1 Corinthians 6:11

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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) Such were some of you.—The Greek for “such” is in the neuter, and implies “of such a description were some of you.”

Ye are washed.—Better, ye washed them off. referring to the fact that their baptism was a voluntary act (Acts 22:16). The words “sanctified” and “justified” as used here do not point to those definite stages in the Christian course to which they generally refer in theological language. The sanctification is here mentioned before the justification, which is not the actual sequence, and it must not therefore be taken as signifying a gradual progress in holiness. What the Apostle urges is, that as they washed themselves in the waters of baptism, so they, by the power of Christ’s name and the Holy Spirit, became holy and righteous, thus putting aside, washing off as it were, that impurity and that unrighteousness which once were theirs, and with which they could not enter into the kingdom.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:9-11 The Corinthians are warned against many great evils, of which they had formerly been guilty. There is much force in these inquiries, when we consider that they were addressed to a people puffed up with a fancy of their being above others in wisdom and knowledge. All unrighteousness is sin; all reigning sin, nay, every actual sin, committed with design, and not repented of, shuts out of the kingdom of heaven. Be not deceived. Men are very much inclined to flatter themselves that they may live in sin, yet die in Christ, and go to heaven. But we cannot hope to sow to the flesh, and reap everlasting life. They are reminded what a change the gospel and grace of God had made in them. The blood of Christ, and the washing of regeneration, can take away all guilt. Our justification is owing to the suffering and merit of Christ; our sanctification to the working of the Holy Spirit; but both go together. All who are made righteous in the sight of God, are made holy by the grace of God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And such - Such drunkards, lascivious, and covetous persons. This shows:

(1) The exceeding grace of God that could recover even such persons from sins so debasing and degrading.

(2) it shows that we are not to despair of reclaiming the most abandoned and wretched people.

(3) it is well for Christians to look back on what they once were. It will produce:

(a) humility,

(b) gratitude,

(c) a deep sense of the sovereign mercy of God,

(d) an earnest desire that others may be recovered and saved in like manner; compare Ephesians 2:1, Ephesians 2:2; Ephesians 5:8; Colossians 3:7; Titus 3:3, Titus 3:6 - The design of this is to remind them of what they were, and to show them that they were now under obligation to lead better lives - by all the mercy which God had shown in recovering them from sins so degrading, and from a condition so dreadful.

But ye are washed - Hebrews 10:22. Washing is an emblem of purifying. They had been made pure by the Spirit of God. They had been, indeed, baptized, and their baptism was an emblem of purifying, but the thing here particularly referred to is not baptism, but it is something that had been done by the Spirit of God, and must refer to his agency on the heart in cleansing them from these pollutions. Paul here uses three words, "washed, sanctified, justified," to denote the various agencies of the Holy Spirit by which they had been recovered from sin. The first, that of washing, I understand of that work of the Spirit by which the process of purifying was commenced in the soul, and which was especially signified in baptism - the work of regeneration or conversion to God. By the agency of the Spirit the defilement of these pollutions had been washed away or removed - as filth is removed by ablution - The agency of the Holy Spirit in regeneration is elsewhere represented by washing, Titus 3:5," The washing of regeneration." compare Hebrews 10:22.

Ye are sanctified - This denotes the progressive and advancing process of purifying which succeeds regeneration in the Christian. Regeneration is the commencement of it - its close is the perfect purity of the Christian in heaven; see the note at John 17:17. It does not mean that they were perfect - for the reasoning of the apostle shows that this was far from being the case with the Corinthians; but that the work was advancing, and that they were in fact under a process of sanctification.

But ye are justified - Your sins are pardoned, and you are accepted as righteous, and will be treated as such on account of the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ; see the note at Romans 1:17; note at Romans 3:25-26; note at Romans 4:3. The apostle does not say that this was last in the order of time, but simply says that this was done to them. People are justified when they believe, and when the work of sanctification commences in the soul.

