There Should Be No Lawsuits at All; the Unrighteous Shall Not Inherit (1 Corinthians 6:7–11)

1 Cor. 6:7–8. To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—and that even your own family.

Among those in dispute there are two sides: one regards himself as wronged, or is indeed such; the other is regarded as wronging, or is indeed such. The Apostle accuses neither of them. To the one wronged he says: why do you not agree to remain wronged and suffer loss? To the one wronging he says: why do you wrong, and even a brother? His rule and desire is that there be no disputes at all among Christians. “I do not yet inquire,” he says, “who is right and who is wrong; already by the fact that they dispute, both of them are worthy of condemnation and neither is better than the other. Do not tell me (wronged one) that injury has been done to you; I condemn you already for the fact that you judge. (And to you, wronger, I say): if not to suffer injury is a sin, what condemnation does injury-making deserve? Here are two transgressions, or rather three, even four. One, that they do not endure injury; another, that they themselves injure; a third, that they seek judgment from the unrighteous; a fourth, that they do this with a brother. For sins are not equal when committed against someone met by chance, or against one’s own member (brother); in the latter case there is displayed more shamelessness: there is offense to one nature, but here to the very heart” (St. Chrysostom). “‘Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?’ (1 Cor. 6:9). He concludes the exhortation with a threat, thereby making his word more powerful” (Theophylact).

The requirement that there be no disputes among Christians presents nothing excessive. Christian society is a society of the holy. Such does St. Paul depict it everywhere. He commanded that all sinners be cast out, depriving them of the name of Christian if they do not repent. He cast out the fornicators, cast out the greedy and the thieves, cast out those who are quarrelsome and the drunkards. But if there are no such persons in the society, then there is no one to wrong. No wrongs, and there is no occasion for disputes. And if some conflict arises, it can always be resolved with the help of some mediator, or even without one, when love reigns among all and all strive equally to preserve the common peace. How weakened has become ecclesiastical discipline now!

3) Condemnation of sinful and passionate life in general, especially fleshly gratification (1 Cor. 6:9–20)

Condemnation a) of sinful and passionate life in general (1 Cor. 6:9–11), and in particular b) of life of fleshly gratification, expressed aa) in gluttony (1 Cor. 6:12–13), and bb) fornication (1 Cor. 6:14–19), with c) a general conclusion about glorifying God in soul and body (1 Cor. 6:20).

Having condemned the incestuous man, the Apostle commanded the Church to cleanse itself of every old leaven, every open sinner, and for that established internal judgment. As he had to condemn the Corinthians also for bringing their temporal matters to pagan courts for judgment, he attached this condemnation to the discourse on that internal judgment. Having finished this condemnation, he again returns to the cleansing of the Church from sinners, directing his word now not to the Church, but to the sinners themselves, to sinners of every kind, especially those who gratify the flesh.

a) Condemnation of sinful and passionate life in general (1 Cor. 6:9–11)

1 Cor. 6:9–10. 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, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

The words: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God,” refer to what precedes—to persuading those ready to wrong to refrain from wrongs, and thus not to provide occasion for disputes. Wrongs or injustice in temporal matters, which give occasion to disputes, may on the surface seem not so important; but as they proceed from disrespect for justice, or loss of love for justice, and thus expose the crookedness of conscience and corruption of heart, then, however trifling the matter of them, they make those who commit them unclean and unfit for the kingdom of God; for nothing unclean shall enter it. Having finished this, the Apostle turns to the condemnation of sinful and passionate life in general.

“Do not be deceived,”—do not be mistaken, do not err, do not delude yourself with empty hopes, as if sin is nothing. “Here the Apostle means some who were saying, as many now say: God is merciful and kind, he does not avenge transgressions, we have nothing to fear, he will never punish any sin. Therefore he says: ‘Do not be deceived.’ For it is extreme delusion and error—hoping for what is pleasant, to receive what is opposite and to think of God in a way one would not think of a man. Therefore the prophet speaks on God’s behalf: ‘You thought that I was like you; I will accuse you and lay out the case before your eyes’ (Ps. 50:21)” (St. Chrysostom). However foolish such thoughts are, yet all sinners always hold them. The enemy is always stuffing such thoughts into their heads. Only when, by God’s mercy, they begin to repent, do they realize they were in deception, and clearly see that with God mercy is mercy and justice is justice. He is infinitely good; but equally righteous. Therefore let us fear his fear.

Having opened the eyes of sinners, closed by deception, the Apostle now enumerates them by kinds, just as he did above when he was expelling them from Christian society (1 Cor. 5:10–11). He mentions all those again and adds new ones, not intending to suggest that besides these, the door to the kingdom will be open to other sinners, but giving to understand that, like these, so too all other transgressors of the commandments will have no entry there.

