeo which we have here and our word adikos. Let's look at that. If we tried to translate these words so they were a little closer together.
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:7 Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong?
Adikeo
Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated?
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:8 No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren!
Now we're going to turn right around and say, "Why do the ones who are doing this wrong, why are they not going to enter the kingdom of heaven or why will they not inherit the kingdom of heaven?"
So do you all not know that wrongdoers (adikos) will not inherit the kingdom of God?
So we have wrongdoers in 7 and 8, and then in verse 9 we use that cognate of adikos to be wrongdoers. Instead of translating it unrighteous, I think we can translate that wrongdoers and we can see this relationship. Let's revise it to show the direct relationship between 7 and 9.
"Why not rather be wronged (the verb)? Y'all yourselves are doing wrong (the verb). Wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God."
See that family of words used here in 7 and 8 and 9. We have the verb twice (adikeo) and then we have our word unrighteous used in verse 9. So Paul uses these three words I believe to tie together the concept here of who these wrongdoers are. These are believers in 7 and 8. They are wronging each other.
Then he says:
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:9 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,
We need to move on - one minor point here. That is we don't have verses broken up. Paul didn't write verse 1, verse 2, verse 3. He's just writing right through this paragraph so he would see those verses joined that way, just like you did.
So now therefore it is already an utter failure for you that you all for you all that you all go to law against one another. Why do you all not rather be wronged? Why do you not rather be cheated?
In other words, just take that from another believer. We could stop and teach turning the other cheek here.
No, you are doing wrong - meaning by taking people to court and cheating. And you do these things to your brethren. Do you all know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?
So we need to see that relationship and we need to see the consequences for those sins, for the wrongdoing. That's what Paul is addressing. Paul is talking to believers and he's talking about believers.
Two additional points here from the text. Paul uses an article with the noun in verse 1. Remember I said the unrighteous. But the article is absent in verse 9. When the article is absent we would say it's anarthrous. What does that mean? I said in that in verse 1 the use of the article specifically identifies the noun while the anarthrous noun in verse 9 speaks more to the nature or quality. So we know who the unbelievers are, the unrighteous, the wrongdoers are in verse 1. They're unbelievers. But we had that definite article that says "the" unrighteous. Here we don't have that. So it's more up in the air and - excuse me. It's telling us "the quality." We're talking about the unrighteousness here, the unrighteous quality of our subject. And we know who these people are because they've been described in 7 and 8. They're the wrongdoers.
Now don't be deceived, the quality of these wrongdoers… Then he begins to discuss that. I tried to explain this a little more detailed in the next paragraph. In verse 1 the article identifying adikos as the one's hearing the case, the judges in contrast to the saints. Furthermore the context, particularly verse 8, certainly identifies these judges as unbelievers. However in verse 9 the absence of the article focuses the emphasis on the nature or the quality of the unrighteous, in other words the wrongdoers – who the wrongdoers are.
The second point is that Paul has used the second person plural throughout the book. He's indicating his reference here is to the congregation as a whole. He continues to do that – you all, you all, you all, you all. He continues to use that throughout the book.
In verse 9 Paul continues his use of the second person plural by saying:
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:9 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,
Paul is addressing believers in verse 9. Paul is addressing these believers - you all. They're the ones in verse 7 and 8.
The evidence – I've sort of gone over that.
- The verb and the noun relationship in 7, 9, the adikeo and the adikos, that family, the cognate of words.
- The use of the article in one which is pointing directly to the unbelievers, but being absent in 9 saying that we're talking about the quality of our subject here.
- Then the consistent use of the second person plural – you all. He's continuing to address the believers, not the judges.
So the question – how to understand "do not be deceived." I think if we're talking to the believers there, how are we supposed to understand this "do not be deceived?" Are they unbelievers going to inherit the kingdom? I mean, would they be deceived - somehow unbelievers are going to have an inheritance? In other words, don't be deceived believers; unbelievers aren't going to get an inheritance? No, I don't think so. Are unbelievers going to lose their salvation? We know that's not true. That's not the deception here. Might carnal believers be jeopardizing their inheritance? That's possibly the deception. Yes.
Does Paul have a specific word for unbelievers? Yes, he does. And we saw that. Where? We saw that in verse 6 where he identifies specifically the judges as unbelievers. He could use that here if he's referring to unbelievers within Corinth. He doesn't do that. So I think the word adikos, unrighteous, is now referring to believers who are sinning. That word in verse 6 is apistos and it means unfaithful or unbelieving. He uses the word 11 times.
Now the topic of inheritance and I think in verse 9 it going to lead in the relationship of being unrighteous and being an heir. Robby has done I think an excellent job. Pastor Dean has done an excellent job in addressing what is an heir and what inheritance means. However, that's probably where as I said this subject needs maybe two sessions to be handled. He's probably going to be a little disappointed that I wasn't able to fire our way through here in one session. But he's already described inheritance for you - what it means to be an heir, what it means to have an inheritance, and what it means to inherit. I think what I'm going to allow him to do is come back and review that for you next time and then walk right into what it means to inherit the kingdom.
One of the things that you probably remember (or probably should remember) is that the word "inherit" does not mean to enter. So when we see "be not deceived", the adikos, the wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God. We can't translate inherit there to enter – will not enter the kingdom of God. It has to mean something else. It has to mean our inheritance. It means our eternal inheritance. Then verse 11 I think solidifies that when we see "you all." You all referring again referring to the believers in Corinth - he says some of you all and then on the other side but you all have been washed. It's believers who are a subset of the total believers. I'm going to leave that for Pastor Dean.
Let's bow our heads in prayer.
Illustrations