A. One Sunday a preacher was addressing the children during his children’s sermon.
1. He wanted to help the children think about Jesus as their friend and helper.
2. So he began with a question – “Who would you go to if you had a problem?”
3. One child said that he would go to his grandma. Another said she would go to her teacher. Another said their mother.
4. The preacher and congregation were surprised when one youngster said, “If I had a problem, I would call my lawyer!”
B. As you know, we live in a very litigious society.
1. There are 1 million, 150 thousand lawyers in the United States of America.
2. That’s one lawyer for every 265 Americans.
C. We’ve all heard about the number of frivolous lawsuits that end in huge awards for the plaintiffs.
1. The most famous of all is the one about the woman who spilled scalding coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald’s.
a. It was February 1992 and Stella Liebeck ordered a cup of coffee to go from McDonalds.
b. Liebeck was sitting in the passenger seat of her nephew’s car, which was pulled over so she could add sugar to her coffee.
c. While removing the cup’s lid, Liebeck spilled her hot coffee, burning her legs.
d. It was determined that Liebeck suffered third degree burns on over six percent of her body.
e. Originally, Liebeck sought $20,000 in damages.
f. McDonalds refused to settle out of court. However, they should have.
g. Liebeck was ultimately awarded $200,000 in compensatory damages, which was reduced to $160,000 because she was found to be twenty percent at fault.
h. She was also awarded $2.7 million in punitive damages.
2. Forty or fifty years ago, someone standing on a street corner whose elbow was brushed by a passing truck would likely exclaim, “Thank God, I’m alive!”
a. Today a person in the same situation shouts, “Thank God, I’m going to be rich.”
3. Lawsuits have become a way of life in North American culture.
D. But once again, we find that the circumstances in first-century Corinth are quite similar to ours today.
1. The Greeks loved to sue as much as we do.
2. The law courts were one of their chief amusements.
3. Roy shared with me that Dr. Malherbe, and member of the church and scholar at Yale Divinity School, had told him about the Corinthian guilds and how the city had dense housing with multi-story buildings with balconies overlooking narrow streets.
a. The guilds had their own court systems of sorts, and the disputes were held in the streets and people would watch from their balconies.
b. Roy said it was often a spectacle like Judge Judy or Judge Wapner – truly entertainment.
4. I discovered in my research that first-century records from Athens (a neighboring city of Corinth) show that first attempts to settle a suit were carried out by private arbitration.
a. Each party chose its own arbitrator and a third was chosen by agreement between both parties to be an impartial judge.
5. If that failed, then the case moved to a court known as The Forty.
a. The Forty referred the matter to a public arbitrator, all who were male Athenian citizens in their sixtieth year – in other words, they were old, wise guys.
b. To refuse to be an arbitrator was to face the penalty of disenfranchisement.
6. If the matter still was not settled, it was referred to a jury court, which consisted of 201 citizens that handled minor cases and 401 citizens for cases involving larger amounts of money.
7. There were juries that could be as large as 1,000 to 6, 000 citizens, each of whom was paid for acting as a jury member.
8. You can see that practically every Athenian male was in his own way a lawyer who spent a great deal of time either deciding or listening to legal cases.
9. Greeks who became Christians had a tendency to bring their litigious tendencies into the church.
9. For good reason, Paul was shocked by this behavior.
10. The last thing the church needed was to have its dirty laundry aired in public.
E. Now, let me say upfront that Paul is not talking against lawyers and lawsuits as a whole.
1. Paul is not speaking against civil courts or Roman law.
2. He himself had been the beneficiary of the court system several years before when the Jews of Corinth brought him before Gallio.
3. Gallio had defended Paul’s right to preach – that story is in Acts 18.
4. In Romans 13, Paul gives a statement in defense of civil authorities and their divine appointment.
5. And it should be noted that Paul makes those statements at a time when many of those Roman rulers were pagans who were immoral or amoral.
F. Ultimately, we can thank God for lawyers and law courts – does that statement surprise you?
1. Thank God for a judicial system that attempts to mete out justice.
2. May God help us at those times when justice ends up aborted.
3. The legal system is highly complex and is imperfect, but I’m thankful for it anyway.
4. Certainly, Christian lawyers and Christian judges are needed in this secular arena.
5. And it is important for Christian judges and lawyers to think and act in a Christ-like fashion as they carry out their legal duties.
