Know ye not that the unrighteous...? — The force of this question comes out more strikingly in the original, where the word rendered “unrighteous” is the same as “ye do wrong” of 1 Corinthians 6:8. “You do wrong, apparently forgetting that no wrongdoers shall inherit God’s kingdom.”
Be not deceived. — There was great danger of their being led to think lightly of sins which were daily committed by those amongst whom they lived, hence these words of warning with which the sentence opens, as in 1 Corinthians 15:33. The mention of gross sensual sins in connection with idolaters points to the fact that they were practically associated in the ritual of the heathen, which, of course, intensified the danger against which the Apostle warns the Corinthians. The prevalence of such scandalous crimes in the heathen world is constantly referred to in the Epistles to Gentile churches (Romans 13:13; Galatians 5:19-20; 1 Timothy 1:9-10; Titus 1:12).