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

Paul (and soon, we will talk about Paul, in depth) was the writer of this epistle. One of the most eloquently written so there would be no misunderstandings, Paul focuses on Christian liberties, division in the church, and sexual purification.

The Church at Corinth was extremely diverse. The Jews, Gentiles, and pagans all worshiped at Corinth. Perhaps, because of the diversity of the church at Corinth and plain ole human nature, the church was considered to be progressive. New ideas, new questions, concerns, and new philosophies came from Corinth. Paul wrote this epistle in response to an earlier misunderstanding and also addressed the issues he was hearing about. Also, he addressed the issues of members of the Church at Corinth.

Chapter 6 of this book deals with Paul and some of his frustrations with the Corinthians. The most general way to describe the source of Paul’s frustration is to say, overall, the Church of Corinth was taking the concept of grace, entirely too far, and instead of being graceful about the things they did or were doing they used grace as a license to sin. Before he goes into his issue with sexual purity, is the verse I’ve cited above. Right before he said this, he’d given a laundry list of transgressive behaviors. For example, adulterers, fornicators, idolaters, etc. And then, he writes, “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.”

This, to me, is the epitome of what the New Testament is all about. There are a lot of things that people don’t understand about Jesus’ role and the liberties that we are afforded, through Christ. One of the first things we need to, not simply know, but understand is that Jesus Christ died for our sins. He died the death of all deaths so we could be free. He didn’t die so we would be without sin because as humans, that is virtually impossible. And all things are possible but in essence and figuratively and we will see how that still comes to be true as well, at some point. Knowing how vile and disgusting humans could be, He knew that we would never be able to stand before Him. With unconditional love and grace, He delivered to us, His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, a whole human man that could petition for us. He made His Son so much in his likeness that if we want something from God we need to ask for it through his Son, Jesus. Jesus had such an understanding of Man, Nature, Life, and all it beheld that through faith in Christ alone you will be justified. For example:

A man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Romans 3:8

Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1

A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Galatians 2:16

For by grace are ye saved through faith. Ephesians 2:8


Justify: 1. (a) : to prove or show to be just, right, or reasonable. [b(1)] : to show to have had a sufficient legal reason (2) : to qualify (oneself) as a surety by taking oath to the ownership of sufficient property. 2. (a) : to judge, regard, or treat as righteous and worthy of salvation. (b) : to show a sufficient lawful reason for an act to be done.

As you, yourself, can see, these are the very same lessons and ideas that the Church at Corinth received. Why? It just so happens, Paul wrote each of the epistles I listed. With the exception of the last one, concerning grace, the same thing is being said each time, differently. There is no way Paul didn’t deliver this very same message to the Church at Corinth. As a matter of fact, in this correspondence with the Church at Corinth he seems to open up the idea to convey a clearer message. I notice this in 1 Corinthians 6:12 when he declares, All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be bought under the power of any.

This is the beginning of his stance on grace and how it is to be exercised as the church was using grace as a license to sin. I’ll bet it has something to do with the word justified. When I think of something being justified, just as the definition explains, I believe that you become an exception. Not to be mistaken with excused or an excuse which often leads to failure, justified or a justification is legally binding. Excuses and justifications sound the same. I am doing this because of that. I am feeling this because of that. I saw this instead of that. The deciding factor in each instance is the that. If the that is something personal then 9x out of 10x it’s an excuse. But, if the that is legally binding, if the that can stand up in court in your behalf, or if the that is sanctioned by God through his Son Jesus Christ, then it is a justification; you are justified.

With that said, if you trust and believe that Jesus died for your sins, if you believe that Jesus is the son of God, if you have faith in Christ that he is more than happy to bear your crosses, then guess what? THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, YOU ARE JUSTIFIED. As a member of the LGBTQ community, the community that is often on the outs with biblical literalists and a lot of churches, this scripture should not only warm your heart, but it exposes the folly of a lot of our spiritual leaders and people who discriminate, for out of the same Cannon they use to put us down is this Scripture telling us that we are justified. All it asks is that we have grace about it keeping in mind that grace is not a license to sin.

Here, I’ll leave you with an example of Gods grace:

I haven’t blogged about my relationship in a while, but there have been some changes. We no longer live together. The circumstances were unforeseen and we both had to split up to each of our parents houses. Her parents are from Haiti and they are devout Catholics. Her lifestyle disgusts them. As a matter of fact, her father just started speaking to her after not even looking in her direction for over 4 years. It took a lot of tears and a good tongue lashing from her younger brother to get him to see the pain he was causing. My partner and I don’t think there is anything wrong with our lifestyle, but as grace would have it, when I go to her house, we don’t sit too close on the couch, there aren’t any PDAs, I do not hang in her bedroom, she is not gazing into my eyes like she can, and I am not gazing into hers. It’s like High School and we are each 31. We handle our situation gracefully. This is all this scripture promotes. We are all sinners, all of us in some way, shape, or form are sinning. Though we are and have been justified, we have to be graceful about it.

Believe that your salvation is in this justification that God has gracefully bestowed upon us through his only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ and be free!