G. Now, turning our attention to 1 Corinthians 6, we realize that the pressing issue with which Paul is wrestling is not the matter of civil law or lawyers.
1. The issue is that the Christians in the Corinthian church are suing each other as brothers and sisters in the pagan Greek law courts.
2. Paul is astonished that people who are part of the family of God are taking their grievances to be settled by nonbelievers instead of by fellow Christians.
3. Paul wrote, “If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints?” (6:1)
H. What Paul is upset about is the fact that the church is again failing to act as a community.
1. In that sense, Paul has not really changed the subject from the topic of chapter 5 that we looked at last week.
2. In both cases the problem is the “failure of the church to be the church.” (Fee, 230)
3. The church has failed to take responsibility for one another.
4. They have failed to discipline the incestuous man, and now they are failing to take responsibility for settling their own disputes.
I. Paul immediately introduces a most significant fact – He reminds the Christians at Corinth that they are actually better qualified to judge with equity than are the nonbelievers.
1. Paul wrote, “Do you not know that the saints 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!” (6:2,3)
2. Paul tries to show the scandalous absurdity of Christians suing Christians in the non-Christian courts by reframing the present question in light of the eschatological reality.
3. What do I mean by that? Well, the Bible points to the fact that God’s elect will have a part in the future judgment of all things.
4. We aren’t sure exactly how all that is going to work, but that is going to be part of our destiny.
5. In any case, Paul’s immediate aim is not to lay out any end-times doctrine, rather his aim is to highlight the ridiculous contrast between the church’s glorious eschatological destiny and its present failure to exercise jurisdiction over minor disputes between members.
J. Look at verse 4, Paul then suggested, “Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church!” (6:4)
1. The Greek grammar of this verse is a little unclear, and that’ s why there is an alternate reading in the NIV.
2. Apparently, what Paul means is that even the “lowest” in the church should be able to do a better job of settling a dispute than someone who is not even a Christian.
3. Did you notice that verse 5 is kind of a dig at the Corinthians?
4. “I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?” (6:5)
5. Aren’t these believers in Corinth the same ones who were so proud of their wisdom?
6. If they are so wise, then they shouldn’t need outside mediation, right?
K. In verse 7, Paul wrote, “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?” (6:7)
1. A lawsuit between believers taken into the civil courts is something that brings shame to the church.
2. What it says to the watching world ultimatelyis, “We Christians are no better than you, and we don’t have anything better to live for and guide us than you do. We are no different and have nothing to offer.”
3. As a shocking alternative, Paul declares, “Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?”
4. Paul’s point is that it is better to lose financially than to lose spiritually.
5. Our primary concern should not be to protect our rights, but to protect our relationships with the Lord and His people.
6. Are we willing to sacrifice our own interests for the sake of Jesus’ Kingdom?
7. We Christians must be willing to suffer wrong rather then do wrong.
L. If someone at church won’t pay back the $1000 they borrowed from you, then where can you find peace and joy?
1. Will you find it by taking the brother to court and doing everything you can to get it back?
2. I read about a man who lent another Christian some money and was having trouble getting the man to pay him back.
3. He talked to the man privately about the matter, but made no progress.
4. He went to the church leaders and they talked to the man, but still he wouldn’t pay – probably couldn’t pay.
5. Finally, he sent the man a receipt that said his debt was paid.
6. When the borrower asked the lender what happened, because he knew he had not repaid the man, the lender said, “I did everything I could to get you to pay the money back without avail. So I talked to the Lord about it and He said that He would pay me back and that He would collect from you.”
7. Sometimes we just have to leave things with the Lord and let Him do the final sorting out of things.
M. Paul ends this section on a profound note that sometimes gets displaced from Paul’s original argument and therefore gets wrongly applied.
1. Paul wrote, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. 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.” (6:9-11)
2. You and I could treat this as just another lists of sins that Paul sometimes includes in his writings, but to do so would cause us to miss such a powerful point.
3. Yes, it is obvious that people who live these kinds of sinful lifestyles will not inherit the kingdom of God – point taken.
