14Forbidden Lawsuits (6:1-11)

Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, matters of this life? If then you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers? Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud, and that your brethren. Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 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 Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. (6:1-11)

The Corinthian believers were so taken with human philosophy and so insistent on believing and doing what they wanted that they were divided, bickering, and exceptionally immoral. Their old ways of thinking and acting had reinvaded their lives, and the pattern of righteousness, the expression of the new inner man made after the divine nature, was so broken by sinning that it would have been difficult to have distinguished many of them from their pagan neighbors. This text reveals they were envious of fellow Christians, critical of fellow Christians, and took business and financial advantage of each other. They carried these things so far as to take each other to court—and secular, pagan courts at that. They hung out their dirty laundry for all the world to see.

The legal situation in Corinth probably was much as it was in Athens, where litigation was a part of everyday life. It had become a form of challenge and even entertainment. One ancient writer claimed that, in a manner of speaking, every Athenian was a lawyer. When a problem arose between two parties that they could not settle between themselves, the first recourse was private arbitration. Each party was assigned a disinterested private citizen as an arbitrator, and the two arbitrators, along with a neutral third person, would attempt to resolve the problem. If they failed, the case was turned over to a court of forty, who assigned a public arbitrator to each party. Interestingly, every citizen had to serve as a public arbitrator during the sixtieth year of his life. If public arbitration failed, the case went to a jury court, composed of from several hundred to several thousand jurors. Every citizen over thirty years of age was subject to serving as a juror. Either as a party to a lawsuit, as an arbitrator, or as a juror, most citizens regularly were involved in legal proceedings of one sort or another.

The Corinthian believers had been so used to arguing, disputing, and taking one another to court before they were saved that they carried those selfish attitudes and habits over into their new lives as Christians. That course not only was spiritually wrong but practically unnecessary.

For centuries Jews had settled all their disputes either privately or in a synagogue court. They refused to take their problems before a pagan court, believing that to do so would imply that God, through His own people using His own scriptural principles, was not competent to solve every problem. It was considered a form of blasphemy to go to court before Gentiles. Both Greek and Roman rulers had allowed the Jews to continue that practice, even outside Palestine. Under Roman law Jews could try virtually every offense and give almost any sentence, except that of death. As we know from Jesus’ trial, the Sanhedrin was free to imprison and beat Jesus as they pleased, but they required the permission of Rome, represented by Pilate, in order to put Him to death.

Because Christians were considered by the Romans to be a Jewish sect, the Corinthian believers were probably free to settle their disputes among themselves. Possibly because they were not able to get as favorable settlements from their fellow Christians, however, many of them chose to sue each other in synagogues before Jewish judges, or in pagan public courts. Public litigation was a manifestation of their fleshly attitudes, one more piece of leaven (5:6-8) they had carried over into their new lives in Christ.

In confronting that evil in the Corinthian church, Paul mentions three areas of misunderstanding that those believers had. They misunderstood the true rank they had in relation to the world, the true attitude they should have had in relation to one another, and the true character they should have had in relation to God’s standards of righteousness.

THE TRUE RANK OF CHRISTIANS

A case against translates three Greek words (a noun, verb, and preposition) that were commonly used to indicate a lawsuit. His neighbor is literally “another” and is probably best rendered that way. Unrighteous does not refer to the moral character but to the spiritual standing of those before whom the Christians were taking their cases. The public arbitrators and jurors were unsaved and therefore unjustified, or unrighteous. Christians were bringing lawsuits against one another before unbelievers, and Paul was shocked and grieved. Because he already knew the answer, his question was rhetorical. He was saying, “How can it be? Is it really true that some of you are actually suing each other, and that you are even doing it in public, pagan courts?” The verb tolmaō (dare) is in the present tense, indicating a continuing reality.

