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§14 Going to Judgment before Non-Christians (1 Cor. 6:1–11)

Having raised the issue of the relations of Christians both to other Christians and to those outside the church, Paul’s mind seems to move to the matter of how Christians relate to one another outside the life of the church. His discussion focuses on the issue of Christians suing each other in pagan courts of law. One cannot determine how Paul knows about this problem; nevertheless, he discusses the matter in some detail. Although interpreters regularly refer to these verses as an excursus, the discussion is not simply a digression from the main lines of thought.

6:1 / Paul views Christians taking one another into pagan courts as an example of the degree of the Corinthians’ lack of understanding—or better, love—as will become clear later in the letter (ch. 13). He launches his critique of the Corinthians’ misbehavior with a rhetorical question that is cast in a conditional form: “If X, then Y?” If someone has a dispute with another, then does that one dare to go to the ungodly for judgment? There is biting irony in the question, for Paul’s query implies two things: that the Corinthian Christians are suing Christians before non-Christians; and that it is absurd, unthinkable, and inappropriate for a Christian to take another Christian before non-Christians for judgment. Paul calls the non-Christians the ungodly, more literally “the unjust” (Gk. tōn adikōn), which is not so much a description of the moral state of the non-Christian as it is Paul’s description of their current relationship to God’s justifying work in Jesus Christ. This Corinthian behavior is an explicit failure of the members of the church to live up to their God-given responsibilities. Paul elaborates the inappropriateness of the Corinthians’ behavior and by implication corrects their misunderstanding and misbehavior.

6:2–3 / Paul fires off three more sharp rhetorical questions that point out that what the Corinthians should know they either do not know or ignore. The image of the saints judging the world adapts a motif of Jewish apocalyptic eschatology that depicts the day of final reckoning as including judgment (Dan. 7:22; 1 Enoch 1.9; Wis. 3:8). One must ask, however, whether this statement contradicts what Paul had already said about the church’s capacity to judge in 5:9–13—that the members of the church are not given the responsibility to judge those outside the church. How can Christians not judge non-Christians and judge the world at the same time? Obviously, Paul is thinking about two distinct times. The instructions in 5:9–13 are for the Corinthians’ present time; the judgment being discussed in 6:2–3 is a particular instance of future judgment. Employing a rhetorical device, Paul is formulating an argument from greater to lesser—from future to present, from angels to the things of this life (in the context of the Christian community). Paul argues that if Christians will judge the world in a great apocalyptic future judgment, then they should be capable of exercising judgment over the lesser concern of their own internal affairs here and now. Paul’s admonition is for the Corinthians to take life in Christ’s community seriously, acting with a sense of responsibility toward one another now that befits their responsibility in the future.

6:4 / The NIV seems to miss the point with the translation of this sentence. The critical Greek text of NA27 and the English translation of the majority of other versions punctuates this line as a question, not as a declaration. Paul continues with sarcasm, as is evident in the reference to those outside the church as those of little account in the church, and the more likely sense of his words is that he poses yet another rhetorical question. The NRSV renders the Greek accurately and in the seemingly preferable form of a question, “If you have ordinary cases, then, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church?” This question assumes the answer would be, “Of course not!” Yet, by taking the matters between Christians to legal settings where non-Christians have the final say, the Corinthians were effectively appointing as judges those who had no standing in the church.

6:5 / Paul’s intentional rhetoric of sarcasm becomes explicit in this verse as he explains that he intended to shame the Corinthians. Late twentieth-century culture is generally suspicious and even disdainful of shame, but without trying to rehabilitate that ploy or encourage that emotion, one should remember that honor and shame were two of the most powerful cultural currents in antiquity. From such a point of view, if persons acted in ways that were not honorable—and the Corinthians were not acting honorably in Paul’s theological estimation—then they were acting shamefully. Paul’s effort to shame the Corinthians is a sincere effort to register the inappropriateness of the Corinthians’ behavior in a stark and persuasive fashion. Today, one might paraphrase, “I say this to show you that you are a failure!” This statement is still not a pleasant confrontation, but it is not necessarily a psychologically devious method. With such clear purpose, Paul adds yet another rhetorical question implying the absurdity of the Corinthians’ behavior: Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?

