Christian Court – 1 Corinthians 6:1-11

One of the greatest needs in a community of humans is conflict resolution.  Moses spent hours and hours judging the people of Israel until his father-in-law encouraged him to appoint numerous judges to do this, with Moses handling only the most difficult cases (Exodus 18).  The leaders of Israel before she had a king were called judges.  The kings of Israel heard cases of conflict.  In the United States we have a massive court system, local, state, and federal, to deal with the inevitable conflicts that arise between people.  But what about the community of the church?  How should conflicts be handled there?

When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.  (1 Corinthians 6:1-11 ESV)

Though the Corinthians have been unwilling to judge a professed believer living in immorality, they are willing to take each other to court over other offenses.  Paul rebukes them for going to unbelieving judges when they should be judging within the church.  And Paul rebukes them for having such lawsuits period.  Both of these give a poor witness to the faith of Jesus Christ, which should have produced different results, such as being willing to let your brother defraud you rather than take something like this public.

Paul reminds them that habitual unrighteousness is an evidence that one is not saved and will not inherit the kingdom of God.  The Corinthians were rescued from such unrighteousness.  They were cleansed and declared righteous in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.  The unspoken question is, “Why are you still engaging in such consistently unrighteous behavior?”

We are not saved by works, but works should follow being saved.  We should be experiencing a gradual growth in righteousness.  Like the Corinthians we might find ourselves contradicting our salvation by our behaviors.  We need to be judged and challenged to live for righteousness as Paul is doing to the Corinthians.