***Commentaries by David Prior and Leon Morris have contributed greatly to this outline***

I. Introduction

The following story from author Leonard Sweet highlights the importance of valuing our relationships with other people:

Tom Wiles served a stint as university chaplain at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona. A few years ago, he picked me up at the Phoenix airport in his new Ford pickup and whisked me away to keynote a leadership conference at the university. Since I was still mourning the trade-in of my Dodge truck, we immediately bonded, sharing truck stories and laughing at the bumper-sticker truism: "Nothing is more beautiful than a man and his truck."

As I climbed into his 2002 Ranger for the ride back to the airport a day later, I noticed two big scrapes by the passenger door. "What happened here?" I asked.

"My neighbor's basketball post fell and left those dents and white scars," Tom replied with a downcast voice.

"You're kidding! How awful," I commiserated. "This truck is so new I can smell it."

"What's even worse is my neighbor doesn't feel responsible for the damage."

Rising to my newfound friend's defense, I said, "Did you contact your insurance company? How are you going to get him to pay for it?"

"This has been a real spiritual journey for me," Tom replied. "After a lot of soul-searching and discussions with my wife about hiring an attorney, it came down to this: I can either be in the right, or I can be in a relationship with my neighbor. Since my neighbor will probably be with me longer than this truck, I decided that I'd rather be in a relationship than be right. Besides, trucks are meant to be banged up, so I got mine initiated into the real world a bit earlier than I expected."

Let’s remind ourselves of context. The first four chapters Paul dealt with divisions in the church. His main concern was divisions over teachers and he stated that when there were divisions amongst the Corinthians they were acting merely human. These men that the Corinthians were aligning themselves with were simply servants of God through whom the Corinthians believed the foolishness of the gospel, and those who believed were assigned to each of the servants by God Himself.

Paul continuously pointed the Corinthians attention off of man and towards God. That is something that mankind throughout history has struggled with. We tend to esteem humans higher than we ought. We need to constantly be reminded that it is God who deserves all the glory.

In chapter 5 Paul shifted gears and started addressing specific issues that the Corinthian believers were dealing with; a pattern that will continue through the rest of this letter. The issue that was being addressed in chapter 5 was a problem of incest. A man had his father’s wife. Paul was appalled at the arrogance of the Corinthians over this issue and commanded them to remove the evil person from among them. Then, Paul went on to explain the idea that it is not the people outside of the church that we are to judge, but rather, those inside the church. Paul then continued on with the idea of judgment to speak about a different issue; the issue of lawsuits against other Christians.

1 Corinthians 6:1-8 When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? (2) 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? (3) Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! (4) So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? (5) 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, (6) but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? (7) To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? (8) But you yourselves wrong and defraud--even your own brothers!

II. You are flaunting your failures (6:1)

In essence, it appears in verse 1 that Paul is chastising the Corinthians for airing their dirty laundry in public, so to speak. 

1 Corinthians 6:1 When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?

Paul went on to say in verse 7 that the fact that the Corinthians had lawsuits amongst themselves to begin with was already defeat for them. He is revisiting this idea of the world not being able to tell any difference between themselves and the church. When believers cannot resolve disagreements amongst themselves and take each other to court this shows the world that there is not much difference in the two sides. Or, that the believing Corinthians are merely human, much like the non-believing Corinthians.

Do you sense the disbelief of Paul here? Does he DARE go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?  It is really interesting that Paul’s the command is not to have disputes.  It seems that Paul’s disbelief is not in the fact that there were grievances against each other in the church. It’s not even in the fact that those grievances cannot be worked out without a moderator. It’s the fact that two believing parties would go to non-believers to settle their disputes. This made no sense to Paul and it shouldn’t make sense to us, either. Paul went on to tell them why it doesn’t make sense.

III. You are forgetting your destiny (6:2-4)

1 Corinthians 6:2-4 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? (3) Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! (4) So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church?

I would like to start off by saying wow. We’re going to be involved in the end times judgment of the world and of the angels! That’s crazy to me! Before I attempt to explain what that judgment looks like I want to assure you that Paul was not just randomly pulling this information out of thin air. This is a concept that was taught by Jesus and the prophet Daniel. Let’s take a look at those passages: 

Matthew 19:27-28 Then Peter said in reply, "See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?" (28) Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

While that passage specifically deals with the apostles the New Testament message is consistently portraying that Christians are raised to share with Christ in all the reality of His resurrection life. 

 Romans 6:4ff

 Ephesians 2:4ff

 Revelation 20:4-6

Revelation 20:4-6 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. (5) The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. (6) Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

However, it is most likely that Paul’s understanding of this truth came from the Old Testament (since Paul penned the above referenced passages of Romans and Ephesians and Revelation was written after Paul was dead) and more than likely from the book of Daniel. We probably don’t have time to read the whole of Daniel 7:9-27 but it clearly teaches that the people of God will rule the world.

Daniel 7:27 And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them.'

Now, we’re not given too much information as to what this judgment looks like so my explanation is going to be mostly speculation based on the things that I know to be true about angels.

