Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor practicing homosexuals nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

—1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (TNIV)

Actually, this passage was omitted from the Daily Office and I find that irritating because this is just one of many other examples of “hard passages” being ignored in the Office’s reading schedule. That is not to our benefit. Enough of my personal rant, however.

Here is a self-assessment for you. How did you react when reading this? Were you indignant? Depressed? Did you think Paul is being too judgmental? Or were you able to get to the last sentence and give thanks to God for his great gift to you in Jesus? If you did not experience the latter, you probably have some work to do on your pride because it is likely pride that made you bristle at what Paul has to say to us here.

But here’s the thing. Paul is talking about all of us, whether we fall explicitly into one of the categories he lists (I actually qualify on several counts—I hate it when that happens). As he mentions in Romans 3:23, all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Consequently none of us will be allowed into God’s Kingdom because God cannot allow evil to exist in his Kingdom. If we think this through, this is actually a good thing because who among us would want evil or the brokenness of this world to exist in heaven for all eternity? But I digress.

If you were able to get through this whole passage to the final statement in today’s passage, you were able to see the Good News of Jesus Christ. The end game for Paul and the other biblical writers is not to make us feel badly about ourselves. The end game of Scripture is to help us see ourselves for what we really are: desperately broken, fallen creatures without hope. There is no such thing as being “kinda good.” God does not care if we are basically good people (or at least better than some of those really bad people—you know, those whose sins are not your sins) because God finds any sin grievous and cannot abide it in any form. Consequently we have no hope on our own. Until we understand our dire straights, we are not ready to hear the Good News. If we do not think we need a Savior, irrespective of the reason(s), we will not be ready to hear the message of the NT.

The biblical writers understand this and they love us enough to warn us about ourselves so that we will not perish. THAT’S their end game. We need a Savior and we have one in Christ. No matter who we are or what we have done, we can be redeemed through his blood. We can be new creatures. Yes, the Bible talks about some yucky things but it is to get us ready to hear our need for the Good News of Christ.

Whatever your reaction to today’s passage, think about it during this Lent. It will give you a good indication of the path you are on.