The Bible in a Year · November 14, 2026
“Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?” (1 Corinthians 6:9, NIV)
It’s easy to sing about Jesus as King on Sunday. I find out how much I mean it when somebody disputes what I think I’m owed on Monday. My first impulse is to rehearse the facts that favor me, and I can do it so well that I almost forget the other person has a story too. The church in Corinth knew that impulse. Some believers were taking fellow Christians to court over personal disputes, and Paul says that some were doing the very cheating and wronging they complained about. Whatever differences there were in wealth, standing, or background, they belonged to one Lord. Paul expected that allegiance to change how they treated one another when money and pride were on the line.
The Greek word adikoi, translated “wrongdoers,” shares a root with the verb Paul uses in the previous verse when he tells the Corinthians that they themselves do wrong. The connection makes his warning uncomfortably personal. I can read down Paul’s list and find sins I’m quick to recognize in somebody else. Then I come to greed and slander. I remember the story I repeated because it made me look better, or the advantage I took because I knew the other person wouldn’t challenge me. One place Christ’s rule becomes visible is in what we do when we have the power to take advantage of someone.
I want to keep reading when I reach verse 9, because Paul knows the people to whom he’s writing. Some had lived in the very ways he names. To them he says, “you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified” (1 Corinthians 6:11, NIV). Those three phrases tell us what God has done through Jesus Christ and by His Spirit. A believer grieved by a recurring sin can hear hope in those words and seek help with the struggle. A believer who has grown comfortable defending a harmful habit can hear the urgency of Paul’s warning and turn back to Christ. The grace that gives us a place in Christ’s kingdom also gives us a reason to face the truth about how we’ve been living.
Jesus takes the question of belonging all the way to the day He returns. In Matthew 25:31–46, the Son of Man comes in glory, gathers the nations, and separates them. He calls the kingdom an inheritance prepared for His people since the creation of the world. I’m struck by what the King remembers in that scene. Someone fed a hungry person. Someone welcomed a stranger. Someone visited a prisoner. The people Jesus commends are surprised that He took their ordinary acts of mercy so personally. That gives me a place to start today. I can ask whose need I’ve passed by, whose good name I’ve handled carelessly, or what I owe someone and have been slow to make right.
The certainty of Christ’s return also makes me think of the people I love who have heard me talk about church and may still be waiting to hear why I need Jesus. I can tell them about a time He brought me to repentance or about the relief of being able to confess what I’d tried to excuse. And if the person I’ve wronged is the one I hope to reach, an honest apology may be the first thing they need to hear from me.
For further reading
Eric C. Redmond’s commentary on 1 Corinthians
In 1 Corinthians 6:1–11, Paul connects inheriting the kingdom of God with the way believers treat one another. His warning calls us to repentance, and verse 11 grounds our hope in what Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit have done for us.
What has this passage helped you understand about a relationship or decision you’re facing? Ask the Holy Spirit to help you put that understanding into practice today. It might begin with correcting something you said or making good on a promise you hoped would be forgotten.
FEEL FREE TO COMMENT, SUBSCRIBE OR POST SO OTHERS MAY KNOW