4. But the main point is verse 11, “And that is what some of you were.”
5. Just as we Christians are called to leave behind all kinds of sinful behaviors – sexual immorality, adultery, drunkenness, idolatry, slander and greed, so also must we give up a selfish orientation that demands legal rights in the secular courts.
6. The Corinthians’ worldly passionate commitment to their personal rights can be broken.
7. God can change them from aggressive, competitive, rights-oriented individuals into people who are willing to give up their rights for the good of the church.
N. This miraculous transformation comes from being “washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (6:11) How wonderfully amazing!
1. To be “washed” suggests that we are cleansed and forgiven for what is past.
2. To be “sanctified” is to be set apart for God service.
3. To be “justified” is to be placed in right relation to God because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us.
O. We must never forget who we were before Christ, and who we are in Christ.
1. One of Paul’s favorite motivational formulas is this – “Become what you really are.” “Embody your identity.”
2. Let your condition of life improve to equal your position in Christ.
P. Let’s conclude this sermon by getting very practical – what lessons should we walk away with and work to apply to our lives?
Q. First of all, when we find ourselves in conflict with someone, especially a Christian, we need to beware of a number of lies that Satan tries to get us to buy into.
1. The first lie is “We can’t settle this.” The truth is, “We can settle this with God’s help.”
2. The second lie is, “My rights are what is most important.” The truth is, “My rights are not most important.” “God, His church, your needs – all these are more important than my rights.”
3. The third lie is, “I can’t do any differently.” The truth is, “I can change.”
4. We must not buy into Satan’s lies.
R. Second, there are times when it is right to employ the legal system.
1. We are citizens of a nation, and we do have civil obligations.
2. We live under the laws of this land and there are times we will have to make or answer a charge or testify in court.
3. We need the lawyers and the court when we enter into certain legal agreements – such as contracts, real estate deals and certain insurance situations.
4. Tragically, any time a Christian is being divorced from his or her spouse, the law requires a secular court to be involved.
5. In the case of criminal matters, a believer may need to sign a complaint against another believer who has broken the law.
6. Although we may be willing to forgive someone for sinning against us, we don’t have the right to forgive them for breaking the law – only the civil authorities can do that.
7. It is not our job to shield people from the legal consequences of their behavior.
8. In most of our dealings with people, going to court should always be seen as the last resort.
S. Finally, Churches and Christians should be prepared to act as mediators when there is conflict between Christians.
1. Although this is often a very difficult and distasteful role to have to play, it is a necessary one.
2. If we are to expect that Christians will obey God’s Word and not take each other to court, then we need to provide some alternative mechanism for them to settle disputes.
3. And Paul’s point here in 1 Cor. 6, is that we Christians should be able to do so.
4. Allow me to interject at this point the fact that there is a growing movement of organizations and individuals who specialize in Christian mediation. And that’s a good thing.
5. Many of our Christian colleges have centers for Conflict Resolution and Mediation and they can be called upon for assistance or courses can be taken from them to prepare to do mediation.
T. Let’s conclude with the admission that all of us have a long way to go and to grow.
1. Let’s remember where we’ve come from and who we are and where we will end up.
2. Let’s live with a deep desire for purity and the resolution of our conflicts in a way that honors God and protects the church.
3. Let’s never forget that it is God who continues to work in us and through us to accomplish His good will. (Phil. 2:13)
Resources:
The (Im)Perfect Church (Studies in 1 Corinthians), Rubel Shelly, 21st Century Christian, 1983.
First Corinthians (Interpretation – A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching), Richard Hays, John Knox Press, 1997.
1 Corinthians (The NIV Application Commentary), Craig L. Blomberg, Zondervan, 1994.
1 Corinthians (Bible Study Guide), Charles R. Swindoll, Insight For Living, 1977.
“Lawsuits Among Believers,” Sermon by John Huffman, Jr. Nov. 20, 2005
“Inappropriate Legal Actions,” Sermon by Doug Goins
“Let’s Settle This,” Sermon by Darryl Kassen
“Church House or Courthouse?” Sermon by Wes Richard
“Dirty Laundry,” Sermon by Paul Decker
“See You In Court,” Sermon by Dan Erickson
