1 Corinthians 6:10 Meaning and Explanation
“Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”
King James Version (KJV)
This study note uses an AI-assisted editorial workflow with source, duplication, and quality checks. See how verse explanations are prepared.
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Lists like this one can land hard, and readers often wonder whether the verse describes a permanent verdict or a way of life that God intends to change. Reading verse 10 alongside what Paul says immediately afterward keeps the warning sharp while showing why he wrote it to a congregation he still calls washed and sanctified.
Paul finishes a list of habitual wrongs and repeats his warning: people who go on living by theft, greed, drunkenness, abuse of speech, and extortion have no share in God's kingdom.
The Context of 1 Corinthians 6:10
Paul is writing to the church at Corinth, and chapter 6 opens with believers hauling one another before civil courts. He rebukes the practice in verses 1 through 8, then turns in verse 9 to a broader question about who inherits the kingdom of God. Verse 10 completes the catalogue he began in verse 9, adding thieves, the covetous, drunkards, revilers, and extortioners. Verse 11 immediately names the Corinthians' own past and their washing, sanctifying, and justifying in the name of the Lord Jesus. The rest of the chapter moves to the body, sexual purity, and the price by which they were bought.
What Does 1 Corinthians 6:10 Mean?
The verse is built out of a single repeated word, 'nor,' which strings five more descriptions onto the sentence Paul started in verse 9. Thieves take what belongs to someone else. The covetous want what belongs to someone else. Drunkards surrender their judgment. Revilers use speech as a weapon against people. Extortioners use pressure or position to strip others of what is theirs. Four of the five involve damage done to a neighbor, which ties the list directly back to the lawsuits and defrauding Paul has just described in verses 7 and 8. The verb 'shall inherit' governs the whole run, and inheritance language always assumes a household, an heir, and a father who gives.
Placed where it is, the list does the work of an argument rather than a threat delivered in isolation. Corinthian believers were suing each other and defrauding each other, and Paul answers by showing them the company such conduct keeps. The kingdom of God in his letters names a real inheritance, promised and granted by God, and Scripture consistently ties inheriting to walking in covenant faithfulness. Old covenant law had already forbidden theft, coveting, and false or violent speech, and the prophets condemned those who ground down the poor. Paul carries that whole moral world into the church, insisting that grace in Corinth did not create a zone where a brother could be robbed without consequence.
Verse 11 supplies the answer the list itself cannot give. Paul says that such were some of you, placing every category in the past tense for people now washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God. The warning stands, and so does the testimony that thieves and drunkards and revilers had been genuinely changed. Christ is named as the one in whose name that washing happened, and the Spirit as the power at work in it. Paul returns to the same ground at the end of the chapter, reminding them that they were bought with a price, which gives the moral demand its cost and its warmth together.
1 Corinthians 6:10 in the Original Language
loidoros (λοίδορος), 'revilers' -- a person whose habit is to assault others with abusive, insulting speech. Paul places this word between drunkards and extortioners, treating verbal cruelty as a real injury to a neighbor rather than a lesser fault, which fits a chapter about how members of the church were treating one another.
Bible Verses Related to 1 Corinthians 6:10
“And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
- 1 Corinthians 6:11
“Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
- Galatians 5:21
“For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”
- Ephesians 5:5
“Thou shalt not steal.”
- Exodus 20:15
Where 1 Corinthians 6:10 Echoes in Scripture
Galatians 5:21 closes a similar catalogue with almost the same clause about not inheriting the kingdom of God, and Paul there adds that he had told them so before. The repetition across two letters shows this was standing apostolic teaching rather than a single outburst aimed at Corinth. Ephesians 5:5 makes the same point again with covetousness singled out, so the warning travels with Paul wherever he plants churches.
How to Apply 1 Corinthians 6:10 Today
Most of these habits start small and get named late. We can take an honest inventory this week: money handled loosely, an appetite that has begun making our decisions, a tone of speech that leaves people smaller, a bargain struck by leaning on someone who could not refuse. Where any of that is present, restitution and confession are within reach today. Paul wrote to people who had already come out of these patterns, so the realistic hope here is change rather than despair. Naming one specific thing and making it right with the person harmed is the shape repentance usually takes.
Reflection & Prayer
Which name on Paul's list would someone who knows us well hesitate before ruling out? Sitting with that question quietly, without arguing, is worth a few minutes. A prayer to carry into it: Father, you know what I have taken, wanted, or said that harmed another person. Wash what needs washing, and give me courage to go and repair what I can. In the name of Jesus, amen.