ye can patiently submit to injustice, ye are yourselres unjust and fraudulent. This must have been the case mth some of them, otherwise there would be no occasion for these lawsuits. Their offence was aggravated, because their own brethren were the object of their unjust exactions.
9. 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God ? Be not deceived : nei- ther fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effem- inate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
The tendency to divorce religion from morality has mani- fested itself in all ages of the world, and under all forms of religion. The pagan, the Jew, the Mohammedan, the nomi- nal Christian, have all been exact in the performance of reli- gious services, and zealous in the assertion and defence of what they regarded as religious truth, while unrestrained in the indulgence of every evil passion. This arises from look- ing upon religion as an outward service, and God as a being to be feared and propitiated, but not to be loved and obeyed. According to the gospel, all moral duties are religious ser- vices ; and piety is the conformity of the soul to the image and will of God. So that to be religious and yet immoral is, according to the Christian system, as palpable a contradiction as to be good and wicked. It is evident that among the mem- bers of the Corinthian church, there were some who retained their pagan notion of religion, and who professed Christianity as a system of doctrine and as a form of worship, but not as a rule of life. All such persons the apostle warned of their fatal mistake. He assures them that no immoral man, — no man who allows himself the indulgence of any known sin, can be saved. This is one of the first principles of the gospel, and therefore the apostle asks, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God ? Are ye Christians at all, and yet ignorant of this first principle of the religion you profess ? The unrighteous in this immediate connection, means the unjust ; those who violate the principles of justice in their dealings with their fellow-men. It is not the unjust alone, however, who are to be thus debarred from the Re-