DARE YOU SUE YOUR BROTHER?
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on November 11, 2018 under 2018 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday message; November 11, 2018 from 1 Corinthians 6:1-8
Theme: It is far better to suffer wrong, just as Jesus did for us, than to sue our fellow Christian.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
Why do people like to watch them? I really don’t think that it’s because you can learn much that’s reliable about the law from them. And certainly, you can’t learn much from them on how to get along with others and resolve differences—except through negative examples. Rather—and I hate to say it—I think people watch them for reasons that are, in the end, bad. They enjoy watching other people fight and argue and be rude to each other. They enjoy seeing people expose their ‘dirty-laundry’. Watching such shows almost gives the view ‘permission’ to be ‘judgmental.’
A steady diet of such shows is, I believe, ultimately unhealthy for the soul. If anything, I think such a diet would tend to make someone more quick to anger, and more ready to seek revenge when wronged. It’s probably not mere coincidence that many of those daytime court shows are aired on television along with lots of advertisements from various law firms.
But just thinking about the existence of such popular television shows has helped me to appreciate the seriousness of the passage before us from 1 Corinthians 6.
The apostle Paul, you’ll remember, had been writing to his brothers and sisters in the ancient Corinthian church about many problems that they were having. He had just gotten through telling them that they were not to judge the sin of the unbelieving people of this world; but that they were, instead, to be careful to judge the sins that were committed within the church. Perhaps the theme of ‘judgment’ is why the Holy Spirit led Paul to bring up another issue in verses 1-8 that needed to be addressed. Paul jumped right into it when he wrote;
Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers! Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren! (1 Corinthians 6:1-8).
The Corinthian Christians lived in a culture that would have relished those live courtroom shows. Historians tell us that, because the surrounding Greek culture overly-valued argument and debate and displays of human wisdom, the people of Corinth were very prone to take one another to court. The Corinthian Christians were, themselves, falling easy prey to the patterns of the surrounding culture; and one more area in which they were doing so was through the courts. We—living in the self-focused age in which we’re living, and with the cultural pressures we constantly feel around us to fight for what we perceive to be our personal rights—are under the same kind of temptations as they were under.
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Now; it would be very important to stress that there’s nothing inherently un-Christian—in and of itself—with going to court or for making appeals to the law for our personal protection. God, in His mercy, is the one who has established human government; along with human courts and human judges. And it is not wrong to make use of them when they are needed. Even the apostle Paul—when it came to his freedom to preach the gospel, or when his life and personal safety were in danger—appealed to the provisions and protection of government and of courts of law. Whenever we are the victims of an injustice or an attack, we should be glad that the courts exist and are there for our help. We should not be afraid to seek the protection of them when we need to.
It’s important to stress this; because I wouldn’t want to be misunderstood as suggesting that real acts of wrongdoing—including within the church—should ever be covered-up or ignored; or that the justice system should not be appealed to in such cases; or that this passage should ever be used in any way to avoid true criminal prosecution. Real acts of evil and wrongdoing and injustice need to be dealt with. But those serious types of crime and acts of injustice are not, it seems to me, what Paul is talking about.
But what it seems to me that Paul is talking about is more along the lines of the ungodly sort of ‘revenge-taking’ or ‘get-even-ism’ or the ‘nobody-gets-the-better-of-me’ kind of attitude that characterizes the people of this world who appear on those small-claims court shows. If you look closely at this passage, you can see the nature of what was going on in the Corinthian church. Paul spoke of the things that they were suing one another over as ‘small matters’ and of ‘things that pertain to this life’—things that, he argued, would be better to let go and to accept and to suffer loss over.
And even then, it doesn’t seem to me that Paul’s greatest concern was the fact that they were suing one another over these petty things. What it seems bothered him the most was the fact that this was being done by professing Christians against professing Christians in the sight of unbelievers. In other words, the witness of the church was being harmed by it all in the sight of the watching world. It was as much as if these professing Christians were saying to the unbelieving world, “We are really—in the end—no different from you. We are just as quarrelsome, and just as contentious, and just as overly-concerned with our own desires, just as demanding, just as self-seeking as those who have no relationship with Jesus at all. Trusting Jesus hasn’t really changed our hearts one bit.”
Clearly, this was a problem that needed to be dealt with. It’s one that needs to be dealt with in our own day as well. It’s not just the idea of Christians suing one another that’s the problem (because that may not happen today as much as it did back in Corinth); but rather the that we as Christians today may harbor the same kinds of attitudes that led to the ancient Corinthians suing one another. And I believe that the way Paul dealt with it is by doing what he so often does with all the problems in the Corinthian church, and that is by pointing these believers back to Jesus Christ. Paul steered his Corinthian brethren toward the idea of accepting wrongdoing, and putting up with suffering loss from one another, because that’s the example that Jesus left for us to follow.
The apostle Peter once wrote something that—it seems to me—is very much along the same lines as what Paul was seeking to do for the Corinthians. In 1 Peter 2, Peter wrote;
For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:
“Who committed no sin,
Nor was deceit found in His mouth”;
who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls (1 Peter 2:20-25).
