Who does Paul list among those who will not inherit God’s kingdom?

Today Bible Study:

Who does Paul list among those who will not inherit God’s kingdom?

First Corinthians 6:9,10 provides a list of people who will “not inherit the kingdom.” The kingdom is the spiritual sphere of salvation where God rules as king over all who belong to Him by faith. All believers are in that spiritual kingdom, yet are waiting to enter into the full inheritance of it in the age to come. While believers can and do commit these sins, they do not characterize them as an unbroken life pattern. When they do, it demonstrates that the person is not in God’s kingdom. True believers who do sin, repent of that sin and seek to gain the victory over it (Rom. 7:14–25).

“Fornicators.” All who indulge in sexual immorality, but particularly unmarried persons. “Idolaters.” Those who worship any false god or follow any false religious system. “Adulterers.” Married persons who indulge in sexual acts outside their marriage. “Homosexuals…sodomites.” These terms refer to those who exchange and corrupt normal male-female sexual roles and relations. Transvestism, sex changes, and other gender perversions are included (Gen. 1:27; Deut. 22:5). Sodomites are so-called because the sin of male-male sex dominated the city of Sodom (Gen. 18:20; 19:4, 5). This sinful perversion is condemned always, in any form, by Scripture (Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Rom.1:26, 27; 1 Tim. 1:10).

“Thieves…covetous.” Both are guilty of the same basic sin of greed. Those who are covetous desire what belongs to others; thieves actually take it. “Revilers.” People who try to destroy others with words. “Extortioners.” Swindlers and embezzlers who steal indirectly, taking unfair advantage of others for their own financial gain.

Paul reminds the Corinthians that “such were some of you” (v. 11). Though not all Christians have been guilty of all those particular sins, every Christian is equally an ex-sinner, since Christ came to save sinners (Matt. 9:13; Rom. 5:20).