In the name of the Lord Jesus - That is, by the Lord Jesus; by his authority, appointment, influence; see the note at Acts 3:6. All this had been accomplished through the Lord Jesus; that is, in his name forgiveness of sins had been proclaimed to them Luke 24:47; and by his merits all these favors had been conferred on them.

And by the Spirit of our God - The Holy Spirit. All this had been accomplished by his agency on the heart - This verse brings in the whole subject of redemption, and states in a most emphatic manner the various stages by which a sinner is saved, and by this single passage, a man may obtain all the essential knowledge of the plan of salvation. All is condensed here in few words:

(1) He is by nature a miserable and polluted sinner - without merit, and without hope.

continued...

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11. ye are washed—The Greek middle voice expresses, "Ye have had yourselves washed." This washing implies the admission to the benefits of Christ's salvation generally; of which the parts are; (1) Sanctification, or the setting apart from the world, and adoption into the Church: so "sanctified" is used 1Co 7:14; Joh 17:19. Compare 1Pe 1:2, where it rather seems to mean the setting apart of one as consecrated by the Spirit in the eternal purpose God. (2) Justification from condemnation through the righteousness of God in Christ by faith (Ro 1:17). So Paræus. The order of sanctification before justification shows that it must be so taken, and not in the sense of progressive sanctification. "Washed" precedes both, and so must refer to the Christian's outward new birth of water, the sign of the inward setting apart to the Lord by the inspiration of the Spirit as the seed of new life (Joh 3:5; Eph 5:26; Tit 3:5; Heb 10:22). Paul (compare the Church of England Baptismal Service), in charity, and faith in the ideal of the Church, presumes that baptism realizes its original design, and that those outwardly baptized inwardly enter into vital communion with Christ (Ga 3:27). He presents the grand ideal which those alone realized in whom the inward and the outward baptism coalesced. At the same time he recognizes the fact that this in many cases does not hold good (1Co 6:8-10), leaving it to God to decide who are the really "washed," while he only decides on broad general principles.

in the name of … Jesus, and by the Spirit—rather, "in the Spirit," that is, by His in-dwelling. Both clauses belong to the three—"washed, sanctified, justified."

our God—The "our" reminds the that amidst all his reproofs God is still the common God of himself and them.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In the two last verses the apostle had pronounced a terrible sentence, especially to the Corinthians, who, having been heathens lately, had wallowed in a great deal of this guilt; he therefore here, that they might be humbled, and have low thoughts of themselves, and not be puffed up, (as he had before charged them), mindeth them, that some of them had been guilty of some of these enormous sins, some of them of one or some of them, and others of other of them. But, that they might not despair in their reflections upon that guilt, he tells them, they were washed, \ not only with the baptism of water, but with the baptism of the blood of Christ, and with the baptism of the Holy Ghost, born again of water and of the Spirit, John 3:5; yea, and not only washed, but sanctified, filled with new, spiritual habits, through the renewing of the Holy Ghost: having obtained a true righteousness, in which they might stand and appear before God, even the righteousness of Christ, reckoned unto them for righteousness; justified through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, and sanctified through the Spirit of holiness. So that the washing, first mentioned in this verse, seemeth to be a generical term, comprehending both justification, remission of sin, and deliverance from the guilt of it; and also regeneration and sanctification, which is the proper effect of the Spirit of grace, creating in the soul new habits and dispositions, by which it is enabled and inclined, as to die unto sin, so to live unto God. This the apostle doth not say of them all, (for it is very probable there were in this church some hypocrites), but of some of them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And such were some of you,.... Not all, but some of them; and of these everyone was not guilty of all these crimes; but some had been guilty of one, and others of another; so that they had been all committed by one or another of them. The Corinthians were a people very much given to uncleanness and luxury, without measure (i), which was the ruin of their state: and among these wicked people God had some chosen vessels of salvation; who are put in mind of their former state, partly for their present humiliation, when they considered what they once were, no better than others, but children of wrath, even as others; and partly to observe to them, and the more to illustrate and magnify the grace of God in their conversion, pardon, justification, and salvation; as also to point out to them the obligations that lay upon them to live otherwise now than they formerly did.