That’s the key!—to not try to demand our ‘rights’, but rather to commit ourselves to Him who judges righteously. As much as we can, we’re to do that in the sight of this world; and we’re most definitely to do that toward one another in the household of faith. Paul’s point in this morning’s passage from 1 Corinthians draws ultimately from the example of Jesus to us. The apostle is telling showing us that, when we look carefully at Jesus as our Savior and as our great Example, we learn that it is far better to suffer wrong, just as Jesus did for us, than to sue our fellow Christian.
What a remarkable, counter-cultural message that is! And when we faithfully receive it and act on it, we show the world who it is that we ultimately trust.
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Let’s look closely at this morning’s passage; and as we do, let’s see how Paul urges his fellow believers to set aside ‘suing’ one another before the courts of this world. In verses 1-3, we discover that when it comes to suing one another in the courts of this world …
1. IT’S NOT APPROPRIATE TO WHO WE ARE.
Paul put it in a very bold manner when, in verse 1, he wrote, “Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?” He uses a word that suggests that they were presuming to do something that was not their right to do—to dare take one another before the courts of the unbelieving world; and more, to not be bringing these matters before ‘the saints’ instead.
I hope you know what Paul means by ‘the saints’. He doesn’t mean that we somehow pray or appeal to ‘the saints’ in heaven—as some very misguided and terribly erroneous traditions of Christendom would have it. But neither does it mean that we seek-out ‘super-Christians’ within our midst—real ‘super-saints’—and make our appeal to them. Rather, Paul simply means that we are to bring our disagreements to the called-out assembly of believers—that is, to seek out wise believers from the local church family to which we are a member. Paul is urging us to make use of the family of God when we have disagreements and disputes with one another. Why should we go before unbelieving courts when we have each other?—indwelt by the Holy Spirit?—informed by the word of God?—enabled by God’s grace through Jesus?
Paul went on to strengthen his argument by making a couple of remarkable theological affirmations. In verse 2, for example, he asked the Corinthian believers, “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?” He asked it as if it was something that the believers in Corinth should have already known.
Is that true? Are we, as believers—the ‘saints’ who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus—truly destined to ‘judge the world’? Yes! The Lord Jesus told His apostles in Matthew 19:28-29;
“Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:28-29).
We’re told in Revelation 19 and 20 that when our Lord returns to this earth, we will be in that army that follows behind Him—robed in fine linen and riding on white horses—to reign with Him for a thousand years. That is our sure and certain destiny in Christ. “And if the world will be judged by you,” Paul asks, “are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?” If we’re destined to judge the world with our Lord, then surely we can—with His help—figure out how to handle the little petty differences that may, from time to time, come up between us!
Paul then goes on to give another remarkable theological affirmation in verse 3. He said, “Do you not know that we shall judge angels?”—again having asked it as if it was something that they should already have known.
And is that also true? Will we—who have been washed in the blood of Jesus and made righteous in God’s sight by faith in Him—really not only judge the world, but also the angels? And again, yes! We are destined to exceed the angels in power and authority at the time of our glorification in Christ. In Romans 16, the apostle Paul wrote to the believers there to deal with ungodly divisions in their midst; saying,
Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil (Romans 16:17-19).
And as if to assure them of their authority in this, Paul added, in verse 20;
And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly (v. 20).
Think of that! God will one day soon defeat Satan and crush him under our feet—and along with him, all of the devil’s evil and rebellious angels! (I believe that’s one reason why he hates us so much!) If this is so, then this means that we—as His redeemed people—are destined to have and exercise the greatest authority of judgment that any of God’s created beings could ever possess in all of His universe! And if we are destined to judge the mighty angelic beings who rebelled against God, then—as Paul asks—“How much more, things that pertain to this life?”
Dear brothers and sisters; for us to have to appeal to the courts of unrighteous people against one another for the petty things of this earth is utterly inappropriate to who we really are in Christ! It is truly beneath us! We are destined to be the greatest judges of all God’s created realm! How dare we ever try to go before the courts of the fallen and unbelieving to settle our differences! Who do we think we are—or perhaps I should say, who do we think we’re not—to go to the courts of this fallen and doomed world to settle the small differences between the precious people of God? It would be as much as if to say that none of those theological affirmations about us in God’s word are true!
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Now; we should also be willing to set aside going before unbelieving courts against one another; because …
2. IT’S OUT OF KEEPING WITH GOD’S PROVISION FOR US.
Paul went on in verse 4 to write; “If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge?” And there are some differences of opinion about what Paul means here. Some translations have taken this to be a command. The New International Version, for example, translates it this way; “Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church!”—as if to say that even the least person in the church would be more qualified to judge the matter than the courts of those outside the church. But I don’t believe that this would be the right way to express Paul’s intention. I believe that he is saying that, when we go outside the church to settle our differences, we’re going to those who are ‘least esteemed’—that is, before those who do not believe in our Savior, and who do not listen to the commands of the Scriptures, and who have no fear of God in their hearts. Would it really make sense to go to such people when we have sufficient resources of wisdom within the family of God?
