The Reviler in the Bible: What 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Says
Short answer: A reviler in the Bible is a person whose settled habit is abusive, insulting, or slanderous speech against others. Several English translations use the word reviler at 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, where the World English Bible reads, "Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals," and continues in verse 10 with a list that includes the verbally abusive. The reviler is not someone who slips once in anger; it is a pattern of life. Scripture places this sin alongside idolatry, drunkenness, and extortion, not because words are trivial, but because they reveal a heart at war with God and neighbor. The same passage adds that some of the Corinthians had been exactly this kind of person, and were washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the biblical teaching is both a warning and a promise of change.
What the word reviler means in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
The Greek word behind reviler is loidoros, which names a person given to insult, abuse, and mockery of others. It is close in meaning to slanderer, but it carries the sense of open verbal assault rather than quiet whispering. 1 Corinthians 6:10 lists this person among the unrighteous who will not inherit God's Kingdom. In the supplied text of verses 9 and 10, the English word itself does not appear, because the World English Bible renders the list with terms such as the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, and homosexuals. Other faithful translations bring the word out directly as revilers, and that is why the term is part of the English Bible vocabulary. The category is real even where the specific word is not used.
It matters that Paul places verbal abuse in the same list as sexual sin and idolatry. Modern readers tend to rank sins by social embarrassment, treating cruel speech as a minor fault and sexual sin as a major one. Scripture does not sort them that way. Both flow from a heart that refuses God's lordship. Both damage the people God made. Both, when unrepented, exclude a person from the Kingdom. Paul is not being harsh for its own sake; he is telling the Corinthian church the truth about the world they lived in and the world they were being called to leave behind.
The context makes the point sharper. Paul is writing to correct the Corinthians for taking one another to court before unbelievers, and he asks why they act as if the unrighteous have nothing to teach them about judgment. The list in verses 9 and 10 is his answer. If the church tolerates the very patterns that mark the unbelieving world, she has lost her bearings. The reviler, then, is not a rare criminal type. He or she may sit in a church pew, lead a small group, or post sharp-tongued comments online. The warning is addressed to people who assume they are safe.
How the Bible uses the reviler alongside the slanderer
The Old Testament already treats cursing as a serious matter. Proverbs 20:20 says, "Whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in blackness of darkness." That is not a threat about a single rude moment; it describes a life that has settled into contempt for those who should be honored. The New Testament carries the same moral seriousness forward. In 1 Corinthians 5:11, Paul writes, "But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortionist. Don’t even eat with such a person." The slanderer there stands beside the drunkard and the extortionist.
Colossians 3:8 gives the same list in the form of a command: "but now you also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth." Paul does not say these things are excusable if the person provoked you. He says put them away. Ephesians 4:31 repeats the pattern: "Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander be put away from you, with all malice." The verbs are decisive. These are not minor character flaws to manage; they are old clothing to strip off. The reviler and the slanderer are the same family of sin, and the New Testament consistently groups them with the gravest offenses.
Notice how many of these texts link the tongue to the heart. Jesus does this most directly in Matthew 5:22, where he says, "But I tell you that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause will be in danger of the judgment. Whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ will be in danger of the council. Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of Gehenna." The insult is not a neutral noise. It is a verdict pronounced on another human being made in God's image. That is why the reviler is not merely rude. He is playing judge over someone God has not condemned, and doing it with words.
Why the tongue is a spiritual test, not a personality quirk
Many people excuse verbal cruelty by calling it honesty, wit, or a strong personality. Scripture never does. A sharp tongue may coexist with correct doctrine and regular church attendance, which is precisely why it is so dangerous. The person who tears others down verbally has learned to keep his religion separate from his mouth. James says the tongue is the small member that boasts great things, and that a spring cannot produce both fresh and bitter water. Jesus himself said that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The reviler's words are not an isolated fault; they are evidence about the heart.
This is why 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 is so sobering. Paul does not say revilers will be disciplined and then restored as a matter of course. He says they will not inherit God's Kingdom if this pattern characterizes them. The warning is meant to wake people up, not to make them despair. A person who reads this list and sees his own mouth in it should not conclude that he is beyond hope. He should conclude that he needs the cleansing verse 11 describes. The passage is a diagnosis that leads to a cure, and the cure is not self-improvement but union with Christ.
