Matthew Poole on 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

The following is from Matthew Poole's commentary, edited and modernized.

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

That by the kingdom of God is here meant the kingdom of glory, the happiness of another life, is plain, because Paul speaks in the future tense. This kingdom, he says, the unrighteous (i.e., those who so live and die) shall not inherit. If we take the term unrighteous here to be a general term (the species, or some of the principal species, of which are afterwards enumerated), then it signifies here the same with notoriously wicked men. But if we take it to signify persons guilty of acts of injustice towards themselves or others, then it cannot be here understood as a general term, relating to all those species of sinners after enumerated; for so idolaters cannot properly be called unrighteous, but ungodly men.

Be not deceived, says the apostle, either by any false teachers, or by the many ill examples of such sinners that you daily have, nor by magistrates' connivance at these sins.

• Fornicators – those who, being single, commit uncleanness with others (for here the apostle distinguishes these sinners from adulterers, whom he mentions afterward)
• Idolaters – those who either worship the creature instead of God, or worship the true God before images
• Adulterers – those who, being married, break their marriage covenant, and commit uncleanness with those who are not their yokefellows
• Effeminate – those who give themselves up to lasciviousness, burning continually in lusts
• Abusers of themselves with mankind – those who are guilty of the sin of Sodom, a sin not to be named amongst Christians or men
• Thieves – those who take away the goods of their neighbors clandestinely, or by violence, without their consent or any just authority
• Covetous – those who discover themselves excessively to love money, by their endeavors to get it into their hands any way, by oppression, cheating, or defrauding others
• Drunkards – those who make drinking their business, and use it excessively, without regard to the law and rules of temperance and sobriety
• Revilers – those who use their tongues intemperately, railing at others, and reviling them with reproachful and opprobrious names
• Extortioners – those who by violence wring out of people's hands what is not their due

None of these, not repenting of these sinful courses, and turning from them into a contrary course of life, shall ever come into heaven.