But ye are washed; which is not to be understood of external washing, of corporeal ablution, or of their being baptized in water; so they might be, and yet not be cleansed from their filthiness, either by original or actual transgressions; nor of the washing of regeneration, which more properly comes under the next head; but of their being washed from their sins by the blood of Christ, through the application of it to them, for the remission of them; which supposes them to have been polluted, as they were originally, being conceived in sin, and shapen in iniquity; naturally, for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? and internally, in heart, mind, and conscience; also universally, both as to persons, and as to the powers and faculties of their souls, and members of their bodies; and that they could not wash and cleanse themselves by any ceremonial purifications, moral duties, or evangelical performances; but that this was a blessing of grace they enjoyed through the blood of Christ, by which they were washed from their sins, both in the sight of God, his justice being satisfied for them, they were all pardoned and done away, so as to be seen no more, and they appeared unblamable and irreprovable in his sight; and also in their own apprehensions, for being convinced of their pollution, and being directed to Christ for cleansing, the Spirit of God took his blood, and sprinkled it on their consciences, to the appeasement of them, the removal of sin from thence, and a non-remembrance of it.

But ye are sanctified; which designs not their sanctification by God the Father, which is no other than the eternal separation of them from himself, or his everlasting choice of them to eternal happiness; nor the sanctification of them, or the expiation of their sins by the blood of Christ, this is meant in the former clause; nor their sanctification in Christ, or the imputation of his holiness with his obedience and death for their justification, which is intended in the following one; but the sanctification of the Spirit, which lies in a principle of spiritual life infused into the soul, in a spiritual light in the understanding, in a flexion of the will to the will of God, both in grace and providence, in a settlement of the affections on divine objects, and in an implantation of every grace; which is a gradual work, as yet not perfect, but will be fulfilled in all in whom it is begun.

But ye are justified; not by the works of the law, but by the righteousness of Christ. Justified they were from all eternity, as soon as Christ became a surety for them; and so they were when he rose from the dead, who were justified as their head and surety, and they in him; but here it is to be understood of their being justified in the court of conscience, under the witnessings of the Spirit of God; who having convinced them of the insufficiency of their own righteousness, and having brought near the righteousness of Christ unto them, and wrought faith in them to lay hold on it, pronounced them justified persons in their own consciences; whence followed joy, peace, and comfort.

In the name of the Lord Jesus; which may refer, as the following clause, to all that is said before: by "the name of the Lord Jesus" may be meant he himself; and the sense be, that they were washed by his blood, sanctified by his Spirit, and justified by his righteousness; or it may intend the merit and efficacy of Christ's blood, sacrifice, and righteousness; as that their sins were pardoned, and they cleansed from them through the merit of the blood of Christ shed for the remission of their sins; and that they were regenerated and sanctified through the efficacy of Christ's resurrection from the dead; and were instilled by the grace of God, through the redemption that is in Christ: or else the name of Christ may design his Gospel, through which they received the knowledge of God's way of pardoning sinners, and justifying them, and the Spirit of God, as a spirit of regeneration and sanctification:

and by the Spirit of our God; who sprinkled the blood of Christ upon them, to the cleansing of them; who sanctified their hearts, and revealed the righteousness of Christ unto them for their justification, and pronounced the sentence of it upon them. It is to be observed, that all the three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit, are here mentioned, as being jointly concerned in those acts of grace.

(i) Aelian. Hist. var. l. 1. c. 19.

Geneva Study Bible

And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the {f} name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

(f) In Jesus.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

1 Corinthians 6:11. How unworthy are such of your new Christian relations!

ταῦτα] of persons in a contemptuous sense: such trash, such a set. See Bernhardy, p. 281.

