1 CORINTHIANS 6:9-12
CHAPTER 6:9-20 HAS BEEN DESCRIBED as “somewhat disjointed and obscure.” Reason for this has been found in “the unfinished spontaneous nature of these passages.”1
Yet it is possible to see this text as a finely constructed literary whole that includes two apostolic homilies.2 The first of these two homilies (6:9-12) has seven cameos [see fig. 2.3(1)].
This homily showcases a combination of features that have already appeared in the epistle. There are seven cameos, composed in three sections. The first section comprises four cameos using a simple ring composition with an A-B-B-A structure. This is followed by a second section that employs two cameos linked by step parallelism. The final cameo stands alone and provides a summary/conclusion to the homily. The last homily in the first essay (4:8-16) also had seven cameos, divided into three sections, with a concluding cameo.
6:9Do you not know that the unrighteous | THE UNRIGHTEOUS | |
| will not inherit the kingdom of God? | Not Inherit the Kingdom |
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2. | Do not be deceived; |
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| neither the immoral, |
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| nor idolaters, |
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| nor adulterers, | FIVE SINS |
| nor catamites, | (sexual) |
| nor sodomites, |
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3. | 10nor thieves, |
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| nor the greedy |
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| nor drunkards, | FIVE SINS |
| nor revilers, | (nonsexual) |
| nor robbers |
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4. | will inherit the kingdom of God. | Not Inherit the Kingdom |
| 11And such were some of you. | LIKE SOME OF YOU |
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5. | 11bBut you were washed, |
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| but you were made holy [sanctified], |
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| but you were justified |
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6. | in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ |
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| and in the Spirit |
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| of our God. |
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7. | 12“All things are lawful for me,” |
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| but all things are not helpful. |
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| “All things are lawful for me,” |
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| but I will not be enslaved by anything. |
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Figure 2.3(1). Kingdom ethics (1 Cor 6:9-12)
This homily opens with four cameos. Cameos 1 and 4 are clearly a pair. Examined together they read:
1. a. | 6:9Do you not know that the unrighteous | THE UNRIGHTEOUS |
b. | will not inherit the kingdom of God? | Not Inherit the Kingdom |
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4. b. | 10b-11awill (not) inherit the kingdom of God. | Not Inherit the Kingdom |
a. | And such were some of you. | LIKE SOME OF YOU |
The double use of the phrase inherit the kingdom occurs just before and just after the list of ten sins. Paul rarely mentions the kingdom of God. In all of his letters, only here does such a reference occur twice in a single text. The expressions “inheriting the kingdom” and “inheriting eternal life” are well known in the Gospels (Mt 19:29; 25:34; Mk 10:17; Lk 10:25; 18:18). The double use of the phrase “inherit the kingdom of God” binds (1a) “the unrighteous” to (4a) “such were some of you.” Corinth was a “tough town,” famous for its debauchery. Paul was a brilliant scholar. At the same time, he was able to “dumb down” his presentations of the gospel and could appeal to the uneducated, tough, immoral flotsam of Corinth. Working as a poorly dressed, itinerant tentmaker would have thrown him in with the tradespeople of the city. He gained a following—but his followers inevitably brought problems with them into their new life in Christ. The phrase “such were some of you” indicates that among Paul’s readers were those who had been healed from the sins on his list. The ten sins can be seen as two sets of five. This in itself can be traced elsewhere.
In Colossians 3:5, 8, Paul sets out two lists of sins with five sins in each. The first is directly, or indirectly connected to sexual sins and is as follows:
Paul’s List | Paul’s Categories |
immorality | a catchall category for sexual sins |
impurity | strong overtones of sexual misconduct |
passion | sexual in nature (1 Cor 7:9) |
evil desire | primarily related to “desires of the flesh” (Rom 1:24; 6:12; 13:14; Gal 5:6, 24; 1 Thess 4:5) |
covetousness | faintly related to sexual sins. Coveting the neighbor’s wife is proscribed in the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:17) |
Paul’s second list in Colossians 3:8 also contains five sins.
anger | nonsexual |
wrath | nonsexual |
malice | nonsexual |
slander | nonsexual |
foul talk | nonsexual |
This same pattern appears here in 2 and 3. The sexual sins are
Paul’s List | Paul’s Categories |
immoral | all forms of sexual sins—particularly heterosexual sins |
idolaters | sacred prostitution was a part of the Corinthian world |
adulterers | heterosexual sins (married) |
catamites | the passive partner in a homosexual relationship |
sodomites | the active partner in a homosexual relationship |
Both heterosexual and homosexual sins are condemned.3 There is no indication that one is considered more heinous than the other. Idolatrous worship in Corinth involved sacred prostitution with the priestesses of Aphrodite/ Venus, and thus idolatry in Corinth involved fornication.4 This means that, like Colossians 3:5, 8, Paul begins his list of ten vices with five that relate to sexual misconduct.
These two similar Pauline lists of ten sins (five sexual and five nonsexual) are striking. Number ten is music playing in the background, and that number carries overtones of the Decalogue. Later in the epistle Paul will again use the number ten in a significant way (9:19-27). This is in harmony with the extensive use of seven, the perfect number. The word catamites is unique to this passage, and sodomites occurs only in one other text (1 Tim 1:10). In short, after affirming that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom, Paul gives a list of ten sins that relate to the problems he is discussing in this letter.
The reason for his special emphasis on sexual sins is obvious. In 5:1-5 Paul opened the case of incest that had erupted in the church. Then, in 5:6-8 he related this problem to the health of the Christian community as a whole and to the sacrifice of Christ. He issued a call to continue relations with such people in the world but not in the church, and told his readers that this issue should not be dumped on the public courts. Now, in 6:9 he starts to lay a theological foundation for sexual morality. Why then the second half of the list?