In Romans 15:14, the apostle Paul said something wonderful to the believers in Rome. He said;
Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another (Romans 15:14).
That’s quite an endorsement; isn’t it? And if the great apostle Paul felt confident enough about the household of faith to say such a thing, then we should be confident in the household of faith too. If the church family is filled with people who are redeemed, and who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and are well-taught in God’s word, and who are walking in holiness, and who are able to pray and ask God for wisdom, then God has given us more than sufficient provision to settle our earthly differences right here at home. In fact, He has given us ‘better’ wisdom than we could ever get outside the church.
But the Corinthian believers weren’t turning to the provision God had made for them in the church. Instead, they acted as if the household of faith was insufficient to settle their disputes; and so they turned to the unbelieving courts of this world. In verse 5, Paul strongly rebuked this. He told them, “I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren?” I don’t believe this was because they couldn’t find one wise brother in their midst. Rather, it as because they didn’t have the humbleness of mind to look for him.
Dear brothers and sisters; we have all the provision we will ever need within our own church family to settle any differences we may have about earthly matters. Let’s not look to the world to resolve differences among us that we can resolve ourselves—with God’s gracious help.
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We should also not take one another before unbelieving courts because …
3. IT’S NOT GOOD FOR OUR WITNESS TO THE WORLD.
To put it another way, when we resort to the world’s courts to settle our problems, it presents a very bad testimony of our faith in Jesus before unbelievers. I believe this is the thing that broke Paul’s heart the most. In verse 6, Paul wrote, “But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers!” A believing brother in Christ going to court in hostile contention against another believing brother in Christ—and that before a judge who do not believe in Christ at all—and all because of some petty matter over the temporal stuff of this world! What a disgraceful thing! What a shameful testimony!
Jesus made it clear that our witness to the world is inherently connected to our love for one another. In John 13:34-35, He said;
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).
But the people of this world cannot make us out to be His disciples if we are suing one another and fighting for our rights against one another. The world can’t see the love through the lawsuits. As Paul said in Galatians 5;
For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! (Galatians 5:13-15).
May it be that, instead of seeing us biting and devouring one another, they see us surrendering our rights to the preference of one another. May it be that they truly see self-sacrificing love between us—and thus truly see that we belong to our Savior.
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And that leads us to one more reason why we should be willing to set aside ever going before unbelieving courts against one another …
4. IT’S NOT HOW OUR LORD TAUGHT US TO BEHAVE.
Paul says something truly remarkable in verses 7—something that, if we were simply following the patterns of this world, we never would have thought of. He said; “Now, therefore, it is already an utter failure for you”—that is to say, it is already a terrible shortcoming in your Christian life—“that you go to law against one another.” It’s as if he was saying, “You’ve already missed the big picture if you do that. You’ve already fallen short of the example you are to follow—just by the fact that you are demanding that your personal rights be satisfied.” “Why do you not rather, “ he asks, “accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated?”
Now, from the standpoint of this world, that sounds completely outlandish; doesn’t it? Just let myself be cheated? Just let myself be wronged? But wait. Isn’t that what our Lord taught us to do? In the Sermon on The Mount, didn’t He say these words?
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:38-45).
Didn’t Jesus teach us to be willing to accept wrong? Didn’t He call His followers to let themselves be cheated?
But that’s not what the believers in Corinth were doing. “No,” Paul goes on to say in verse 8, “you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren!” How unlike our Savior’s instruction!
In fact, how unlike the example of our Savior Himself!—
who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:6-8).
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Jesus said that a tree is known by its fruit. A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. You only know the tree by its fruit. And so, when a tree gets shaken, you can see what kind of tree it is by what kind of fruit falls to the ground.
We will all have occasions when we’re ‘shaken’ in one way or another—and often by each other—and almost always as just an accidental matter of life. And when that happens, what kind of fruit is it that falls off of us? If someone shakes us, do we get angry? Do we try to get revenge? Do we say, “Nobody shakes me around and gets away with it!” Do we try to get our personal rights to the harm of the person who shook us? If that’s the kind of fruit that falls off when we get shaken, then it reveals what kind of tree we are. But what if, when someone shakes us, we forgive them? What if we overlook the offense? What if we are willing to bear the cost? What if we are willing to be wronged without complaint? What kind of tree does our ‘being shaken’ show us to be?1
The reason people often drag other people to court is because they got ‘shaken’ in some way. May it be that when we, at times, become shaken by each other, the right fruit falls off—that we not only not sue each other, but that we don’t even demand our rights from each other, or ever try to get even with each other, or avenge ourselves against each other at all. When we are shaken, may it be that the fruit of Jesus is what falls off.
In fact, when we look at what Jesus has done for us, how dare we do otherwise?
1This is adapted from an idea suggested in Brant Hansen, Blessed are The Misfits (Nashville: W Publications, 2017), pp. 51-4.
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