Paul, Culture, and the Unchanging Gospel

Today's Scripture

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 — "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 — "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."

The Big Idea

Paul's hardest words about sexuality sit inside his best news. The same sentence that lists the unrighteous turns and says, "such were some of you — but you were washed." Today we read the contested Greek words honestly, refuse to dodge the debate, and then stand under the verse both sides rush past: the gospel really changes people, though not always in the way we demand.

Reflection

Two Greek words and an honest debate

Corinth was a rough port city — sailors, merchants, temples, and every appetite for sale. Paul planted a church there, and when he wrote back to it, he named the life many of its members had come out of. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 — "Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."

The phrase "men who practice homosexuality" translates two Greek words, and they sit at the center of a real scholarly debate. The first, malakoi, literally means "soft ones." The second, arsenokoitai, is rarer — and its construction is telling. It welds together arsen (male) and koite (bed), the exact two words that appear side by side in the ancient Greek translation of Leviticus 18:22 — the translation Paul's churches read. Most scholars conclude Paul built the word from that verse, deliberately carrying the Old Testament's sexual ethic into the church age. That linguistic link is hard to wave away.

Honesty requires hearing the other side too. Some interpreters argue Paul had in view the exploitative practices that saturated his world — masters using slaves, men using boys, prostitution in pagan temples — not modern committed relationships. Corinth certainly overflowed with such abuse, and Paul certainly hated it. But the word Paul chose points back to Leviticus, which addresses the act itself rather than only its cruelest forms; and Paul, who readily named specific abuses elsewhere, chose the broad term here. Christians should make this case with care and humility — but they did not invent it to be cruel. It is what the text most likely says.

Before anyone feels either condemned or smug, though, reread the list. Greedy. Drunkards. Revilers — people who tear others apart with words; the internet runs on reviling. Swindlers. Thieves. Paul flattens every hierarchy of sin we love to build. Nobody walks out of 1 Corinthians 6 with their righteousness intact — which was always the point. Paul counted himself chief among the disqualified: 1 Timothy 1:15 — "The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost." The foremost of sinners became the apostle of grace. That is the kind of list this is.

Such were some of you

Now the hinge — six words both sides of this debate sprint past. 1 Corinthians 6:11 — "And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

Were. Past tense. Sitting in the Corinthian congregation were former idolaters, former adulterers, former thieves, and men formerly named by those two Greek words — and Paul says their old life no longer defines them. Then three washing-day words, worth defining. Washed: cleansed, the shame rinsed off. Sanctified: set apart for God, with a new direction of life begun. Justified: a courtroom word — declared right with God, the verdict already in.

Notice what this means: God saved these Corinthians knowing exactly what was on their list. J.I. Packer called that the deepest relief in the Christian life:

"There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me... and quench his determination to bless me." — J.I. Packer, Knowing God

This is what the gospel claims to do: not improve your old self, but bury it and start something new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 — "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." John Newton — slave-trader turned pastor, writer of "Amazing Grace" — described in old age what that newness actually feels like from the inside:

"I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am." — John Newton

Read that sentence twice, because it holds today's whole tension. Real change — not what I once used to be — without perfection: not what I ought to be. Martin Luther nailed the same truth to a church door:

"When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, 'Repent,' he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance." — Martin Luther, The Ninety-Five Theses

Repentance — turning from sin back to God — is not the entrance exam of the Christian life. It is the Christian life, daily, until we die.

What transformation does and does not promise

Here the church must say something painful and true. Taking "such were some of you" as a guarantee, parts of the church built programs — often called conversion therapy — promising that prayer and effort would turn same-sex attraction into heterosexual desire. For many who went through them, the promised change never came. What came instead was shame, secrecy, despair, and sometimes suicide. People were told their lack of change proved their lack of faith. That was a lie, and it broke people God loves.

Scripture itself warned us against such promises. Paul — the apostle of transformation — carried something he begged God to remove. 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 — "Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'" God said no to Paul's healing and yes to Paul's holiness. Whatever the thorn was, it stayed — and grace was the answer, not the consolation prize.

The New Testament is honest that we live between the washing and the wedding. Romans 8:23 — "we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." Groaning is normal Christian experience. Some believers find desires genuinely reordered in this life; others carry an unwanted attraction, or another thorn, to the end — walking faithfully the whole way. Both are stories of grace. The promise is not "your struggle will vanish." The promise is Philippians 1:6 — "he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." God finishes what he washes. Corrie ten Boom, who watched grace hold in a concentration camp, said it simply:

"There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still." — Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place

So how does anyone obey a standard this high while waiting? Augustine found the prayer that holds it together — asking God to supply the very obedience he requires:

"Give what you command, and command what you will." — Augustine, Confessions

That is the difference between conversion therapy and Christianity: one demands you produce change for God; the other asks God to produce change in you, on his timetable, by his Spirit.

Bought with a price

Paul ends the chapter not with a rule but with a receipt. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 — "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."

A temple is where God lives. Paul's claim is that the God of the universe has moved into ordinary Christian bodies — yours, with its history and its scars and its unruly desires. And "bought with a price" tells you what you cost: not silver, but the blood of Christ. Christian sexual ethics, at bottom, is not a list of prohibitions. It is the logic of belonging. C.S. Lewis heard the claim at full strength:

"Christ says 'Give me All. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You.'" — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

That is a demand no one can meet — except that the One making it already gave all first. This is where five days of reading land. Created good, bent by the fall, called by a standard we cannot keep, we are met by a Savior who kept it for us, died for our failures, and now will not stop until the good work is complete. Tim Keller said it in the sentence he repeated his whole ministry:

"The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope." — Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage

Such were some of you. But you were washed. Whatever is on your list — and everyone has a list — those six words are stronger than it.

Going Deeper

Take a slip of paper and write the words "such were some of you." Underneath, write the one item from your own history — from anyone's version of Paul's list — that shame keeps replaying. Then write over it, in larger letters: washed, sanctified, justified. Throw the paper away or keep it in your Bible at 1 Corinthians 6. Either way, say the three words out loud once. Shame shouts; the gospel needs to be heard at least at speaking volume.