Just a Symptom of a Bigger Problem
A verse-by-verse explanation of this section.
An overview of the principles and applications from this section.
Tying the section to life with God.
Historical, geographical, and grammatical enrichment of the commentary.
Suggested step-by-step group study of the section.
Zeroing the section in on daily life.
“For the sake of the kingdom, Jesus wants his disciples to give up their rights, interests, benefits and safeguards… This is not saying that the kingdom of God consists in having no property, or in the absence of rights… But it means that God's kingdom represents something higher than a hierarchy of human values and interests, and that the ‘righteousness of the kingdom’ teaches us to subject everything to this.”
Herman Ridderbos
Should Christians sue one another in public court? It happens throughout the world today, and it took place in Corinth as well. Paul argued that this practice had to end, and that it revealed that the Corinthian church really did not understand the gospel.
Just a Symptom of a Bigger Problem
“I'm sorry, but the slight noise is just a symptom of a much bigger problem.” Have you ever heard those words from an automobile technician? You go to the garage to have a squeak fixed and discover that you have to replace the transmission. You take your car in because of a rattle and you find out that you need a whole new engine. I do not know about you, but I just hate it when a little problem actually stems from a much bigger one.
In this passage, Paul addressed a squeak in Corinth. Some believers in the church were taking one another to court before unbelievers. But that problem was just a symptom of something much worse. It revealed another serious problem in the congregation: the Corinthians neither understood nor lived the gospel.
The Problem of Litigations
MAIN IDEA: Continuing his discussion on the proper sphere of Christian judgment, Paul expressed his shock and dismay over the fact that the Corinthian believers were taking one another to court before unbelievers. Such lawsuits contradicted Christian teaching and behavior.
An Incredible Problem: Mishandling Lawsuits (6:1–6)
SUPPORTING IDEA: This section begins with a series of questions indicating Paul's shock that the Corinthians would actually sue one another in public court rather than handle legal matters within the church community.
6:1. In this question, Paul addressed those brethren who were willing to sue other Christians in public court. It was inconceivable to him that a believer would actually take a legal dispute… before the ungodly… instead of before the saints. Believers sometimes have legitimate disagreements that necessitate adjudication, but it astounded Paul that Christians would take their issues before unbelieving judges.
The concept of “judgment” found in this verse links it to the preceding material regarding the incestuous man and to the Corinthian divisions and opposition to Paul. Though the Corinthians considered themselves wise and this wisdom led to their divisions, the Corinthians lacked discernment. They judged when they should not have and failed to judge when they should have.
6:2–3. Whereas the first verse had addressed those believers who sued other believers, these verses addressed the whole church. Anticipating the objection that Christians were not competent to judge such legal or civil matters, Paul asked if they had forgotten two basic Christian beliefs that pointed to the contrary.
First, he wondered, with a note of sarcasm, if the Corinthians had forgotten that the saints will judge the world. Jesus himself taught that his followers would act as judges at the end of time (Matt. 19:28; see also Rev. 20:4). The language of the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) also implies this in Daniel 7:22 where it says that judgment was given to “the saints of the Most High.” This future role of believers reflects that they will be victorious over their enemies and enjoy the honor of ruling with Christ after he returns (cf. 2 Tim. 2:12). Paul believed that this demonstrated the church's competence to adjudicate its own problems internally. Not every believer at every moment is competent for such matters, but the church as a whole should be able to act.
Second, Paul reminded the Corinthians that believers will judge angels. Many angels fell from their positions of authority when they rebelled against God (2 Pet. 2:4). Followers of Christ will pass judgment on these angels when Christ returns. This fact demonstrated that the church's ability to make decisions about conflicts among believers should not be dismissed.
On the basis of the church's future role in such important matters, Paul argued that the body of Christ should also be competent to judge trivial cases such as those regarding worldly disputes between Christians over things that he defined as the things of this life. Though lawsuits may not seem trivial when they involve huge sums of money, all such disputes are trivial when compared to the weightiness of the final eternal judgment in which Christians will exercise authority.
