Letter 144

Isidore of PelusiumMarcus|isidore pelusium
From: Isidore of Pelusium, monk at Pelusium
To: Marcus
Date: ~410 AD
Context: Isidore explains why Paul ranks the drunkard and the reviler alongside the worst sinners (1 Corinthians 5:11).

You ask why the Apostle placed the drunkard and the reviler in the same list as adulterers and fornicators [1 Corinthians 5:11].

My answer is this: if Paul meant they would receive the same punishment as the others — that would require a solution. But if he meant they would be equally excluded from the Kingdom of God — then the answer is plain without any explanation needed. Exclusion from the Kingdom is not graded by category of sin. It is a single condition that admits no degrees.

The drunkard and the quarrelsome man may think their sins are minor compared to the adulterer's. The Kingdom of God disagrees.

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.