“Neither fornicators”—those without wives, men engaged in lust with unmarried women; “nor idolaters,” who, permitting themselves to eat food offered to idols, fall there into other abominations joined with it; “nor adulterers,” who violate the faithfulness of the marriage bed; “nor the effeminate”—in the original there is no such word: one must assume it was added to clarify the obscure word that follows, malakia, so that one should read “nor the effeminate—the soft,” by which it seems one must understand those who defile themselves with illicit pleasures, or those who practice self-abuse; “nor men who lie with men,” when a man has another man in place of a woman to satisfy lustful desire; “nor robbers,” those eager for possessions, wanting to have more and more, without regard for means—such as excessive interest, fraud in commerce, various cunning in transactions; to them belong also the miserly, who, having much, neither use it as they should nor share it with those in need; “nor thieves”—those who rob houses, shops, churches secretly, mostly under cover of night’s darkness; “nor the drunken,” not only those who are always drunk or drink in binges, but also those who generally love the spirit of drunkenness in whatever form it appears—condemned as a voluntary dulling of the mind and heating of the blood, placing oneself in such a state as to be ready for anything; “nor the abusive”—those who are quarrelsome and brawling, scoffers and mockers, from whom no one has any peace, whether in gross or subtle ways; “nor the greedy,” who, like ravenous beasts, prowl the roads and lie in wait to fall upon someone and rob them—robbers; included also are those who empty pockets and those who violently withhold any payment. Two types of sins are listed—fleshly lusts in their most shameful forms, and greed with all its unrighteousness. Of sins of irritation and wrathfulness, only one is mentioned—being abusive, which, however, can also proceed from one without anger who simply wishes to insult others.

All such “shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” And in good society such people are intolerable, much more so in the most glorious and pure kingdom of God. The Apostle brings this up, probably because many of the believing Corinthians belonged to the lower classes and were formerly entangled in bad habits. The case of the incestuous man showed that relapses into former deeds were possible even for others. Thus he writes to the whole Church: to cast out such people from Christian fellowship, and to terrify those who might be subject to fresh falls with the fear of hell. For nothing is so powerful as the awareness of the danger of losing the kingdom and the feeling of fear of falling into hell to sober one and turn one away from the attractions of habitual sin. That this truly is the Apostle’s purpose to prevent such things is clear from what he says next:

1 Cor. 6:11. And some of you were such; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Some were such, but now surely neither they nor others are such. For if they were still such, the Apostle would not have spared them and would not have concealed it. And Saint Chrysostom says that “the Apostle uttered the aforesaid threat not because he knew that the Corinthians were guilty of all these sins, but in order to make all watchful and careful.” To maintain watchfulness over themselves, alongside the threats he now adds a reminder of the spiritual gifts they received upon entering into the bosom of the Church. He speaks to them, as it were: “Consider what evils God has delivered you from, what proof He has shown of His mercy toward you; and He did not limit His compassion to mere deliverance from evils, but extended His beneficence further: He made you clean. Is that all? No, but He also sanctified you; and that is not all, but He also justified you. To be washed from sins is already a great gift, but He has enriched us further with countless blessings. Therefore, beloved, knowing this and considering the greatness of the gifts granted to us, let us live piously, keeping ourselves pure from all the listed sins” (Saint Chrysostom). And this admonition of the Apostle is like that which he uttered when commanding to purge out the old leaven. There he said: you have a passover on your table; be unleavened, free from any admixture of sin and passion. Here he says the same: you were washed, sanctified, justified; do not fall again into uncleanness, do not lose your justification and sanctification—which is the same as saying: be unleavened. To say “you were washed, sanctified and justified” means to say the same as: a passover is on your table. For the passover signified the exodus from Egypt, deliverance from slavery and entry into the freedom of an independent people. To be washed, sanctified and justified is—to be delivered from slavery to sin, to depart from the Egypt of the passions and the domain of Satan and enter into the spiritual freedom of the sons of the kingdom, walking in the will of the King of righteousness. To remember all this means to remember that we have a passover on our table, for all this is given in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Paschal Lamb, by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

“You were washed,” that is, the original sin and all our voluntary sins are forgiven: these impurities are washed away in the waters of baptism through partaking of the blood of the Lord, who nailed our sins to the cross. “You were sanctified,” that is, in you who have been forgiven and absolved, the grace of the Holy Spirit has dwelt, laying in you the beginning of a new, holy life and sanctifying you. In your thoughts, desires and feelings everything has become holy, and in your heart reigns one single zeal to be forever holy, as you came forth from the baptismal font. “You were justified,” that is, this disposition of yours constitutes your inner righteousness, blamelessness before the face of God and the angels and before the judgment of your own conscience. By the name of the Lord all this is given, for it is given by faith in Him and through partaking of His death and life. The power that produces this is the grace of the Holy Spirit.