By making the matter of public lawsuits a question of the Corinthians’ competence (are you not competent), Paul further undermined the Corinthians’ admiration of worldly wisdom. They were so impressed by the false wisdom of unbelievers that they had forgotten the wisdom the church had received from Christ.
6:4. That the Corinthians had disputes is clear, but the original language of the second portion of this verse—appoint as judges —is somewhat ambiguous. There are two possible interpretations of this portion. On the one hand, Paul may have been ordering the Corinthians to appoint as judges even men of little account in the church because even men of little account in the church are better able to adjudicate than are the unbelievers of the public courts. On the other hand, Paul have been expressing astonishment that the Corinthians effectively appointed as judges even men of little account in the church —unbelievers—by taking their cases to public court.
It is not wise to be dogmatic on this interpretive issue, but either option fits well with the context. Practically speaking, because Christians should see things in light of the kingdom of God, and have true, spiritual wisdom, any Christian should have greater wisdom and be a better judge than even the wisest unbeliever. This does not mean that the disputants will necessarily like the judgments of Christians better, especially if they are as worldly-minded as the Corinthians. It does mean, however, that one should expect Christians’ judgments to surpass worldly judgments in righteousness and ultimate perspective.
Moreover, because the church is so important and valuable, appealing to public courts demonstrates a lack of respect for God's holy institution, the church. In fact, this seems to have been the Corinthians’ greatest problem, and thus may have been Paul's main point in this verse.
6:5–6. Paul asked another question to bring shame to his readers. Obviously, the Corinthians’ shame was not his ultimate goal. Rather, he wanted to convince them to change their perceptions and behavior. He wondered if the Corinthian congregation that prided itself on eloquence and wisdom actually had no one wise enough to judge the disputes. Paul had already made it clear that such wisdom exists among believers, but the Corinthians had failed to search for such a one, probably because they had also failed to understand true wisdom. Instead, they were doing the unthinkable: they were going to law against another—and this in front of unbelievers.
There seem to be two problems indicated in verse 6. First, Christians appealed to law in disputes between themselves, and second, they sued one another in front of unbelievers. On the one hand, Paul argued that the secular law of the land enacted by unbelievers was inferior to God's wisdom for judging disputes between believers. Paul had already argued that human wisdom fell short of God's truth, and that the world considered the gospel foolish.
Christians, however, know that the gospel is supremely wise. Because the gospel includes things like unity in Christ and forgiveness, which worldly standards of justice ignore, the secular law of unbelievers is not equipped to adjudicate disputes between Christians. Unbelieving human law simply does not reflect true wisdom, godliness, or justice. Regarding public courts, it might be said that justice is blind not because it treats all people equally but because it cannot see the truth.
On the other hand, the Corinthians sued one another in front of unbelievers. What is so wrong with going before unbelieving judges? Paul reminded them that in these situations it is a brother who takes his brother to court. Christians are brothers and sisters of one another. They share the intimacy of belonging to the same spiritual family, and their loyalty to that family ought to outweigh their desire not to be defrauded. Thus, they should not go outside that family to settle disputes.
Further, bringing the disputes of the Christian family into the public eye damages the reputation and witness of the church. The gospel is supposed to reconcile believers in fellowship with one another in Christ. What will the world think when it sees Christians appealing to those without the gospel to solve the problems that the gospel should be correcting? Naturally, the world will think the gospel is ineffective. Even if a church court were to misjudge a case, this would be preferable to damaging the credibility of the gospel by going to public court.
An Underlying Problem: Not Living the Gospel (6:7–8)
SUPPORTING IDEA: The fact that the Corinthians mishandled lawsuits by taking them to public court was terrible, but this problem flowed out of an underlying difficulty. The Corinthians mistreated one another and failed to reconcile their conflicts in a Christian manner.