The second set of five sins is composed of:
thieves
greedy
drunkards
revilers
robbers
At first glance these five seem to be a traditional list without any unifying emphasis. But here also Paul appears to have created a special list out of concern for the moral lapses of the Corinthians. Two points of overlap are visible. The first is the fact that Paul has just accused his readers of “defrauding” one another in the courts. Defrauding is a form of stealing. Paul opens his list of nonsexual sins with “thieves” and ends the same list with “robbers.”5 The center of this short list includes “greedy, drunkards and revilers.” As we will see, in 11:17-34 Paul discusses irregularities that occur in the Corinthian celebrations of the Eucharist. Some are greedy and stuff themselves, leaving others hungry. They were already quarreling (1:11-12) and thus when they got drunk at the Eucharistic meals, they quite likely hurled a few insults at their enemies in opposing parties. Paul has already written, “When reviled, we bless” (4:12). It is thus possible to see the Corinthian communal meals as a wild scene where some were indeed “greedy, drunkards and revilers.”
Behind this list of ten sins lie aspects of three problems in the Corinthian church: stealing and their misuse of the courts, their sexual misconduct, and irregularities at their Eucharistic meals.
Paul then calmly reminds them that such behavior was part of their past. That is, among them were those who had been healed from these sins, both sexual and nonsexual. The healing power of the gospel had been at work and had already demonstrated its life-changing influence. He recalls for them the source of their new life in the present. The second part of this apostolic homily reads:
5.a. 11But [alla] you were washed,6
b.but [alla] you were made holy [sanctified],
c.but [alla] you were justified
6.a. in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
b.and in the Spirit
c.of our God
The first three lines in cameo 5 open with alla (but). The threefold repetition of alla (but) is striking. The six lines interrelate through the use of step parallelism. Washing (5a) refers to baptism, which for Paul (Rom 6:3) was “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (6a). The phrase “you were made holy” (5b) matches “in the [Holy] Spirit” (6b). Finally, justification (5c) for Paul (Rom 8:33) is an act of God (6c). Orr and Walther define the two key terms succinctly when they write, “To be sanctified means to be consecrated in God’s service and enrolled in His family. To be justified means to be forgiven of sins and accepted as righteous.”7 The order of the verbs denies a theological schematizing of justification, then sanctification.
Yet one more overtone of a Trinitarian formula appears in the last three lines with the mention of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit and God. Paul invoked the Trinity in his discussion of the secret mystery of God revealed to him (2:7-10a; 10b-16). Here the Trinity is at the heart of new life in Christ.
With this new status in the presence of God in mind, Paul turns to debate the reasons the Corinthians (it seems) were giving to justify their behavior.
7.12“All things are lawful for me,”
but all things are not helpful.
“All things are lawful for me,”
but I will not be enslaved by anything.
Hering has already identified these four lines as a strophe constructed “somewhat according to the rules of Hebrew poetry.” He adds, “The parallelism of its members is clear.”8 It is generally accepted that Paul is quoting the Corinthian libertines. These same four lines reappear with slight changes in 10:23, and the lead phrase “all things are lawful to me” must surely be a quote from the mouths of the Corinthians. It has often been suggested that Paul endorses the phrase (with qualifications), and thus it may well be his own phrase originally used to oppose Jewish legalism. Out of context, some Greek Christians used it to justify their libertinism. How can Paul reply? Again Orr and Walther offer a suggestive analysis of the problem. They write,
What is to be done when recipients of the gospel, upon realizing that they have been invited into God’s home with full privileges, as it were, start wrecking the furniture, befouling the floors, and even tearing the building apart?9
The problem is complicated by the fact that the Corinthians were not merely reflecting a carryover of their pre-Christian lifestyle, but as Conzelmann puts it, were “provided with an active/speculative justification” of their action with the cry, “all things are lawful for me.”10
What is Paul to do? One simple answer would have been to return them to a rigorous enforcement of the law with its punishments. But to do so would be to deny the gospel. Instead, Paul takes their point and then affirms that all things are not “helpful.” Robertson and Plummer explain this as meaning, “Christian freedom must be limited by regard for others.”11 The law is not a means of salvation, and it has been summarized as “the law of Christ.” In this new form it is still in force to prevent “the collapse of society and the ruin of men’s lives.”12 Paul is perhaps rephrasing his earlier statement, “All things are yours… and you are Christ’s” (3:21, 23). A similar discussion in 10:23 indicates that the community’s health is an important concern. Orr and Walther succinctly observe, “When one loves God, all things are permissible; but when one loves God, one loves what He loves. This means love for all others, for they are loved by God; and conduct will be regulated by this love.”13
In the second response to “all things are lawful,” Paul utilizes a play on words in Greek. The word existin (lawful) has exousia (authority) as its root. Paul then uses the verb exousiazo (to be enslaved) in his response. Robertson and Plummer catch this in English by aptly paraphrasing, “I can make free with all things, but I will not let any thing make free with me.”14 Freedom cannot be allowed to cancel itself. Emancipation from enslavement is clearly implied, a subject to which Paul returns later in the essay.
To summarize, in this seven-stanza cameo Paul affirms:
Some of the Corinthians had previously engaged in sexual and nonsexual sins that were incompatible with the kingdom of God. From these sins they had been healed. These sins are listed.
The three persons of the Trinity are mentioned along with something of their function in the reformation of new believers.
All things are indeed lawful, but a Christian must avoid anything that does not build up the community and reject anything that enslaves.
The second half of Paul’s theological foundation for sexual ethics is presented in 6:13-20.