τινές] more exact definition of the subject of ἦτε, namely, that all are not meant. It is the well-known σχῆμα καθʼ ὅλον καὶ μέρος (Kühner, II. p. 156). Comp Grotius. Valckenaer says well: “vocula τινές dictum paulo durius emollit.” Billroth is wrong in holding (as Vorstius before him) that ταῦτά τινες belong to each other, and are equivalent to τοιοῦτοι. In that case ταῦτά τινα would be required, or τοῖοί τινες. See Ast, a[935] Plat. Legg. p. 71; Bornemann, a[936] Xen. Cyr. ii. 1. 2; Ellendt, Lex. Soph. II. p. 832.

ἀπελούσ. κ.τ.λ[937]] describes from step to step the new relations established by their reception of Christianity. First of all: ye washed yourselves clean, namely, by your immersion in the waters of baptism, from the moral defilement of the guilt of your sins (you obtained, through means of baptism, the forgiveness of your sins committed before you became Christians). Comp Acts 22:16; Acts 2:38; Ephesians 5:26; 1 Peter 3:21. Observe the use of the middle, arising from the conception of their self-destination for baptism. Comp ἘΒΑΠΤΊΣΑΝΤΟ, 1 Corinthians 10:2. We must not take the middle here for the passive, as most expositors do, following the Vulgate (so Flatt, Pott, Billroth, Olshausen, Ewald), which in part arose—as in the case of Olshausen—from dogmatical preconceptions; neither is it to be understood, with Usteri (Lehrbegriff, p. 230) and Rückert (comp Loesner, p. 278), of moral purification by laying aside everything sinful, of the putting off the old man (comp Romans 6:2 ff.), against which the same phrase in Acts 22:16, and the analogous one, ΚΑΘΑΡΊΣΑς, in Ephesians 5:26, militate strongly. This moral regeneration exists in connection with baptism (Titus 3:5), but is not designated by ἀπελούσ., although its subjective conditions, ΜΕΤΆΝΟΙΑ and ΠΊΣΤΙς, are presupposed in the latter expression. The producing of regeneration, which is by water and Spirit, is implied in the ἡγιάσθητε which follows: ye became (from being unholy, as ye were before baptism) holy, inasmuch, namely, as by receiving the δωρεὰ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος (Acts 2:38) ye were translated into that moral altitude and frame of life which is Christian and consecrated to God (John 3:5; Titus 3:5; Ephesians 5:25, ἉΓΙΆΣῌ). Rückert and Olshausen take it in the theocratic sense: “ye became set apart, numbered among the ἍΓΙΟΙ.” Comp Osiander, also Hofmann: “incorporated in the holy church.” But the progression of thought here, which marks its advance towards a climax by the repetition of the ἀλλά, requires, not a threefold description of the transaction involved in baptism (Calvin, Hofmann), but three different characteristic points, dating their commencement from baptism, and forming, as regards their substance, the new moral condition of life from which those who have become Christians ought not again to fall back.

ἐδικαιώθητε] ye were made righteous. This, however, cannot mean the imputative justification of Romans 3:21 (de Wette, Osiander, Hofmann, with older commentators); because, in the first place, this is already given in the ἀπελούσασθε; and secondly, because the ἘΔΙΚΑΙΏΘΗΤΕ, if used in this sense, would have needed not to follow the ἉΓΙΆΣΘΗΤΕ, but to precede it, as in 1 Corinthians 1:30; for to suppose a descending climax (Calovius) is out of the question, if only on account of the ἀπελούσ., which so manifestly indicates the beginning of the Christian state. What is meant, and that by way of contrast to the notion of ἀδικία which prevails in 1 Corinthians 6:9 f., is the actual moral righteousness of life,[943] which has been brought about as the result of the operation of the Spirit which began with baptism, so that now there is seen in the man the fulfilment of the moral demands or of the δικαίωμα τοῦ νόμου (Romans 8:4), and he himself, being dead unto sin, δεδικαίωται ἀπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας (Romans 6:7), and ἐδουλώθη τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ (Romans 6:18), whose instruments his members have now become in the καινότης of the spirit and life (Romans 6:13). This δικαιωθῆναι does not stand related to the ἁγιασθῆναι in any sort of tautological sense, but is the effect and outcome of it, and in so far, certainly, is also the moral continuatio justificationis (comp Calovius), Revelation 22:11.

