If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? 2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! 4 Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church! 5 I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? 6 But instead, one brother goes to law against another—and this in front of unbelievers! 7 The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? 8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. 9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:1-11 NIV)
Our society today is very much like the society in which the church at Corinth found itself. They lived in a tremendously litigious culture and so do we. If there was a dispute, they would take it to court. Very seldom did people go to one another and try to work out difficulties. Rather they went into the court system of the day in order to have their difficulties resolved. It was a practice employed by everyone and understood to be the routine.
No doubt when the people in Corinth first came to know Jesus Christ, they continued this practice along with other old habit patterns from their pagan upbringing. Perhaps they were unaware of the extent to which they were to be transformed in their behavior as believers in Christ. Their hearts had been made right with God, now their actions must be made right.
Paul addresses, in our text, the way Christians are to handle disputes between Christians. The standard he sets here is not the standard of the culture. It is not the standard of the world. We live by a higher ethic. We are not to look to the world to solve our problems. We are to submit to a higher law and pursue righteousness in the context of the community of God’s people –– the Church.
Now what does this mean? Does it mean that we’re not to sue anybody for any reason at all, or does that mean that we’re not to sue anybody who claims to be a Christian? How do we apply this to where we live? Well, the usual application of this passage is for Pastors to say that Christians should not sue other Christians, period. But I think it goes much deeper than that. I think there are some important principles that underlie this command that speak to how we relate to one another in the church, and how we deal with the problems that inevitably arise in interpersonal relationships.
If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church! I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? But instead, one brother goes to law against another—and this in front of unbelievers! (6:1-6)
As Christians, we need to be wise in how we deal with one another in the body of Christ. Because we have been redeemed and our lives have been incorporated into the body of Christ, now how we relate to one another and how we deal with problems matters more than it ever has before. We bear the mark of Jesus. We bear his name. We call ourselves Christians, and as such we represent him before this watching world.
When we go before unbelievers for them to settle our disputes, we’re doing at least two things we ought not to do. The first is that when we step into a court of law, we actually stoop to be judged by a lower standard, a lower ethic. You see, as Christians we live by a higher ethic, don’t we? We’re not simply governed by the laws of this land. While they govern us, they are not our standard. Our standard is higher than that. Our standard is not simply what the law of this land says. Our standard is pleasing the Lord.
In the New Testament, Jesus encounters those who are attempting to keep the law of God. But they are focusing on the technical letter of the law, and failing to keep the spirit of the law. He reminds them that it’s not just a matter of keeping the letter of the law. God wants us to live by the spirit of the law. Your motive counts. You live by a higher standard. You live by God’s standards.
What you need is One who lives in you who can change you from the inside out. That’s what Jesus came to give us. He said it was good that he go away because he was going to send One like himself who was not only going to be with you, but was going to live in you. Of course, he was speaking of the Holy Spirit of God, the promise of the Father.
He told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received the power. They didn’t know what to expect on the day of Pentecost. They didn’t even know that Pentecost was going to be the day. They just knew they were waiting the power. They didn’t know how the power was going to manifest itself. They just knew that Jesus said when the Holy Spirit came they would get the power. And when the Holy Spirit came they got the power.
Now we live our lives by the power of the Spirit in order to please Jesus Christ. We do not live to simply conform to the letter of the law, not even the letter of the New Testament law. If we attempt to obey the law, we will fail unless we rely on the power of the Holy Spirit of God living in us and through us. He is the power we need to fulfill God’s law.
Now you live by this higher ethic. You live by the power of the Spirit, not by what some secular court says. So you ought not to be hauling brothers into court to try to settle disputes. Doesn’t Jesus live in you? Don’t you have enough sense to take care of your own business in the church? Don’t submit to some lower standard, some lower morality, and some lower ethic; submit to God.
And additionally, don’t drag one another into court because it gives a terrible testimony to the world of what true Christianity should be. When we drag one another into court we diminish the testimony of Jesus before the world. The world looks at us, and says, "I thought Jesus made a difference in you Christians. Obviously, he doesn’t." As Christians, we have enough wisdom in the church to settle anything if we will only submit to God. We need to deal with problems God’s way.
Is there anything that could not be resolved if believers were willing to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and to the counsel of the leadership of the church? Probably nothing. It’s only when someone decides they’re not going to submit to God that you’ve got a problem.
Why do we haul one another into court anyway? We haul people into court because we think we have been wronged and we demand justice. Or we demand our rights. After all, we have rights and we have to defend and protect them, don’t we? Well, the answer is –– maybe! We need to think carefully and biblically here. Just what rights are we defending? And what will be the consequences of how we defend them?
The only person in the Universe that has true rights is God. God is the only one with absolute rights. And yet, he laid aside his rights to become a man and die for our sins. He suffered the consequences of our sins, consequences we deserved to suffer, so that we could receive forgiveness. We had offended him, wronged him, and he would have been entirely within his rights to demand that we pay the penalty. Yet, because of love, he did not.