6:6 / The wording and grammar of this brief verse allow one to understand the sentence as either a statement or a question. The NIV renders the words in the form of a declaration, but as H. Conzelmann observes, “Standing as it does between verses 5 and 7 this should be taken as a question” (1 Corinthians, p. 105). Understood in this way, the NRSV translation seems preferable, “but a believer goes to court against a believer—and before unbelievers at that?” Paul’s rhetorical question registers the degree of his incredulity at the Corinthians’ practices.

6:7–8 / In these lines Paul advances his argument by declaring bluntly that the will to assert one’s own rights at the expense of others and at the expense of the general image of the community is defeat. The rhetoric of sarcasm and shame are gone at this point as he directly confronts the Corinthians with the factual meaning of their actions. Yet the urgency of his appeal comes through again in two further rhetorical questions (Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?). Paul implies that it would be better to be wronged and cheated than to act as they have been conducting themselves, taking their problems out of the context of the church and into the world, where they are appearing before nonbelievers for judgment. The implication of Paul’s comments is that by doing what they have done, the Corinthians have failed to live up to their God-given responsibilities for maintaining the life of the community; moreover, by parading their problems before non-Christians the Corinthians both have presented a shameful image and have failed to bear the witness to those outside the church that is their privilege and responsibility to communicate.

6:9–10 / Once again a rhetorical question opens this new segment of the discussion. The wording is deliberate: Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Paul implies that the Corinthians should know this theological truth, even though their behavior suggests that they do not. Paul is not saying that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God because they are not good enough; the Corinthians were once just as wicked. Rather, he is reminding the Corinthians that God’s triumph over evil eliminates unrighteousness. Wickedness has no future with God, and so those who are devoting themselves to ungodly behaviors are forming lifestyles that are contrary to God’s will and work and that will not be given a place in God’s kingdom. Don’t delude yourselves, says Paul; some things do not belong in God’s kingdom. The list begun in verse 9 and continued in verse 10 is, as was the listing in 5:9–11, a catalogue to illustrate certain characteristics and conditions that will not gain entry into the kingdom of God.

These lines become a brief meditation on “unrighteousness” (Gk. adikos). The NIV translates the Greek word wicked, while the NRSV renders it with “wrongdoers,” which catches Paul’s focus on actions. Nevertheless, either English rendering runs the danger of minimizing Paul’s point throughout this discussion that improper behavior results from a faulty theology that fails to recognize the reality of divine transformation in the human experience of salvation. In this instance Paul’s true concern is not to catalogue persons who are guilty of scandalous actions, the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexual offenders, slanderers, swindlers, and so forth. Paul’s true concern is to remind the Corinthians of their pre-Christian pasts, as becomes clear in the following lines.

6:11 / This verse is the most important statement in this section. From a frank recognition of the character of some of the Corinthians before their conversion, Paul elaborates why they now are, and in turn ought to be, different. They are washed, sanctified, and justified. These terms do not aim at delineating various states of grace or various stages of Christian existence. They are a set of metaphors attempting to describe the indescribably multifaceted experience of God’s transforming grace. With this rich description Paul locates the Corinthians theologically, identifying them in relation to Christ, and recognizes the priority of God in their salvation and in their current conduct. In hearing these words the Corinthians would surely think of their baptism, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and their new, right relationship with God—recalling them as a magnificent and incomprehensible movement of God’s gracious Spirit through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Above all, in the entire dramatic declaration, Paul makes it clear that all this transformation that the Corinthians experienced comes, as the series of passive verbs that Paul employs show, through the work of God’s Spirit in Jesus Christ.