6:7. Paul closed his expressions of dismay over lawsuits by pointing out how self-defeating they were. Anyone who brings a lawsuit against another person intends to win. But because public lawsuits between Christians damage the church's witness and reputation, those who participate in them cannot win. They do more damage to themselves by injuring the church in this way than they suffer by being wronged by other Christians. Whatever decision the public court reaches, the Christians have been completely defeated already.
Further, the fact that there were lawsuits in the church demonstrated that the Corinthians had lost sight of some of the most precious principles by which they were to live. Christ taught his church the law of love (Jas. 2:8). Christians should serve one another (Gal. 5:13). They should be a unified body in which every member works in harmony with the others (Eph. 4:16). For these reasons, and to protect the church, it would be better to be wronged and cheated than to struggle and fight with one another.
6:8. The Corinthians, however, were not only defeated by demanding justice and recompense. They failed to turn the other cheek (Matt. 5:39) and to submit willingly to lawsuits (Matt. 5:40), and they were wrongdoers themselves. They actually cheated and did wrong to one another, even to their brothers.
The Root Problem: Misunderstanding the Gospel (6:9–11)
SUPPORTING IDEA: At the bottom of the Corinthians’ legal problems was a misunderstanding of their identity in Christ, and of the behavior to which that identity called them. This misunderstanding led to their mistreatment of others, and then to mishandling disputes.
6:9–10. The Corinthians had forgotten a basic Christian doctrine: there is a big difference between believers and unbelievers. Wicked people are not destined to inherit the kingdom of God —they face a future of divine judgment. They will not receive the blessings of God when Christ returns in glory (Rom. 2:5–10; Heb. 10:26–27). By reminding the Corinthians of the judgment that awaits the wicked, Paul again emphasized that the Corinthians were behaving like the unbelieving wicked. In verse 8, he had used the verbal form of “wicked” to say “do wrong.” Believers must not allow themselves to be deceived in these matters.
To make his point more clearly, Paul offered a list of lifestyles that were common outside the Christian community. He did not speak of people who occasionally fell into these sins, but of those who made these sins the patterns of their lives. Similar lists of sinful lifestyles appear elsewhere in Paul's writings and in the rest of Scripture. Here he first mentioned sexual sins: (1) the sexually immoral, those who are involved in any kind of premarital or extramarital sexual relations; (2) idolaters, mentioned here because of the close association between sexual immorality and many pagan religions; (3) adulterers, those who break the sanctity of marital sexual exclusivity; (4) male prostitutes, those who served in pagan religious sexual rituals, and (5) homosexual offenders, those who practice homosexual relations in general.
He then turned to other social sins: (1) thieves, those who steal as a way of life; (2) the greedy, those who have unquenchable desire to possess for themselves; (3) drunkards, those who imbibe alcohol to excess; (4) slanderers, those who falsely accuse others; and (5) swindlers, those who take what is not theirs.
Except for the addition of thieves and the expansion of the sexually immoral into subclasses of adulterers, male prostitutes, and homosexual offenders, this list is identical to the list in 1 Corinthians 5:10–11. Paul hoped the Corinthians would remember that people who practice such things would not inherit the kingdom of God. He implied that professed believers in Corinth who lived such lifestyles should take care that they were truly in the faith, knowing that if they did not repent they would perish. He also pointed out the folly of taking lawsuits before these kinds of people, as if such wicked people could judge rightly between Christians.
6:11. Many of the believers in Corinth once lived in these patterns of life, but Christ had changed them so they became much more reliable as judges of disputes within the church. Since these patterns of life were in the past for those who truly believed, they could take confidence that they would inherit the kingdom of God. Those believers who still fell into these sins needed to remember that their new identities in Christ (what some of you were) protected them from judgment. At the same time, their new identities also required that they live no longer like the wicked, but like believers.