At the same time, the warning is real. Churches sometimes act as though verbal abuse is a lesser sin than sexual immorality, and they tolerate bullies in leadership while disciplining others for other failures. Paul's list refuses that double standard. The reviler is named alongside the adulterer and the thief. If a church treats one as disqualifying and the other as normal, it has not read the passage carefully. The Kingdom of God is not inherited by the habitually abusive, no matter how many correct opinions they hold.
Is a reviler the same as a slanderer or a gossip?
The words overlap but are not identical. A gossip spreads information, often quietly and often true; a slanderer spreads damaging falsehood or maliciously exaggerated truth; a reviler attacks a person to their face with contempt and insult. In practice the categories bleed into one another. The same person may gossip in private, slander an absent rival, and revile a spouse at home. The common root is a willingness to use words to dominate, punish, or humiliate another person. Scripture treats all of them as incompatible with the new life in Christ, and it does not grade them into harmless and harmful tiers.
There is a difference, however, between a reviler and a person who speaks hard truth. Prophets rebuked kings. Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites and whitewashed tombs. Paul confronted Peter to his face. Hard words are not automatically abusive. The difference is purpose and posture. A reviler speaks to destroy, to win, to establish superiority. A faithful rebuke speaks to restore, to protect others, and to honor God, and it is willing to be examined itself. The same sentence can be either, depending on the heart behind it and the manner in which it is delivered. That is why the Bible directs attention to the speaker's inner life, not only to the words.
Christians differ on how quickly a pattern must be confronted publicly and how much patience should precede formal discipline. Some emphasize the Matthew 18 process of private conversation before escalation; others point to the seriousness of the offense and the need to protect the flock. These are not always easy judgments, and faithful pastors weigh the safety of the vulnerable alongside the goal of restoration. What Scripture does not permit is pretending that a continuous pattern of verbal abuse is something other than what it is. It is sin, and it is serious.
What hope does 1 Corinthians 6 hold out for the reviler?
The very next verse in 1 Corinthians 6 is the reason this passage can be read without despair. Paul writes that some of the Corinthians had been exactly these things, and that they were washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. The list is a mirror, not a death sentence. The gospel does not merely forgive the reviler's past; it begins to change his speech. The person who once used words as weapons learns to use them as gifts. That change is not instantaneous, and it may involve deep repentance, restitution, and help from mature believers. But it is promised.
Practically, this means a reviler who wants to know whether his repentance is real should look at his mouth. Apologies that end in another insult are not repentance. A genuine turning produces slower speech, fewer verdicts, quicker listening, and a willingness to hear the harm one has caused. It may require confessing specific words to specific people and accepting that trust will take time to rebuild. It will certainly require prayer, since no one tames the tongue by willpower alone. James says no human can tame it, and then points to the wisdom from above that is pure, peaceable, gentle, and full of mercy.
The church's part is neither denial nor permanent exile. Where a person claims Christ and continues in abusive speech without repentance, 1 Corinthians 5:11 applies and the church is told not to associate with such a person, not out of hatred but out of hope that shame may lead to repentance and that the vulnerable may be protected. Where there is genuine repentance, the church should be the first to welcome, disciple, and restore. The difference between the two responses is not the sin's size but its direction in the person's life.
How this differs from anger, correction, or zeal for truth
Not all strong speech is the sin Paul condemns. Jesus was angry. Paul was forceful. The prophets were not mild. The distinguishing marks are these: aim, tone, and truth. The reviler aims to wound; the faithful rebuker aims to heal. The reviler speaks with contempt; the faithful rebuker speaks with grief. The reviler bends the facts to make the other person smaller; the faithful rebuker tells the truth carefully, including the truth about his own part. A person can quote the Bible and still be a reviler, just as a person can be gentle and still be silent about sin. The test is not volume or vocabulary but the fruit of the Spirit, which includes love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and self-control.
