1 Corinthians 6:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Most important of all, by such intemperance and by this untimely and destructive excess, they draw upon themselves the wrath of God. "Drunkards," it is said, "will not inherit the Kingdom of God."

What, then, can be more pitiable than these people, who for a brief and destructive pleasure are cast out from the threshold of the Kingdom?

But may it not happen that anyone gathered here is carried away by this passion. Rather, may we all pass the present day with every love of wisdom and chastity.

May we be freed from the storm and turmoil that drunkenness usually produces. May we enter the harbor of our souls, that is, the fast, and abundantly receive the blessings granted by it.

See how afterward also divine Scripture constantly condemns amusements. In one place it says, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play" (Ex 32:6).

In another place: "He ate and drank, and Israel grew fat and became stubborn. He grew fat, thick, and sleek, and he forsook God" (Deut 32:15).

The inhabitants of Sodom also, along with their other transgressions, drew upon themselves the inexorable wrath of God by this same vice. Hear what the prophet says: "Behold, this was the iniquity of Sodom, your sister, and of her daughters: pride, fullness of bread, and idleness" (Ezek 16:49).

This vice is, as it were, the source and root of every evil. Do you see the harm of intemperance?

The reading is εφαγε και επιε και ελιπανθη και επαξυνθη, και απελακτισεν ο ηγαπημενοι, instead of the usual reading here in the Septuagint, including the Lucianic manuscripts: και εφαγεν Ιακωβ και ενεπλησθη, και απελακτισεν ο ηγαπημενοι ελιπανθη, επαξυνθη, meaning, "And Jacob ate and was filled."

That he is subject to temporal punishment, we see. We see how property gathered by injustice by extortioners is scattered and perishes. They themselves suffer in this world from dishonor, remorse, and the torment of conscience.

It often happens that such men grow rich for a time and, like a flower in the field, shine for a time. Then suddenly, like a flower, they wither and fall, and become like one of the poor and needy.

Another's goods taken by theft are like fire entering a house. They consume all the rest of one's possessions, because where there is injustice, the curse of God takes up its dwelling.

Where the curse of God is, there will be no good, but every misfortune will follow.

Extortioners and robbers are like a man drawing water with a sieve. So from their hands everything they steal and gather flows away through various streams, like water drawn with a sieve.

Steal and seize, man, as you wish and what you wish. Nevertheless, everything will flow from your hands, and your unjust possession will be destroyed like fire.

That the extortioner and thief is subject to eternal punishment is clear from what the Apostle wrote: "Neither thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the Kingdom of God" (1 Cor 6:10).

Those who have not shown mercy to their neighbor are driven away and sent into eternal fire (Mt 25:41). How then will those suffer who steal what belongs to another?

Thus the extortioner and robber harms himself more than his neighbor from whom he steals. He injures himself more than him.

O man, you use another's goods for a time, but you will pay for this with eternal suffering. It is fearful even to hear of eternal suffering, let alone to suffer it.

But you will not escape it. Truly, you will not escape if you do not repent and make peace with your brother.

The Lord says to you: "Make friends quickly with your adversary, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be cast into prison.

Truly I say to you, you will not come out from there until you have paid the last quadrans" (Mt 5:25-26).

Be reconciled, man. Be reconciled quickly with all whom you have wronged. Be reconciled while you are on the way of your life, before the righteous Judge calls you to Himself for judgment.

He calls each person through death. As you are when called, so you will stand before His judgment.

If he shames the Corinthians for the mere fact that lawsuits exist among them, he has chiefly in view the sinful and unchristian causes of these lawsuits.

This is clear from his further rebuking address to the Corinthians: "But you yourselves wrong and defraud, and that your brothers. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived ... neither thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the Kingdom of God" (1 Cor 6:8-11).

According to St. John Chrysostom, "The Apostle here has in mind certain people who said, as many say even now: God loves mankind and is good. He does not avenge transgressions. We have nothing to fear. He will never punish any sin."

However absurd such thoughts are, sinners always hold them. Only when, by God's mercy, they begin to repent do they realize that they were deceived. Then they clearly see that with God mercy remains mercy, and righteousness remains righteousness.

"Having opened the eyes of sinners, which were closed by flattery, the Apostle enumerates them by kinds. He does this as he did above, when expelling them from Christian society (5:10). Two kinds of sins are listed: fleshly lusts in their most shameful forms, and covetousness with all its injustices" (Theophan).

All these sins were indicated by the Apostle not because he knew them among the Corinthians, but to warn them against these destructive sins. For the same purpose he reminds them of their illumination through baptism and their sanctification through chrismation and the other mysteries.

According to St. John Chrysostom's explanation, the Apostle speaks as though saying: "Consider from what evils God delivered you when He made you clean. Was that all? No, He also sanctified you. Nor is this all. He justified you and enriched you with countless blessings.

Therefore, beloved, knowing this and keeping in mind the greatness of the blessings granted us, let us live piously. Let us keep ourselves pure from all the sins that have been listed."

Nor revilers: the abusive and quarrelsome, mockers and scoffers, from whom no one has peace or passage. This occurs in both crude and subtle forms.

Nor extortioners: those who, like predatory beasts, roam the roads and lurk in hidden places to attack someone and rob him. These are brigands.

Also included here are those who empty pockets, and those who forcibly withhold some payment.

Two kinds of sins are listed: fleshly lust in its most shameful forms, and covetousness with all its injustices. Of the sins of irritation and anger only one is named, reviling. Yet this too can arise from an angerless desire to trouble others.

All such will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Such people are intolerable even in good society, let alone in the most radiant and most pure Kingdom of God.

The Apostle probably sets this forth because many of the believing Corinthians belonged to the lower class and had previously been entangled in evil habits. The case of the incestuous man showed that falls back into former deeds were possible in others also.

For this reason he writes to the whole Church that such people are to be expelled from Christian society. Those who might again suffer falls he frightens with Gehenna.

Nothing is so powerful to sober and turn one away from the enticements of habitual sin as awareness of the danger of losing the Kingdom. So too is receiving into one's feeling the fear of falling into Gehenna.

That the Apostle's aim is indeed prevention is clear from what he says immediately afterward.