1 Corinthians 6:9–11

1 Corinthians 6:9 — The Rhetorical Challenge and the Vice List

Paul opens with a sharp rhetorical question — "Or don't you know...?" — signaling that what follows is not new doctrine but something the Corinthians have already been taught and are now dangerously ignoring. The phrase "do not be deceived" (μὴ πλανᾶσθε) is a specific apostolic warning against self-deception, likely directed at Corinthians who were rationalizing sexual sin and litigation under a misunderstood theology of freedom (cf. 1 Cor 6:12). Paul's use of "inherit the Kingdom" (βασιλείαν θεοῦ κληρονομήσουσιν) draws on Old Testament inheritance language — the land promised to Israel was an inheritance (κληρονομία); now the eschatological Kingdom is the inheritance at stake.

The vice list is not random. Paul groups the sins roughly: first sexual sins (πόρνοι — the sexually immoral; μοιχοί — adulterers; μαλακοί — the passive partner in male same-sex acts; ἀρσενοκοῖται — the active partner), then economic and social sins (thieves, the covetous, extortionists), with idolaters and drunkards and slanderers bridging the categories. The explicit inclusion of two distinct Greek terms for same-sex behavior — μαλακοί and ἀρσενοκοῖται — signals precision rather than cultural accident; Paul constructs ἀρσενοκοῖται from the Septuagint text of Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 (ἄρσενος κοίτην), grounding his moral teaching directly in Torah.

1 Corinthians 6:10 — Completing the Catalogue

The list continues with sins that are less bodily but equally corrosive to community life: covetousness (πλεονέκται), which Paul elsewhere identifies with idolatry (Col 3:5); drunkenness (μέθυσοι); slander (λοίδοροι); and extortion (ἅρπαγες). The inclusion of drunkards alongside sexually immoral persons and thieves is striking — Paul refuses to create a tiered morality where bodily sins are grave and social sins are trivial, or vice versa. The repetition of "will not inherit God's Kingdom" reinforces that the exclusion is eschatological, not merely disciplinary.

1 Corinthians 6:11 — The Great Reversal: "But You Were Washed"

The adversative ἀλλά ("but") is one of the most powerful pivots in Pauline literature. Paul does not soften the list, dispute it, or qualify it — he fully affirms it and then asserts something even more astonishing: "some of you were such." The Corinthian church was composed not of people who had avoided these sins but of people who had lived them. The past tense is everything.

The three aorist passives — ἀπελούσασθε (you were washed), ἡγιάσθητε (you were sanctified), ἐδικαιώθητε (you were justified) — are all passive voice, emphasizing that the transformation was received, not self-achieved. The order is deliberate and has fascinated exegetes: washing (Baptism) precedes sanctification (incorporation into the holy life of God) which precedes justification (the definitive right standing before the Father). The formula "in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God" is implicitly Trinitarian, anticipating later conciliar formulations: it is the Father's God who acts, through the Spirit, in the name of the Son.

The typological sense points backward to Israel's purification rituals — the washings of Leviticus, the bath of the high priest before the Day of Atonement — and forward to the eschatological washing of the new covenant (Ezek 36:25–27). Baptism is not a ritual washdown but an ontological event, an actual passing from one mode of existence to another.

Catholic tradition reads this passage as a foundational text on the sacrament of Baptism and the real, objective transformation it effects. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that Baptism "takes away original sin, all personal sins, and all punishment due to sin" (CCC 1263) and that through it the baptized is truly "born anew" (CCC 1265). The three-fold formula of verse 11 maps directly onto this: washing is the sacramental act; sanctification is the infusion of sanctifying grace and the theological virtues; justification is the right relationship with the Father restored. Critically, Catholic theology holds that justification is not merely forensic (a legal declaration) but truly transformative — the sinner is not simply declared clean but made clean. Augustine famously insisted that God's grace does not cover sin as snow covers dirt but removes it, burning it away (cf. Enchiridion 65).

John Chrysostom, preaching on this passage in Antioch, marveled that Paul catalogued such sins precisely to magnify grace: "He did not say, 'such were some of you and they perished,' but 'such were some of you and they were saved'" (Homilies on 1 Corinthians, Homily 16). This reading is confirmed by the Council of Trent, which defined that in justification sins are not merely imputed away but "truly blotted out" (Session VI, Decree on Justification, Chapter 7).

On the specific moral teachings: the Catechism reaffirms that all the behaviors listed remain gravely contrary to human dignity (CCC 2351–2396), while simultaneously teaching that no person is defined permanently by past sin, and that "the mercy of God is not a license to commit evil" but a power that actually frees from it (CCC 1733). Pope Francis, in Amoris Laetitia (§297), echoes Paul's logic: the Church must "avoid judging" the struggle of individuals while never relativizing the objective moral order — precisely the pastoral tension this passage holds in creative friction.

Contemporary Catholic life presents a specific temptation this passage addresses head-on: the temptation to collapse the gospel into either severity or sentimentality. Some Catholics, confronting the vice list of verses 9–10, use it as a weapon — a wall that keeps certain people permanently outside. Others, rightly emphasizing mercy, quietly set the list aside. Paul refuses both moves. He announces the list at full volume and then announces the washing at even greater volume.

For the Catholic in the pew, the practical application is threefold. First, take your own Baptism seriously as an event, not merely a ceremony — you were actually changed, and the life you live should correspond to that change. Second, if you have fallen back into any of the patterns named in verses 9–10 — including the less dramatic ones like covetousness or slander that often fly under moral radar — Confession is precisely the renewal of baptismal grace (CCC 1486), a return to "you were washed." Third, resist the reduction of moral theology to a single presenting issue. Paul's list includes exploitative businesspeople and gossips alongside sexual sinners — the Kingdom excludes the boardroom predator as surely as anyone else. The passage invites an honest, comprehensive examination of conscience, followed by confident recourse to the sacraments.