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1 Cor. 6:9, etc.
To take a somewhat different tack on 1 Cor. 6:9ff., let me point out that
ADIKOI is anarthrous and as such indicates that Paul is talking about
unrighteousness in ample, rather than specific terms here. If the article
had accompanied ADIKOI, one might consider that the word was a specific
reference to those mentioned in the previous verse who were acting
unrighteously by bringing lawsuits against one another. In Paul's play on
words between ADIKEITE in v. 8 and ADIKOI in v. 9, he is saying, "You who
defraud (ADIKEITE) your brethren will be excluded from the kingdom of God
just like any of the unrighteous (ADIKOI). Their exclusion is mentioned
twice: in v. 9 and v.10. Included in the list of sinners he gives are the
covetous or greedy (PLEONEKTAI) and swindlers (A(RPAGES) right alongside the
grosser sins of sexual immorality, idolatry, adultery, homosexual activity of
different sorts, thievery, drunkeness and abusiveness.
PLANASQE should be taken as middle (so Weymouth, Beck, NEB, JB, Phillips)
rather than passive voice (KJV, Williams, NASV). The danger Paul is warning
against with the phrase MH PLANASQE is the tendency to excuse one's own sins
or to think that they are not so odious to God as to exclude one from His
kingdom. Paul's message to those who were defrauding their Christian
brothers by lawsuits is that they must repent or suffer the same consequences
as the unrepentant perpetrators of these even grosser sins. Nevertheless,
Paul does not enumerate these sins so as to condemn all who commit them;
rather, he points out in v. 11 that those who have come to Christ have seen
themselves freed not only from the guilt, but also from the practice of all
these sorts of sins. This final statement of the pericope is meant not only
to sum up the victory we have in Christ over sin, but to hold out hope to
anyone whose sins are mentioned in the list Paul has given (perhaps
especially those whose greed was getting them into lawsuits with thier
brothers). The words "in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ" establishes the
authority in which this forgiveness has come and may come; and "in the Spirit
of our God" speaks of the power that transforms the sinner and frees from the
power of sin.
David L. Moore