1 Corinthians 6:1-11 - Church Discipline, not Court Satisfaction

1 Corinthians 6:1-11

Do Not Sue the Brethren

1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? 2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3 Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? 4 If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? 5 I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? 6 But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers!

7 Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? 8 No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren! 9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

God’s justice and judgment should be handled within His church in the form and practice of scriptural church discipline as outlined in Matthew 18:15-17 and according to the general principles of addressing sin and restoring offenders to fellowship.  Just as in Corinth, we see today too often how believers go to secular courts and engage dishonest lawyers to extract revenge compensation out of those who offend us instead of forgiving with just restitution when appropriate.  There are times when the courts must administer the law of the land under the leaders put in place by God according to criminal law, but what is spoken of here is petty arguments over theft and other minor offenses which could be handled within the church and without dragging the name of the Lord into disrespect by our selfishness lacking forgiveness and love.  We will judge the world with Christ in the final judgment as it says here, so how can we not deal with these matters to restore instead of harm the offending ones further?  We need wisdom and courage with compassion to judge fairly and godly in the church among fellow believers, which even the Corinthians had a difficult time finding and appointing qualified leaders to address church discipline.  Brethren should not be fighting it out in the world’s legal arena but among fellow members of the household of God as good householders of His kingdom.  He even goes further to say it is often better to just accept wrong done to us and not seek compensation as vengeance for being cheated to justify our lack of love and compassion for one another.  This is especially odious when we ourselves have done the same to others and have been forgiven much, just like the parable in Matthew 18:32-33, 34-35 where the unforgiving servant is held to account by God for not showing compassion in return.  Those who are this unrighteous may not even be aware of what grievous sins which are crimes against God they have been saved from and forgiven by the goodness of grace and need this reminder!  The list of these include those who once were fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, and extortioners who would not inherit the kingdom of God unless they had been forgiven by the washing of water by the word word and Spirit (Ephesians 5:26-27, Titus 3:5) and made holy in Christ’s righteousness and forgiveness of immeasurable grace.  We do not therefore continue in these sins nor excuse them, but in thankfulness avoid them as new creations in Christ.  Since we have been forgiven of these heinous crimes against the holiness of God and have been justified by His grace () by the Spirit of the living God, how can we continue in these sins and not forgive others who so sin against us (Matthew 6:12, Mark 11:25)?  Humility in our salvation demands compassion and forgiveness in dealing with those who offend us, especially in the body of Christ where we have the mechanism of church discipline and the power of prayer to gently correct (2 Timothy 2:25-26) to see repentance and restoration with God and man.  We should seek church discipline and not court satisfaction for those who wrong us.