ACC ~ 1 Corinthians 6 v11

WASHED FROM ALL SIN. AMBROSIASTER: The Corinthians had received all the benefits of purity in their baptism, which is the foundation of the truth of the gospel. In baptism the believer is washed clean from all sins and is made righteous in the name of the Lord, and through the Spirit of God he is adopted as God’s child. With these words, Paul is reminding them how great and how special is the grace which they have received in the true tradition. But afterward, by thinking which is contrary to this baptismal rule of faith, they had stripped themselves of these benefits. For this reason he is trying to bring them back to their original way of thinking, so that they can recover what they had once received. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

AVOID SIN AFTER BAPTISM. PELAGIUS: The Corinthians were not to bother about the sins they committed before baptism. All that should concern them now was that they should not sin again in the future. COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 6.

COUNTLESS BLESSINGS. CHRYSOSTOM: Paul says this to make the Corinthians feel ashamed of themselves. He asks them to think about the great evils from which God had delivered them. But God did not limit his salvation to mere deliverance. He greatly extended the benefit by making them clean, by going on to make them holy and finally by making them righteous in his sight. Even bare deliverance from our sins would have been a great gift, but God has gone on from that to fill us with countless blessings. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 16.9.

CHANGED FOR THE BETTER. AUGUSTINE: Paul says that they have been changed for the better, not so as to lose concupiscence altogether, a condition never realized in this life, but so as to not obey the desire to sin. AGAINST JULIAN 16.49.