The thrice repeated ἀλλά lays a special emphasis upon each of the three points. Comp Xenophon, Anab. v. 8. 4; Aristophanes, Acharn. 402 ff.; 2 Corinthians 2:17; 2 Corinthians 7:11; Wyttenbach, a[946] Plat. Phaed. p. 142; Bornemann, a[947] Xen. Symp. iv. 53; Buttmann, neut. Gramm. p. 341 [E. T. 398].

ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι … ἡμῶν] is by most expositors made to refer to all the three points. But since ἐν τῷ πνεύματι κ.τ.λ[948] does not accord with ἈΠΕΛΟΎΣ. (for the Spirit is only received after baptism, Acts 2:38; Acts 19:5-6; Titus 3:5-6; the case in Acts 10:47 is exceptional), it is better, with Rückert, to connect ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι … ἡμῶν simply with ἘΔΙΚΑΙΏΘ., which best harmonizes also with the significant importance of the ἐδικαιώθητε as the crowning point of the whole transformation wrought in the Christian. The name of the Lord Jesus, i.e. what pronouncing the name “Κύριος Ἰησοῦς” (1 Corinthians 12:3) affirms,—this, as the contents of the faith and confession, is that in which the becoming morally righteous had its causal basis (ἘΝ), and equally had it its ground in the Spirit of our God, since it was He who established it by His sanctifying agency; through that name its origin was subjectively conditioned, and through that Spirit it was objectively realized. Were we, with Hofmann, to bring ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι … Θεοῦ ἡμῶν into connection with the ΠΆΝΤΑ ΜΟΙ ἜΞΕΣΤΙΝ which follows, the latter would at once become limited and defined in a way with which the antitheses ἈΛΛʼ Κ.Τ.Λ[949] would no longer in that case harmonize. For it is precisely in the absoluteness of the πάντα μοι ἔξεστιν that these antitheses have their ethical correctness and significance, as being the moral limitation of that axiom, which therefore appears again absolutely in 1 Corinthians 10:23.

Observe, further, how, notwithstanding of the defective condition of the church in point of fact, the aorists ἡγιάσθ. and ἐδικαιώθ. have their warrant as acts of God, and in accordance with the ideal view of what is the specifically Christian condition, however imperfectly as yet this may have been realized, or whatever backsliding may have taken place. The ideal way of speaking, too, corresponds to the design of the apostle, who is seeking to make his readers feel the contradiction between their conduct and the character which as Christians they assumed at conversion; σφόδρα ἐντρεπτικῶς ἐπήγαγε λέγων· ἐννοήσατε ἡλίκων ὑμᾶς ἐξείλετο κακῶν ὁ Θεός κ.τ.λ[950], Chrysostom. And thereby he seeks morally to raise them.

[935] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[936] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[937] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

[943] There is therefore no warrant for adducing this passage, as is done on the Roman Catholic side (even by Döllinger), in opposition to the distinction between justification and sanctification. Justification is comprised already in ἀπελούσ. Comp. Weiss, bibl. Theol. pp. 342, 345 ff. Its subjective basis, however, is one with that of sanctification, namely, faith.

[946] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[947] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.

