January 23, 2023

1 Corinthians 6:1-8 (HCSB)
Lawsuits among Believers
6 If any of you has a legal dispute against another, do you dare go to court before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? 2 Or don’t you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest cases? 3 Don’t you know that we will judge angels—not to mention ordinary matters? 4 So if you have cases pertaining to this life, do you select those who have no standing in the church to judge? 5 I say this to your shame! Can it be that there is not one wise person among you who is able to arbitrate between his brothers? 6 Instead, believer goes to court against believer, and that before unbelievers! 7 Therefore, to have legal disputes against one another is already a moral failure for you. Why not rather put up with injustice? Why not rather be cheated? 8 Instead, you act unjustly and cheat—and you do this to believers!

Jalen Kramm
Saints are going to judge the world? We are going to judge the angels? What in the world?! Sorry to disappoint, but, since Paul doesn’t see fit to answer those questions here, then neither will I. Today we are going to focus on the more applicable part of what Paul says these things for and how those facts are to cause us to act while we are still on earth dealing with people. It seems that the Church has gotten far away from any kind of governance of its members’ lives, and it is probably because we don’t want our church poking its nose in our business. People have, somehow, put the church in a box of just giving us a nice sermon and a Sunday School lesson once a week (Wednesday too if you’re real religious haha) and then you go on about your life apart from the body of Christ. Paul says it so plainly in this chapter that I don’t think you need any help from me to interpret it. Sort things out with your brothers and sisters and, in some cases, just eat it and move on. Or you could say turn the other cheek, if you need one of them “churchy phrases” to get the point.