First, this judgment most likely includes the fallen angels, or those that we call demons. The angels that once followed God but chose to follow Satan in his rebellion are now diametrically opposed to God’s will and seek to thwart it at all costs. I do not have the time here to go into a study of fallen angels. We’ll do that some other day. 

Second, the word “judge” in Greek can also be rendered “rule.” So, in the case of holy angels it could be that we simply rule over them. The passages in Romans 6, Ephesians 2 and Daniel 7 certainly seem clear that we have some dominion over the angels.

Mainly, though, we really do not know what this judgment looks like. The reason that we don’t know is because the Bible doesn’t tell us. So, we shall not get hung up on it.

The main point of Paul’s concern was that given our destiny, the destiny of judging the world and angels, why on earth would we bring trivial cases before secular courts? Is there not a competent judge amongst you? We are not to lay cases of grievance between two believing people before those who have no standing in the church. Biblically speaking, the Body of Christ has an infinitely greater wisdom than even the wisest worldly judge. 

IV. Your are foregoing your resources (6:5-6)

It seems that Paul was just piling on here! It is a pretty fair assessment to say that he was pointing to their love and pride of wisdom here and calling them out on what he says is a lack of it!

1 Corinthians 6:5-6 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, (6) but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?

In this current letter he had already expressed the fact that God has enriched them in every way with all speech and knowledge (1:5), and that Christ lives in them and Christ is the source of live and wisdom of God (1:24, 30). All the reminders and arguments that Paul had made about wisdom are now coming into play here. 

Another thing that we can glean from this short little statement is that anyone in the church can be used to settle disputes. In fact, I am certain that biblical support is available for allowing a different person to solve different cases based on the individual’s giftedness and life experience. Certainly Paul’s point is that even the newest person in Christ is more competent to judge cases between two believers than any non-believer is.

V. You are forsaking your calling (6:7-8)

1 Corinthians 6:7-8 To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? (8) But you yourselves wrong and defraud--even your own brothers!

The overarching principle of this passage is summed up in these two verses. All that Paul said leading up to this point was with the heart of it’s better to be wronged than to traipse your dirty laundry out in front of the world. 

We are called to be saints, to share in the wisdom of Christ and His power. Jesus set us the example in this area. He did not seek to return evil for evil. In fact, He suffered the most intense wrong of anyone in history! A completely holy man dying an unholy, undignified death. Let’s take a look at what Peter said about Jesus.

1 Peter 2:22-23 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. (23) When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

It was not only by His life that Jesus set this example. He taught this principle to those that followed Him, as well.

Matthew 5:38-40 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' (39) But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. (40) And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

It is important to remember that the thrust of this teaching is directed towards those who are in Christ and have disputes amongst one another. How much more effective would this principle be in matters of unbelievers? What would it say to the unbeliever like the one in the story that I told in the opening if Christians decided that it was better to have a right relationship than it was to be right? This is the principle that the Bible teaches over and over again.

Our most effective witnessing opportunities are when we get to “gospel” one another and others. Preaching the gospel is more effective with actions than it is with words! Willie Mack Gray, pastor of Second Missionary Baptist Church, said one Wednesday in our prayer meeting that he often prays that we would be a sermon in shoes. Actions definitely speak louder than words! Jesus did not just preach the gospel, He lived it! By choosing to be wronged rather than to be right we make a big statement to the world about the gospel. That’s what Jesus did. The gospel is summed up in His being wrongfully and shamefully put to death for the sins of the world. The reason that Paul has given all throughout this letter not to go to court before non-believers is because it looks bad to them.

I want to be clear on a couple of things. First off, this is not a command about disagreements. We need to remember that Paul was not saying that believers shouldn’t have disagreements. He is saying that when those disagreements arise please do not let a non-believer solve the problem for you. For one, that just looks bad, and second, they do not contain the proper biblical wisdom to assess the situation and offer a God honoring solution to the problem. Also, this is not a command to not appear in court, ever. If you are subpoenaed to court you had better show up! The final thing I want to clear up is that this is in no way intended to put on airs for the world. What I mean is that Paul was not commanding to keep the disputes in house because we want the world to think that we’re perfect. There is a lot of power in our imperfection and allowing God’s grace to be put on display through those imperfections. The command is not to let the outsiders sit as judge in those matters because they are not capable of judging biblically.

VI. Conclusion

This is a tough passage. If you’re anything like me you’re probably sitting there trying to think of exceptions to the rule. Well, what about this situation or that situation. That’s human for us to do that. I would just ask you to pray about things and consider them through the lens of Scripture. 

It is interesting to me, too, that Paul has continued on with his theme of judgment. He told the Corinthians in Chapter 5 that it was those inside the church whom they were to judge (in regards to sin). Now he’s telling them not to let outsiders judge them in regards to legal matters. He was saying that all judgment, both of sin and of grievances, should be done within the body of Christ. 

Americans are too privatized. We’re afraid of being vulnerable with others. We’re afraid we’ll get hurt, or people will think less of us, or whatever. Let me just tell you right now that we all know that you sin. We sin too. We could sit and argue for hours on who has committed the worst sins amongst us. That’s not the point. The point is that believers have been given the Spirit of God—His very wisdom is in us! We are the only ones with the ability to judge matters between other believers.