The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? (6:7-8)
When you start dragging one another into court rather than resolving your problems in a Christian forum, you’ve already lost! And then listen to the solution he proposes, "Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?" What? Did he just say that we actually ought to be willing to be wronged, willing to be cheated? Who is he kidding? Everything within our independent, American, self-sufficient nature rises up and says, "I will not be wronged! I will not be cheated! Back off! I have rights and I demand my rights." That may be how we feel, but it is not the way of pleasing God.
Pleasing God means that we live by this higher ethic–– by a radically new set of principles. In following the Lord there is actually a time that may come in your life where you need to suffer, being wronged or being cheated for the sake of the Gospel of Christ.
A pastor had a businessman share with him how he dealt with people who claimed he had shortchanged them. He would ask them, "Well, how much is involved?" When he learned the amount he would say, "Well then forget it. I don’t want that money. I don’t agree with you, but if you feel it is yours I would rather you had the money than to fight with you." Sometimes it would shock the person and open a door for a Christian witness. He saw that his testimony was more important than arguing over a few dollars.
"That’s fine," you may say, "but what if it is not simply five or ten dollars. What if I’m being wronged on a much bigger level? Well, you have to ask yourself: "By my action, will I bring discredit on the name of Christ? Will people look at me and say, "Wow, that’s a mean and vindictive person? That’s an inflexible person." What kind of testimony are you giving when you operate simply by the standards of this world? Christianity is not just to make us better citizens. Christianity should make us people who are counter-cultural.
What God is saying is that he is giving you something that’s going to radically transform the way you think and act. It will transform the way you deal with one another. So Jesus said that when someone slaps you, turn the other cheek. Jesus said that if they take your shirt, give them your coat too. This is radical stuff. We don’t like to talk about that because it really goes against the grain of our self-centered nature.
We want what we want. We are so selfish and so independent and so self-centered, even in the church, that it’s amazing. I’m always amazed at my own selfishness. When God gives me a good look at it, I am absolutely disgusted with myself. Sometimes we are not willing to give up anything for anybody.
One of the things you notice about Jesus is that when he came across true need, he always had time for the person in need. He illustrated this in the story of the Good Samaritan. There were many people who passed by the man who had been robbed, beaten, and thrown into the ditch. I’m sure all of them could have given you good reasons why they didn’t have time to stop and help. But a Samaritan stopped. And from the details of what he did, he appears to have been a fairly important person–– a man of resources. He had to have been a man of position and prominence, because we know that he was able to put him up at the local hotel and tell the innkeeper to charge anything that the man needed to his account. Not every ordinary person could do that. He must have had a platinum card from Samaritan Express! I’m sure that a man of his importance had stuff he needed to do, places he needed to be, and people he needed to see. I’m sure he had an agenda that he needed to keep. But he was the man that Jesus pointed to and said, "That’s the man you need to be like."
We should be willing even to be wronged by one another rather than tarnish the testimony of the Gospel. We should be willing to give up our lives for one another. But sometimes we’re not even willing to give up an hour.
Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (6:8-11)
When you act like the world you need to check up on yourself to find out whether you’re acting like the world because you are of the world. Don’t be deceived. Not everyone who thinks they’re saved is saved. Look at your life. Act right. Be right.
Do you love the Lord? Are you convicted by your sin? Do you repent or do you keep living like that? Don’t be deceived. The kind of people who engage in a lifestyle that continues to ignore and excuse sinful behavior are not going to heaven. They are not going to heaven because they are not truly converted. They are not truly saved. They are not truly Christians. True Christians are convicted by sin. True Christians seek to please God. If you’re going to heaven, you should desire to live like you’re going to heaven instead of living like people in the world live. If you are you living like that, you better check out your own Christianity to make sure you have the real thing.
God has delivered us from living like the world. Look at what he goes on to say, "And that is what some of you were." Undoubtedly, there were people in the Corinthian church who had been sexually immoral, who were idolaters, who were adulterers, who were male prostitutes, who were homosexuals, who were thieves, who were greedy, who were drunkards, who were slanderers, and who were swindlers. But what does he say? You were that way and then Jesus changed your life. And he didn’t change it so you could keep being that way. You were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Live like someone who has been changed. Now, he is not saying that we’ll never sin again. The Bible clearly indicates that Christians do sin. But when we do, we should not excuse it, we should confess it. In 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." So he’s not talking about sinless perfection, but rather about being serious about God and not making an excuse for sin. Be right.
Be wise and don’t take people to court. Beware because you’re going to mess up the testimony of Christ when you do. And be right in your own life so that you’re not doing what you’re accusing other people of doing to you.
The point is that we need to live by a higher ethic because we are Christians. That should be our aspiration. Certainly, none of us is perfect. But our standard is not imperfection. Our standard is to be pleasing to the Lord. The goal is not to stay like we were. The goal is to be transformed–– to act right, treat one another right, and to live right.
Copyright © 2002 J. David Hoke. This data file is the sole property of the copyright holder and may be copied only in its entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data file must contain the above copyright notice.
Except for the use mentioned above, this data file may not be copied (except for small quotations used with citation of source), edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances, displays or other products offered for sale, or made available on the Internet without the written permission of the copyright holder. Requests for permission should be made in writing and e-mailed to J. David Hoke, at David@JDavidHoke.com.