Paul’s concern was not that believers would get an unfair hearing in the public courts. They may have been given as fair judgments there as they would have received from fellow Christians. Paul was concerned because they had so little respect for the church’s authority and ability to settle its own disputes. Christians are members of Christ’s own Body and are indwelt by His own Spirit. Christians are saints, the holy ones of God, who are “enriched in Him” and “not lacking in any gift” (1:2-7). “How,” Paul asks, “can you think of taking your problems outside of the family to be settled?” All the resources of truth, wisdom, equity, justice, love, kindness, generosity, and understanding reside in the people of God.

Christians are not to take other Christians to worldly courts. When we put ourselves under the authority of the world in this way, we confess that we do not have right actions and right attitudes. Believers who go to court with believers are more concerned with revenge or gain than with the unity of the Body and the glory of Jesus Christ. Disputes between Christians should be settled by and among Christians. If we as Christians, with our wonderful gifts and resources in Christ, cannot settle a dispute, how can we expect unbelievers to do it? Paul insists that Christians are able to solve disputes, always. Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? “If you are one day going to sit in God’s supreme court over the world, aren’t you qualified to judge in the small, everyday matters that come up among you now?” It should be noted that the term law courts can also be translated “law suits.”

When Jesus Christ returns to set up His millennial kingdom, believers from throughout all of history will be His coregents, sitting with Him on His throne (Rev 3:21; cf. Dan. 7:22). Part of our responsibility as rulers with Christ will be to judge the world. The apostles will have special authority, ruling from “twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matt. 19:28). But every believer will participate in some way. He “who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to Him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father” (Rev 2:26-27).

If the saints will one day help rule the entire earth, they surely are able to rule themselves within the church now That future rule will be based on perfect adherence to the Word of God and proper godly attitudes, which are available now There will not then be any different principles of wisdom and justice than we have revealed to us in Scripture now

The Corinthian Christians, however, not only were not ruling themselves but were making a spectacle of themselves before unbelievers, airing their pride, carnality, greed, and bitterness before the whole world—the world that one day they would be called on by the Lord to help judge and rule in righteousness.

Believers will one day even judge angels. Scripture is not clear as to which angels we will judge. The fallen angels will be judged by the Lord (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6), but we are not told if believers will participate in that judgment. The Greek (krinō) for judge can also mean “to rule or govern.” That certainly would be the meaning if we are to have authority over the holy angels, for they will have no sin for which to be condemned. One cannot be dogmatic, but I am inclined to think that glorified believers will help judge the fallen angels and exercise some rule over the holy angels. If Christ was exalted above all the angels (Eph. 1:20-23), if we are in Him and are like Him, and if we are to reign with Him, it must be that somehow we will share in His authority. Whatever the sphere and extent of that heavenly judgment or ruling, Paul’s point here is the same: If we are to judge and rule over the world and over angels in the age to come, we are surely able, under the guidance of Scripture and the Holy Spirit, to settle any matters of disagreement among ourselves today.

If then you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? As the different renderings of English versions suggest, verse 4 is difficult to translate, and we should not be dogmatic about the specific wording. But the basic meaning is clear: When Christians have earthly quarrels and disputes among themselves, it is inconceivable that those who will rule eternally should try to settle them through tribunals run by unbelievers, by judges who are of no account in the church. If two Christian parties cannot agree between themselves, they should ask fellow Christians to settle the matter for them, and be willing to abide by that decision. The poorest equipped believer, who seeks the counsel of God’s Word and Spirit, is much more competent to settle disagreements between fellow believers than is the most highly trained and experienced unbelieving judge who is devoid of divine truth. Because we are in Christ, Christians rank above the world and even above angels. And by settling our own disputes, we give a testimony of our resources and of our unity, harmony, and humility before the world. When we go to public court, our testimony is the opposite.