This distinction matters for those who have been reviled. Victims of verbal abuse often hear a false teaching that says they must simply endure ongoing insult as a form of humility. Scripture nowhere commands anyone to remain under a pattern of abuse without seeking help, boundaries, and safety. Jesus himself did not always answer his accusers, but he also warned of judgment for those who used such words against their brothers and sisters. The church has a responsibility to protect the weak and to call abusers to repentance, not to pressure the wounded into silence for the sake of a calm appearance. Peace-making is not the same as peace-keeping at any cost.
Nor should this teaching become a club for self-righteous scolding. A person who reads about the reviler and immediately thinks of someone else to condemn has misunderstood the passage. Paul lists these sins to a church that prided itself on its gifts, and he includes himself in the application by pointing to the cleansing every believer needs. The right response is humble self-examination, gratitude for grace, and a mouth increasingly used for blessing. That is the pathway away from the reviler's identity and into the character of Christ, whose words were true and whose heart was gentle.
Biblical fidelity check
The passage does not say that a single angry word forfeits salvation, and it does not treat verbal sin as unforgivable. It says that the unrighteous, characterized by such practices, will not inherit God's Kingdom, and it immediately promises washing, sanctification, and justification in Christ to those who turn from them. Neither does the passage support the idea that Christians may never speak hard words. Jesus and the prophets did. What it does establish is that a settled pattern of reviling, insult, and slander is inconsistent with belonging to the Kingdom, and that the church must take it as seriously as any other listed sin.
A common misreading is to treat the reviler as merely someone who uses bad language, so that the sin is the vocabulary rather than the contempt. That is wrong because the Greek word concerns the abuse of a person, not the dictionary status of a word, and because Jesus locates the problem in the heart, treating the insult itself as a judgment on a brother. Another misreading is to make this list a weapon for condemning others while excusing one's own tongue. Paul has just named the sins of the whole church's former life, and his point is that only grace explains why anyone is clean. The passage warns the proud and comforts the repentant at the same time.
Other passages that speak to 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Paul's letter to the Corinthians keeps returning to the theme of a church called out of the surrounding culture, and these studies help set this warning in context. See 1 Corinthians 1: Called, United, and Boasting in the Lord for the identity Paul gives the church, 1 Corinthians 10: Warnings and Freedom for how he uses Israel's failures as a warning to the church, 1 Corinthians 11: Order, Unity, and the Lord's Supper for how the gathered church must treat one another, and 1 Corinthians 12: One Body, Many Members in Christ for why words that wound the body are so serious. Read together, they show that holiness of speech is part of what it means to be the church.
Frequently asked questions
What is a reviler in the Bible?
A reviler is a person whose habitual speech is abusive, insulting, or slanderous toward others. The Greek word in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 is loidoros, and many English translations render it as reviler. The term describes open verbal assault, not a single slip of temper. In the list Paul gives, the reviler stands beside the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, thieves, and drunkards. The reason is that all these sins reveal a heart not ruled by God. The reviler uses words to injure, dominate, or humiliate another person, and Scripture treats that practice as a mark of the unrighteous rather than a harmless personality trait.
Will a reviler go to heaven?
The passage says the unrighteous will not inherit God's Kingdom, and it names revilers among them. But the same chapter adds that some of the Corinthians had been all these things and were washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The question is therefore not whether a former reviler can be saved; the gospel is precisely for such people. The question is whether a person who claims Christ while continuing in unrepentant verbal abuse gives evidence of belonging to him. A settled practice of reviling is incompatible with the Kingdom, while genuine repentance brings forgiveness and a changed tongue.
Is reviling a sin the church should discipline?
Yes, when it is a pattern that a professing Christian refuses to abandon. 1 Corinthians 5:11 tells the church not to associate with a so-called brother who is a slanderer, among other sins, and not even to eat with such a person. The purpose is twofold: to protect the vulnerable and to bring the offender to repentance. The same passage also implies restoration when repentance comes. Faithful churches differ on timing and process, and leaders should act with wisdom and patience. But they should not treat ongoing verbal abuse as a minor matter that requires no response.