Believers are washed, cleansed from sin through faith in Christ as symbolized in baptism (Acts 9:17–18). They are sanctified, set apart from the world and brought into relationship with God (Acts 20:32; 26:18). They have been justified, declared innocent before God (Rom. 3:24; Gal. 2:16; Titus 3:7). This blessing comes to believers in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as they call on Jesus’ name and rely upon him for their salvation. They also come by the Spirit of our God as the Holy Spirit applies the work of Christ to believers (Rom. 15:16; Eph. 1:13–14; Titus 3:5). Followers of Christ differ fundamentally from the sinful world around them. Therefore, believers should not make it their practice to bring their lawsuits against one another before unbelievers.
MAIN IDEA REVIEW: Continuing his discussion on the proper sphere of Christian judgment, Paul expressed his shock and dismay over the fact that the Corinthian believers were taking one another to court before unbelievers. Such lawsuits contradicted Christian teaching and behavior.
In this passage Paul corrected the Corinthians for taking one another to court. He sought to convince them that there was no justification for this practice. But Paul also pointed out that this problem was just a symptom of a much deeper difficulty. The Corinthians had been mistreating one another and still had not understood the heart of the gospel.
PRINCIPLES
APPLICATIONS
Exploring can be great fun. I had a friend who once went exploring to find the source of a river that ran past his home. He followed it for miles by car, and then by foot, until he came to the foot of a mountain at the river's head.
But his discovery was a gigantic disappointment. At the base of the mountain was a rural garbage dump. The small stream flowed right through the middle of it. That glorious river flowing by his house actually had a polluted source.
In this passage, Paul took the Corinthians exploring. What was the source of their need to litigate against one another before unbelievers? It was the pollution of mistreating one another and misunderstanding the gospel itself.
While the implications of Paul's teaching in this chapter may be readily apparent to many modern readers, the actual application of these principles is difficult. This difficulty arises from the fact that churches rarely establish church courts to handle matters other than church discipline. Church members no longer respect the judgment of the church enough to accept that judgment in civil matters, especially when money or property are involved. We ought to heed Paul's advice, but we generally aren't willing to do so. If we truly understand Paul's argument, however, our unwillingness may yield to submission.
Lord Jesus, we want to uncover the sources of our problems. Help us to look beneath the surface to the motivations and misconceptions that lead us into trouble. Bring us to a fresh awareness of the gospel and show us how it can be the source of faithful living in your service. Amen.
A. Judgment (6:1)
When Paul was in Corinth, the Jews appealed to the secular court for redress against the Christians (Acts 18:12–17). They did so by dragging the Christians before the judgment seat (bema ) (cf. Matt. 27:19; Acts 25:10). Judgment seats in the ancient world were typically located in public places such as markets, and archaeology suggests that Corinth was no exception. Thus, lawsuits in ancient Corinth would have been very public. Roman proconsuls would have presided over such suits and would have judged them according to Roman law, which was not always righteous or just by Christian standards.
B. Wronged, Cheated (6:7–8)
“Wronged” (adikeo ) is a generic term referring to all sorts of wrongdoing and injustice. It is cognate to the noun adikos which is translated as “ungodly” in 6:1 and “wicked” in 6:9. “Cheated” (apostereo ), in turn, denotes defrauding or robbing, or more generally depriving someone of something to which he is rightfully entitled. In 1 Corinthians 6:7–8, the use of these terms in conjunction probably indicates any type of injustice, but emphasizes cheating in property or monetary matters.
C. Inherit the Kingdom of God (6:10)
The term “kingdom of God” (often also called the “kingdom of heaven” by Matthew) refers to God's kingship over creation (Isa. 66:23). In the New Testament, it particularly refers to God's assertion of authority in sending Christ to defeat his enemies and establish his eternal rule as heir to the Davidic throne and to the throne of heaven. The gospel depends upon the idea of the kingdom of God in that it promises that Christ will share his inheritance with believers (Gal. 3:26–29). His inheritance includes not only the full realization of the blessings of covenant-keeping promised in the restoration, but also Christ's own reign (2 Tim. 2:12).
A. INTRODUCTION
B. COMMENTARY
C. CONCLUSION: A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT