Who Will Inherit The Kingdom Of God?

Alba 5-18-2025

WHO WILL INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD?

I Corinthians 6:9-11

“Who’s going to be in heaven?” Just what kind of people do you suppose are going to be there? Many folks would say, “Good people get into heaven. If you are a good person, you get to go there; if you aren't, then you may be in trouble.” A problem, though, for those who take this view, is that they never know if they are being good enough. And if they think seriously, very seldom will they say, “I know I am good enough to make it to heaven.”

Still, many people seem to have the hope or feeling that when someone dies, death will somehow make a transformation in that person. Even though he or she was a scoundrel in life, they comfort themselves by acting as if that person will end up in heaven with God for all eternity.

So, who does get into heaven? Maybe what the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth in I Corinthians 6, will help us answer that question. Paul addresses a variety of problems in the lifestyles of the Corinthians. Corinth was a metropolitan city with a bad reputation. Some have called it “sin city”. Its main attraction was the Temple of Aphrodite, goddess of sex. And the way to worship Aphrodite was by participating in sex with one of the more than 1,000 temple prostitutes. As a result, Corinth was probably one of the most pagan, most decadent cities of the 1st Century world, and sin ran rampant in its streets.

Yet God was able to use Paul to establish a strong and growing church there that was making inroads into the very pagan society of Corinth. But the people of the church needed to be warned that what was considered common and acceptable in Corinth was not in line with what the Lord wanted to see in their lives. And if they practiced such things, they would not enter the Kingdom of God. The warning is found in I Corinthians 6:9-10.

“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.”

Paul just described the culture of Corinth. Sounds pretty bad doesn’t it? The ten specific sins in this list were those that had been tolerated in that city. Sadly, this description is also accurate to the world that we are living in today. Tragically, these same sins are present and tolerated in contemporary society. Well this doesn't answer the question who will get into heaven. It tells us who will not. This list reveals our unrighteous condition before God. And because God is holy, sin will not be allowed into heaven.

The first five sins Paul mentions seem to be closely related, and they all deal with sexual immorality and perversion. Of course, that should be no surprise when we think about what kind of town Corinth was.

But I’m afraid that our nation is now rapidly becoming a modern-day Corinth. Amazingly we live in a world where what was once bad is now paraded as good----what was once good is being presented as bad.

In this list of unrighteousness, he first speaks of fornication, referring to the sexually immoral, using the term pórnos. It is a broad term that speaks of any sexual activity outside of the marriage relationship. Ever since the fall of mankind, human beings have had a problem with sex. What was meant to be a pure expression of the love between a man and a woman has been distorted and misused. And this clearly tells us that the sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God.

And neither will idolaters. Idolaters are those who exalt anything, or anyone, above the Living God. The word idolatry means the dethroning of God, then worshiping something else. Likely, the idolatry Paul is talking about here is the worship of Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual immorality. Worship her, then immorality is your lifestyle.

Paul then points to adulterers as those who are living unrighteously. We shouldn't have great difficulty identifying adultery; the word speaks of anyone who sexually violates the marriage vow, being unfaithful to your spouse. And the marriage relationship is one of the major areas Satan is attacking today.

Then it is interesting that two types of sinners added to this list includes two separate terms that refer to male prostitutes and homosexual offenders. Now, those who have studied these words say that the language used here is graphic, condemning homoerotic acts, and not sexual orientation. It seems obvious that scripture views homosexual behavior as a serious sin. Yet we are constantly hearing about gay rights, and lesbians and homosexuals. We’re told that homosexuality must be recognized as an acceptable lifestyle.