[948] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

[949] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

[950] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

Expositor's Greek Testament

1 Corinthians 6:11. καὶ ταῦτά τινες ἦτε: “And these things you were, some (of you)”. The neuter ταῦτα is contemptuous—“such abominations!” τινὲς softens the aspersion; the majority of Cor[956] Christians had not been guilty of extreme vice. The stress lies on the tense of ἦτε; “you were”—a thing of the past, cf. Romans 6:19, Ephesians 2:11 f.—“But you washed yourselves! but you were sanctified; but you were justified!”—ἀλλὰ thrice repeated, with joyful emphasis, as in 2 Corinthians 2:17; 2 Corinthians 7:11. The first of the three vbs. is mid[957], the other two pass[958] in voice. ἀπελούσασθε refers to baptism (cf. Acts 22:16, Colossians 2:11 f., Ephesians 5:26 f., 1 Peter 3:21; see 1 Corinthians 1:13 for its signal importance), in its spiritual meaning; the form of the vb[959] calls attention to the initiative of the Cor[960] in getting rid, at the call of God, of the filth of their old life; in baptism their penitent faith took deliberate and formal expression, with this effect. But behind their action in submitting to baptism, there was the action of God, operating to the effect described by the terms ἡγιάσθητε, ἐδικαίωθητε. These twin conceptions of the Christian state in its beginning appear commonly in the reverse order (see 1 Corinthians 1:30, Romans 6:19, etc.): in Romans 5:6. they are seen to be related as the resurrection and death of Christ, and in Romans 6. to be figured respectively in the ἀνάδυσις and κατάδυσις which formed the two movements of baptism; see notes ad locc., also Titus 3:5 ff. The order of the words does not justify Calovius, Lipsius, and Mr[961], with Romanist interpreters, in finding here “the ethical continuatio justificationis,”—an explanation contrary to the uniform Pauline signification of δικαιόω; the Ap. is thinking (in contrast with 1 Corinthians 6:9 f.) of the status attained by his readers as ἅγιοι (1 Corinthians 1:2, 1 Corinthians 3:17, 1 Corinthians 6:1), behind which lay the fundamental fact of their δικαίωσις. The qualifying prpl[962] phrases both belong to the three closely linked vbs. Baptism is received “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (quoted with formal solemnity: cf. note on 1 Corinthians 1:2): “in the Spirit of our God” it is validated and brings its appropriate blessings (cf. John 3:5-8 : water is the formal, the Sp. the essential source of the new birth).

[956] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[957] middle voice.

[958] passive voice.

[959] verb

[960] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[961] Meyer’s Critical and Exegetical Commentary (Eng. Trans.).

[962]rpl. prepositional.

Βαπτίζειν ἐν Πν. ἁγίῳ was the distinctive work of Jesus Christ (Matthew 3:11, etc.); to be ἐν Πνεύματι (Θεοῦ, Χριστοῦ) is the distinctive state of a Christian, including every element of the new life (1 Corinthians 6:19, 1 Corinthians 2:12, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 2 Corinthians 1:21 f., Romans 5:5; Romans 8:2; Romans 8:9, etc.). Sanctification esp. is grounded in the Holy Spirit; but He is an agent in justification too, for His witness to sonship implies the assurance of forgiveness (Romans 8:15 ff.). The name of our Lord Jesus Christ sums up the baptismal confession (cf. Romans 10:8 ff.); the Spirit of our God constitutes the power by which that confession is inspired, and the regeneration effectuated which makes it good: the two factors are identified in 1 Corinthians 12:3 (see note). “Our God,” in emphatic distinction from the gods in whose service the Cor[963] had been defiled (see 1 Corinthians 8:4 ff., 2 Corinthians 4:4, Ephesians 2:2; cf. Psalm 99:9).

[963] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified] The past tense is employed in the original—‘ye were washed, sanctified, justified.’ The allusion is to baptism, where by a solemn profession the disciple entered into covenant with—and so put on (see Galatians 3:27) Christ. The meaning of ye were washed in the Greek is either ye washed these things from you, or ye washed yourselves clean from them, cf. Acts 22:16. There has been much controversy as to the meaning of the words sanctified and justified here, as their position is inverted from the usual order in which they stand. It is best to take sanctified in the sense of dedicated to a holy life (halowed, Wiclif), see note on ch. 1 Corinthians 1:2, and justified as referring to the actual moral righteousness of life which is brought about by union with Christ through the operation of the Spirit. See also Romans 1:17.

in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God] The name of Christ stands for His power, almost, we might say, for Himself. The original has ‘in the Spirit’ not by the Spirit of our God. Therefore something more is probably conveyed than a mere instrumental agency, though the Greek ἐν is often used in this way (as in 1 Corinthians 6:2 of this very chapter). A comparison of this passage with others in which the indwelling of the Spirit is implied, as in 1 Corinthians 6:19 and Romans 8:11, teaches us that the Holy Spirit is the instrument of our sanctification and justification by virtue of our dwelling in Him and He in us, making Christ’s death to sin, and His life in righteousness an accomplished fact in our hearts and lives. See also St John 3:6.