Paul was ashamed of the behavior of those whom he had taught and among whom he had ministered. They knew better. I say this to your shame. He continues with a note of sarcasm, Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers? The mark that should most characterize Christian brothers is love. John makes it absolutely clear that “anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another” (1 John 3:10-11). Love, however, did not characterize the Corinthian brothers and sisters. They were acting like the unredeemed, and, as Paul would remind them a few chapters later, a Christian without love is “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal”; he is, in fact, “nothing” (13:1-2).

Sometimes in our society a quarrel between Christians over rights and property cannot help coming before a secular court. When, for instance, a Christian is being divorced by his or her spouse, the law requires a secular court to be involved. Or, in the case of child abuse or neglect, a Christian parent may be forced to seek court protection from a backslidden former spouse. But even in those kinds of exceptions, when for some reason a Christian finds himself unavoidably in court with a fellow believer, his purpose should be to glorify God, and never to gain selfish advantage. The general rule is: Do not go to court with fellow Christians, but settle matters among yourselves.

THE TRUE ATTITUDE OF CHRISTIANS

Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud, and that your brethren. (6:7-8)

Christians who take fellow Christians to court lose spiritually before the case is heard. The fact that they have lawsuits at all is a sign of moral and spiritual defeat (hēttēma, a word used of defeat in court). A believer who takes a fellow believer to court for any reason always loses the case in God’s sight. He has already suffered a spiritual defeat. He is selfish, and he discredits the power, wisdom, and work of God, when he tries to get what he wants through the judgment of unbelievers.

The right attitude of a Christian is to rather be wronged, to rather be defrauded, than to sue a fellow Christian. It is far better to lose financially than to lose spiritually. Even when we are clearly in the legal right, we do not have the moral and spiritual right to insist on our legal right in a public court. If the brother has wronged us in any way, our response should be to forgive him and to leave the outcome of the matter in God’s hands. The Lord may give or take away. He is sovereign and has His will and purpose both in what we gain and in what we lose. We should gratefully accept that.

When Peter asked Jesus how often he should forgive a brother who sinned against him, the Lord replied, “seventy times seven” (Matt. 18:21-22), a figure that represented an unlimited amount. To illustrate the principle, Jesus told the parable of the unforgiving slave. After being forgiven a huge, unpayable sum by the king, the man refused to forgive a fellow slave for a pittance, and was handed “over to the torturers” by the irate king. “So shall My heavenly Father also do to you,” Jesus said, “if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart” (vv. 23-35). Because God in Christ has forgiven each us of such great sin against Himself, no Christian has the right to be unforgiving, especially of fellow Christians. If he is unforgiving, the Lord will deliver him to chastening until he repents or is removed.

If we are wronged or defrauded we should be forgiving, not bitter. If we cannot convince the brother to make things right, and if he will not listen to fellow believers, we are better off to suffer the loss or the injustice than to bring a lawsuit against him. “Do not resist him who is evil,” Jesus commanded, “but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone wants to sue you, and take your shirt, let him have your coat also” (Matt. 5:39-40). Contrary to the world’s standard, it is better to be sued and lose than to sue and win. Spiritually, it is impossible for a Christian to sue and win. When we are deprived wrongfully we are to cast ourselves on the care of God, who is able to work that for our good and His glory.

An attorney friend of mine says that over the years he has counseled dozens of Christians to drop lawsuits against each other. In some ninety percent of the cases he has been successful, and he reports that, without exception, those believers have been blessed. Also without exception, those who insisted on resolving their disputes in court became bitter and resentful—whether they won or lost their cases. If they went to court they always lost spiritually.

The Lord knows the needs of His children and will see that we have what we need. We are to “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added” (Matt. 6:33). A Christian’s primary concern should not be to protect his possessions or his rights but to protect his relationship with His Lord and with his fellow believers.

THE TRUE CHARACTER OF CHRISTIANS

Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 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 Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. (6:9-11)

Paul’s purpose here is not to give a list of sins that will indicate one has lost his salvation. There are no such sins. He is rather giving a catalog of sinners who are typical of the unsaved. Persons whose lives are totally characterized by such sins are not saved and therefore unrighteous, unjustified. They shall not inherit the kingdom of God, because they are not right with God. They are outside the kingdom, the sphere of salvation.

