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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? Or do you not know that the Lord’s people 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, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned 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 takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers!
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? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters.
1 Corinthians 6:1-8
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Jesus commanded His followers to go and make disciples. The “go” part of this command makes it obvious that evangelism is not meant to be passive. Rather, Jesus expects Christians to get outside the church to share the good news of salvation through Him, whether in person or virtually as we have that opportunity today or preferably both.
Indeed, doing the Gospel work that Jesus demanded requires action and the ability to move outside of oneself, sacrificially sacrificing just as Christ did. No one understood this better in New Testament times than the Apostle Paul who set his own life aside and embarked on four different missionary journeys for the cause of the Gospel. This would make him an authority in providing evangelistic critique and guidance to any fledgling Christian church like the one in Corinth, the focus of his two letters penned to the Corinthians.
Now, before a person can get outside of themselves, they need to get beyond inner issues and conflicts...and this principle also applies to the church and its body of congregants. In order to give undivided attention to the spiritual state of another person or group of persons, an individual or church congregation needs to be divorced from internal matters that could serve to be a distraction and as we see in today’s passage from the opening verses of 1 Corinthians 6, this was a problem in the Corinthian church. Look again at Paul’s words here:
If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? Or do you not know that the Lord’s people 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, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned 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 takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers!
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? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters. Vv. 1-8
Here we learn there were disputes within the church of Corinth. We don’t know the exact nature of these disputes which morphed into lawsuits but we do know they were over “trivial” matters. We also know these lawsuits were being heard by authorities outside of the church, taken before “the ungodly for judgment” while airing differences “in front of unbelievers”. In essence, rulings were being sought from judges “whose way of life” was “scorned in the church” and it wasn’t as good look for the Christian church that was supposed to be united in Christ.
So how was the church supposed to handle these affairs?
Paul makes it clear they should have been settling differences within. He knew there was more than enough competency and wisdom within the Christian ranks to adjudicate cases and settle any arguments that might arise. After all, they were the Lord’s people and the Lord could and would help them with any and all decisions they needed to make. Through Christ, they were one day going to inherit the very kingdom of God where they would have authority over the world and angels. Such is the benefit of becoming a co-heir with Jesus Himself (Romans 8:17).
Ultimately, Christians should be avoiding dispute and conflict with one another. They should turn to Jesus to settle any differences and allow Him, the Prince of Peace, to drive away the work of Satan and promote serenity and tranquility within the church and the believers within so they would be unencumbered when it came to doing the Gospel spreading work Jesus called them to do.
Today, we still see disputes arise within the church and this is what makes these opening verses of 1 Corinthians 6 valuable today. The Lord has given us His Holy Spirit and imparted His wisdom upon us. We need to prayerfully discuss quarrels with our eyes set on reconciliation, forgive where needed to promote pardon, and ultimately love one another as Jesus commands.
If we do this, then not only does our church flourish within but we are free to go forth together and help others find the salvation and victory only found in our Savior Jesus.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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