Believers With Unsettled Disputes Among Them Are Not Believers

1 Corinthians 6:5 – I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?

1 Corinthians 6:6 – But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers!

1 Corinthians 6:7 – 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?

1 Corinthians 6:8 – Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters.

Message Bible Reads As follows for the whole Pericope

1 Corinthians 6:1  And how dare you take each other to court! When you think you have been wronged, does it make any sense to go before a court that knows nothing of God’s ways instead of a family of Christians?

1 Corinthians 6:2  The day is coming when the world is going to stand before a jury made up of Christians. If someday you are going to rule on the world’s fate, wouldn’t it be a good idea to practice on some of these smaller cases?

1 Corinthians 6:3  Why, we’re even going to judge angels! So why not these everyday affairs?

1 Corinthians 6:4  As these disagreements and wrongs surface, why would you ever entrust them to the judgment of people you don’t trust in any other way?

1 Corinthians 6:5  I say this as bluntly as I can to wake you up to the stupidity of what you’re doing. Is it possible that there isn’t one levelheaded person among you who can make fair decisions when disagreements and disputes come up? I don’t believe it.

1 Corinthians 6:6  And here you are taking each other to court before people who don’t even believe in God! How can they render justice if they don’t believe in the God of justice?

1 Corinthians 6:7  These court cases are an ugly blot on your community. Wouldn’t it be far better to just take it, to let yourselves be wronged and forget it?

1 Corinthians 6:8  All you’re doing is providing fuel for more wrong, more injustice, bringing more hurt to the people of your own spiritual family.

The first letter to the Corinthian church focuses on answering their questions and solving reported problems. Chapter six focuses on a report that the church has so many disputes against each other and those disputes are in the regular courts. The second and last part of chapter six is on sexual immorality.

We are very clear on sexual immorality. It is sin. It is wrong. We shouldn’t do it. We should pray for spiritual power to overcome sexual immorality. The problem of sexual immorality is not unwanted pregnancies or sexually transmitted illnesses. The problem of immorality is that it offends the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. We should fear offending the Holy Spirit more than we fear unwanted pregnancies and diseases. Offending the Holy Spirit can bring consequences worse than disease and unwanted pregnancies and reputation. Abstain for spiritual reasons. Be faithful for spiritual reasons.

Our focus today however is on the first part that isn’t very well known. Disputes in church and involvement of secular courts to resolves disputes among church members. Should Christians seek secular courts to resolve their issues?

Apostle Paul has two accusations against the Corinthian church in regards to disputes. First he accuses them of going to secular courts to seek solutions. Secondly he accuses them of having unresolved disputes among themselves.

Apostle Paul argues that Christians have superior perception, wisdom, experience and insight and are therefore better placed to resolve their own disputes. He also argues that God has assigned us that in future we will judge the world (this is during the millennium recorded in Revelation 20). Therefor if Christians have such a high placement in making judgments, isn’t it an insult for them to seek help from secular courts? Aren’t they insulting themselves?

Revelation 20:4 – I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They 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 a thousand years.

When Jesus returns the second time, dead saints will resurrect and the saints still alive will be combined together with them and they will be taken to heaven for a thousand years also called a millennium. Saints is a general reference to every believer dead or alive. You don’t have to be dead and special to be a saint. If you are a believer right now, you are a saint. Therefore, for a thousand years saints will be in heaven. At the same time dead sinners will not resurrect when dead saints resurrect. Living sinners will suddenly die upon seeing Jesus return a second time. Therefore, during the a thousand years, saints are all alive in heaven and all sinners are dead on earth. Satan will therefore be alone on earth, without anyone to deceive, he will be in a circumstantial prison for those a thousand years. Circumstantial because he has no one to deceive.

Saints who are alive in heaven will be given an opportunity to judge the world. For one thousand years saints will be judging the work of angels and of the world. The saints in heaven will be asking why some people made it to heaven and they will get answers. The saints in heaven will be asking why some people didn’t make it to heaven and they will get answers. They will ask about experiences they went through on earth and they will get answers. By asking all such questions they will be judging the results of heavenly decisions. They will be judging what angels had collected on earth as evidence used to make decisions against people. They will be judging the world.

Apostle Paul asks therefore, if saints will judge the world, can’t they judge the small disputes among them? If saints will judge the world and even angels, how do they end up going for help to secular courts that they will judge. Aren’t all saints superior to all secular courts by virtue of their role in future of judging the world? Isn’t it embarrassing and an insult for believers who have disputes among themselves to rush to secular courts?

Apostle Paul asks, isn’t there one wise person in the whole church who can help resolve the dispute? If you can’t resolve disputes among yourselves, doesn’t that mean you will not be in heaven to judge the world? By being unable to resolve disputes among yourselves, you have condemned yourselves out of heaven into eternal hell.

Unresolved disputes means you don’t have the forgiving spirit of Christ. Unresolved disputes means pride and arrogance against each other. Unresolved disputes means you refuse and reject the word of God which commands us to forgive one another. Unresolved disputes condemns the whole church from top to bottom.

Saints can go to secular court if the opponent is not a believer. A non-believer will not listen to church reasoning. A non-believer will not accept the spirit of Christ to consider others better and the command to forgive. Therefore, it is possible to end up in secular court with an unbeliever.

If two believers end up in secular courts, it means one of them is an unbeliever pretending to be a believer or both are hypocrites and are actually unbelievers. Ending up in secular court says a lot about the people in court before even considering the facts of the case.

The law of the land requires that all criminal cases must be handled by the state in secular courts. It is illegal and totally wrong for the church to handle criminal cases. Therefore, in case of criminal cases, saints can end up in court. In criminal cases the accuser is always the state. Therefore it’s not wrong in criminal cases for a believer to be in secular court. A believer can choose in criminal proceedings to forgive the offender and let the secular court decide as it wishes to decide.

The second argument by Apostle Paul is that there shouldn’t be disputes among believers in the first place. 1 Corinthians 6:7 suggests that it’s better to be wronged than have a dispute in secular court. If we believe that God will revenge, we will leave matters that we can’t handle with Him and not seek revenge in secular courts. You should rather be wronged and disadvantaged than rush to secular courts.

Court cases amongst believers published in media and discussed by the public, works against evangelism. Those involved in the case don’t care about evangelism. Those publishing it in media don’t care about evangelism. Those discussing in the media are doing more harm to evangelism. They make look honest and truthful but they are clout chasing and don’t care about evangelism. There shouldn’t be unsettled disputes among believers that ends up in secular courts and then media.

Unsettled disputes among believers condemns those believers to be unbelievers. May God grant us the wisdom to handle disputes. May God grant us wisdom to forgive and let Him revenge on our behalf. May God grant us ability to say, I would rather be wronged than rush to secular court. In Jesus’s name, Amen!

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