ARE THEY LOST OR ARE THEY SAVED?
Comments on 1 Cor. 6:9
“Observe here, 1. Our apostle’s positive assertion, and categorical proposition, That the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God; whereby unrighteousness, is meant injustice and injuriousness towards our neighbour, as appears by the context, which speaks of defrauding: unrighteousness will as certainly shut out of heaven, as ungodliness.
Observe next, The large catalog of sins which the apostle reckons up, that will shut out of heaven: uncleanness, idolatry, inordinate love of this world, drunkenness, etc. For the confirmation of his proposition, he proceedeth to the enumeration of the several sins destructive of salvation: which are not to be understood copulatively, but disjunctively: not as if he only who is guilty of all these shall miss of heaven, but he that lives in any one of these unrepented of; if he doth not forsake his wicked course of life, he shall never see the kingdom of God: whoever allows and tolerates himself in any one sin, is certainly in a state of damnation.-William Burket’s notes
“Know ye not, etc. By unrighteousness here you may understand what is opposed to strict integrity. The unrighteous, then, that is, those who inflict injury on their brethren, who defraud or circumvent others, who, in short, are intent upon their own advantage at the expense of injuring others, will not inherit the kingdom of God. That by the unrighteous here, as for example adulterers, and thieves and covetous, and revilers, he means those who do not repent of their sins, but obstinately persist in them, is too manifest to require that it should be stated. The Apostle himself, too, afterwards expresses this in the words employed by him, when he says that the Corinthians formerly were such The wicked, then, do inherit the kingdom of God, but it is only in the event of their having been first converted to the Lord in true repentance, and having in this way ceased to be wicked. For although conversion is not the ground of pardon, yet we know that none are reconciled to God but those who repent. The interrogation, however, is emphatic, for it intimates that he states nothing but what they themselves know, and is a matter of common remark among all pious persons.” –John Calvin
“The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom – The unrighteous, αδικοι , those who act contrary to right, cannot inherit, for the inheritance is by right. He who is not a child of God has no right to the family inheritance, for that inheritance is for the children. If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, Ro 8:17. There are here ten classes of transgressors which the apostle excludes from the kingdom of God; and any man who is guilty of any one of the evils mentioned above is thereby excluded from this kingdom, whether it imply the Church of Christ here below or the state of glory hereafter.
Several of the evils here enumerated will not bear to be particularly explained; they are, however, sufficiently plain of themselves, and show us what abominations were commonly practiced among the Corinthians.”-Adam Clark
“…their tricking and defrauding of one another, with other sins they were guilty of; which, if not repented of, would show, that notwithstanding their profession, they were destitute of the grace of God, were unfit to be in the kingdom of God, in a Gospel church state here below, and would be shut out of the kingdom of heaven hereafter.” –John Gill
“He puts it to them as a plain truth, of which they could not be ignorant, that such sinners should not inherit the kingdom of God. The meanest among them must know thus much, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God (1Co 6:9), shall not be owned as true members of his church on earth, nor admitted as glorious members of the church in heaven. All unrighteousness is sin; and all reigning sin, nay, every actual sin committed deliberately, and not repented of, shuts out of the kingdom of heaven.” –Matthew Henry
“And he presses the point that they were to cherish no illusions as to this, for none of the characters pointed to in verse 9 and 10 should ever dwell with God.”-Georg Williams
“Those who practice such sins are not Christians.”- William McDonald
“The kingdom of God. Cannot be saved; cannot enter into heaven. Cmt. on Mt 3:2. This may refer either to the kingdom of God in heaven, or to the church on earth–most probably the former. But the sense is the same essentially, whichever is meant. The man who is not fit to enter into the one, is not fit to enter into the other. The man who is fit to enter the kingdom of God on earth, shall also enter into that in heaven.”- Albert Barns
Pastor Ken Blue was born in Boswell, Ark. In 1955 he accepted Christ as his Savior. He and his wife Joyce were married in 1955. They have 5 children. He graduated from Midwestern Baptist Bible College in 1969 and started the Open Door Baptist Church in Lynnwood, Wa. where he pastored for 39 years. Because of health issues (ALS) he was forced to resign as pastor. It is his desire to continue to be used of God to help pastors and believers through this ministry.