The application to believers is clear. “Why, then,” Paul asks the Corinthians, “do you keep living like the unsaved, the unrighteous? Why do you keep falling into the ways of your old life, the life from which Christ has saved you? Why are you following the old standards, and having the old selfish, ungodly motives? You are to be separated from the world’s ways, not following them. And specifically, why are you taking your problems to the world’s courts?”

A believer is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17), with a new inner personhood made after God’s own person (2 Pet. 1:4), and there is no longer unbroken unrighteousness. But the flesh can become dominant in the disobedient Christian, so that he may take on the appearance of an unbeliever.

The catalog of sins in verses 9-10 is not exhaustive, but those sins represent all the major types of moral sin, the types of sin that have always characterized ungodly societies and that ought never to characterize the godly society of the redeemed.

Fornicators has to do with sexual immorality in general and to that by unmarried persons in particular. Scripture continually condemns it. The sin is characteristic of our own western society today. It is portrayed and exalted in books, magazines, movies, and television as the norm of human living. But fornication in any form is an abomination to God and should be an abomination to His people. Those who habitually practice and defend it cannot possibly belong to God, for the heirs of His kingdom do not habitually practice and defend sexual immorality. True believers may do it, but no matter how involved and weak they are, deep within them they recognize its evil. (See Rom. 7:15-25 for Paul’s discussion of this conflict.)

Idolators refers to those who worship any false gods and false religious systems, not simply to those who bow down to images. Our society has never been so engulfed by and enamored of false religions and cults as in our day. No belief, claim, or practice seems to be too bizarre to get a following.

Adulterers refers specifically to married persons who indulge in sexual acts outside the marriage partnership. Because marriage is sacred, that is an especially heinous sin in God’s sight. The Old Testament required the death penalty for it. In addition to corrupting the participants themselves it also corrupts the family. It defiles the unique, God-established relationship between husband and wife and it inevitably brings harm to their children. And those may be only the initial effects.

Effeminate and homosexuals both refer to those who exchange and corrupt normal male-female sexual roles and relations. Transvestism, sex change, homosexuality, and other gender perversions are included. God’s unique creation, those created in His own image, were created “male and female” (Gen. 1:27), and the Lord strictly forbids the two roles to be blurred, much less exchanged. “A woman shall not wear man’s clothing, nor shall a man put on a woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God” (Deut. 22:5). The Hebrew terms in that verse indicate more than clothing, and include any tool, implement, or apparatus.

Homosexuality is condemned throughout Scripture. It was so characteristic of Sodom that the term sodomy is a synonym for that sin. The Sodomite men were inflamed with perverted sexual desire, and on one occasion they surrounded Lot’s house and demanded that the two angels (who had come in the form of men) be sent outside so that they could “have relations with them” (Gen. 19:4-5). God completely destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because “their sin [was] exceedingly grave” (18:20). Since that time sodomy has stood for sexual perversion and the phrase Sodom and Gomorrah has stood for moral corruption. For believers the terms also have come to stand for God’s hatred and judgment of moral corruption.

By Paul’s day homosexuality had been rampant in Greece and Rome for centuries. In his commentary on this passage, William Barclay reports that Socrates was a homosexual and Plato probably was. Plato’s Symposium on Love is a treatise glorifying homosexuality. It is likely that fourteen of the first fifteen Roman emperors were homosexuals. Nero, who reigned close to the time Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, had a boy named Sporis castrated in order for the boy to become the emperor’s “wife,” in addition to his natural wife. After Nero died, the boy was passed on to one of Nero’s successors, Otho, to use in the same way.