Bengel's Gnomen

1 Corinthians 6:11. Ταῦτα, such) The Nominative neuter for the masculine; or the accusative with κατα understood, as ἶσα, Php 2:6 : Even the accusative as an adverb may be construed with the substantive verb to be.—ἀλλὰ ἀπελούσασθε, ἀλλὰ ἡγιάσθητε, ἀλλʼ ἐδικαιώθητε, but ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified, but ye have been justified) you have been set entirely free from fornication and sins of impurity, in regard to yourselves; from idolatry and impiety against God; from unrighteousness against your neighbour, and that too, in relation both to the guilt and dominion of sin: chap. 1 Corinthians 5:7; 1 Corinthians 5:10.—ἡγιάσθητε, you have been sanctified) a man is called holy in respect to God.—ἐδικαιώθητε, ye have been justified) corresponds to, the unrighteous, 1 Corinthians 6:9. I was formerly unwilling to commit to paper, what emphasis the apostrophe in ἀλλʼ adds to this verb more than to the two preceding (comp. 2 Corinthians 7:11), lest some one should hiss me. Consider however the antithesis, the unrighteous. Without an apostrophe, ἀλλὰ is emphatic, but when ἀλλʼ has the apostrophe, the accent and emphasisfall upon the verb, (which stands in opposition to that fault, which is reproved at 1 Corinthians 6:7, etc.,) namely, on the word ἐδικαιώθητε, ye are justified, because the discourse here is directed against [injustice] unrighteousness; and so in 2 Corinthians 7:11. [ἀλλʼ is apostrophised before] ἐκδικησιν, revenge, for this is a principal part of the zeal, previously spoken of, arising from holy sorrow; add Mark 2:17.—ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι, in the name) From this name we have the forgiveness of sins.—ἐν τῷ Πνεύματι, by the Spirit) From this Spirit, the new life.—ἡμῶν, of our) For these reasons, he shows them, that there is now no longer any hinderance to their becoming heirs of the kingdom of God.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - And such were some of you; literally, and these things some of you were. As Gentiles, many of them had been "dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1). (For a similar contrast of the change wrought by the Spirit of God, see Titus 3:3-7.) But ye are washed. The voice and tense in the original differ from those of the following words. This cannot be accidental. It is better, therefore, to render, But ye washed away your sins; i.e. ye, by your baptism, washed away those stains (Acts 22:16). The very object of Christ's death had been that he might cleanse his Church "by the washing of water by the Word." But ye are sanctified, but ye are justified; rather, but ye were sanctified, but y? were justified, namely, at your conversion. By "sanctified" is meant, not the progressive course of sanctification, but the consecration to God by baptism (Wickliffe, "halowed"). (For what St. Paul meant by justification, see Romans 3:24-26.) In the Name of the Lord Jesus, etc. This clause and the next belongs to all the three previous verbs. Of our God. In the word "our" is involved that appeal to Christian unity of which he never loses sight throughout the letter. 1 Corinthians 6:11

Vincent's Word Studies

Washed - sanctified - justified

According to fact the order would be justified, washed (baptism), sanctified; but as Ellicott justly remarks, "in this epistle this order is not set forth with any studied precision, since its main purpose is corrective."

Ye were justified (ἐδικαιώθητε)

Emphasizing the actual moral renewal, which is the true idea of justification. This is shown by the words "by the Spirit," etc., for the Spirit is not concerned in mere forensic justification.