Confusion of sex roles, like adultery, is particularly evil because it attacks the family. It corrupts the biblical plan for the family, including the standards for authority and submission within the family, and thus retards the passing of righteousness from one generation to the next. The most ungodly societies of history have been plagued by sex role perversions, no doubt because Satan is so intent on destroying the family. Churches who, in the name of love, defend homosexuality and condone homosexual ministers, “marriages,” and congregations not only pervert God’s standards of morality but encourage their members in sin. Encouragement in sin has no part in love. True love of others is not doing for them what they want but doing for them what God wants. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments” (1 John 5:2-3). Condoning sin is never an act of love, either for God or for those whose sins we condone.

Thieves and covetous relate to the same basic sin of greed. The covetous person desires that which belongs to others; the thief actually takes it. Greed is a manifestation of selfishness and, like all selfishness, is never satisfied. The greedy demand more and more. In our day it is difficult to find a person, even a Christian, who is satisfied with his income and possessions. But greed is not to characterize the heirs of God’s kingdom. It has no place in the Christian life.

Drunkards is self-explanatory. Like the other sins listed here, it is almost inevitably found to be a serious problem where God’s name and Word are disregarded or despised. Today alcoholism is spreading even to the elementary ages. Preteen and young teen alcoholics are becoming more and more common, as are alcoholics among their elders. The harm that alcohol does to individuals and to families is beyond measure.

Revilers are those who destroy with their tongues; they wound with words. God does not consider their sin to be mild, because it comes from hearts full of hate and causes misery, pain, and despair in the lives of those it attacks.

Swindlers are thieves who steal indirectly. They take unfair advantage of others to promote their own financial gain. Extortioners, embezzlers, confidence men, promoters of defective merchandise and services, false advertisers, and many other types of swindlers are as common to our day as to Paul’s.

And such were some of you, Paul continues. The Corinthian church, as churches today, had ex-fornicators, ex-adulterers, ex-thieves, and so on. Though many Christians have never been guilty of the particular sins just discussed, every Christian was sinful before he was saved. Every Christian is an ex-sinner. Christ came for the purpose of saving sinners (Matt. 9:13). That is the great truth of Christianity: no person has sinned too deeply or too long to be saved. “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Rom. 5:20). But some had ceased to be like that for a while, and were reverting to their old behavior.

Paul uses but (alla, the strongest Greek adversative particle) three times to indicate the contrast of the Christian life with the worldly life he has just been describing. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified. It made no difference what they were before they were saved. God can save a sinner from any sin and all sin. But it makes a great deal of difference what a believer is like after salvation. He is to live a life that corresponds to his cleansing, his sanctification, and his justification. His Christian life is to be pure, holy, and righteous. The new life produces and requires a new kind of living.

Washed speaks of new life, of regeneration. Jesus “saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). Regeneration is God’s work of re-creation. “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17). “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:10). When a person is washed by Christ he is born again (John 3:3-8).

Sanctified speaks of new behavior. To be sanctified is to be made holy inwardly and to be able, in the Spirit’s power, to live a righteous life outwardly. Before a person is saved he has no holy nature and no capacity for holy living. But in Christ we are given a new nature and can live out the new kind of life. Sin’s total domination is broken and is replaced by a life of holiness. By their fleshly sinfulness the Corinthians were interrupting that divine work.

Justified speaks of new standing before God. In Christ we are clothed in His righteousness and God now sees in us His Son’s righteousness instead of our sin. Christ’s righteousness is credited to our account (Rom. 4:22-25). We are declared and made in the new nature righteous, holy, innocent, and guiltless because God is “the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26).

The Corinthian believers had experienced transformation in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. God’s name represents His will, His power, and His work. Because of Jesus’ willing submission to the Father’s will, His death on the cross in our behalf, and His resurrection from the dead, He has provided our washing, our sanctification, and our justification.

A transformed life should produce transformed living. Paul is saying very strongly that it was unacceptable that some believers were behaving like those outside the kingdom. They were acting like their former selves. They were not saved for that, but from that.