CHAPTER VI
LITIGATION
AMONG BRETHREN
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Summary—Going to Law Before Heathen. The Saints as Judges.
Suffer Wrong Rather than Do Wrong. The Impure Cannot Be God’s Children. What is
Lawful not Always Expedient. The Christian’s Body a Temple.
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1–4. Dare any of you … go to law before the unjust? The third indictment against the Corinthian church is now
presented. Some had sought judgments against their brethren in heathen courts.
This Paul indignantly rebukes. The Jews themselves made it a rule never to
carry cases before heathen tribunals. Much worse was it in Christians. 2.
Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world? Shall sit sit with
Christ, after they have been judged, while the world is judged (Matt. 25:41;
Matt 19:29). If so high a trust is to be given, it is a little thing that
saints should judge differences between church members. These ought all to be
submitted to arbitrators, or to the officers. 3. Know ye not that we shall
judge angels? Evidently the bad angels, who shall be judged when the world
is judged. 4. If then ye have judgments, etc. If the saints shall have
the high prerogative of judging the world and bad angels with Christ, then it
is a condescension to judge of trivial earthly matters. Set them to judge
who are least esteemed. An ironical way of hinting that their differences
were so petty as to be worthy only of the poorest witted.
5–8. I speak to your shame. The last sentence was spoken to shame them, not as a
serious rule. He now speaks seriously. Is there not a wise man among you?
A man of prudent judgment, capable of settling differences among them. 6.
That before unbelievers. It was lamentable that brethren should go to law.
How much more of a scandal when they carried their cases into the heathen
courts. 7. There is utterly a fault among you. It was a fault (loss or
defeat in the Greek) to go to law at all. It was better rather to take wrong
… to be defrauded, than to work so great an injury to the church by the
ill-feeling aroused, and by the scandal in the eyes of the heathen. The rule
is, then, (1) To suffer wrong rather than to go to law. (2) If an adjudication
is required, to refer to the case, not to unbelieving judges, but to a “wise
man” within the church. For other Scriptures bearing on the subject, see 1
Peter 2:23; Matt. 5:40; 1 Peter 2:19; Prov. 20:22.
9–11. Shall not inherit the kingdom of God. The glorious kingdom of which the church is the earthly
type. The church is God’s kingdom on earth, and its faithful members
“inherit” the heavenly kingdom (Matt. 25:34). Be not deceived. Let
no one make the mistake of thinking that any unrighteous man shall be an heir. Effeminate.
This and the next clause refer to a shameful crime quite prevalent among the
heathen, the first submitting themselves to the foul sensuality, and the second
actively “abusing themselves with men,” contrary to nature. Both are
Sodomites. None guilty of any one of the list of vices given can be an heir of
heaven. 11. And such were some of you. Some of the worst classes had
been converted. Ye are washed. The rite of baptism is probably referred
to. Ye are sanctified. Were sanctified. These verbs are all past tense.
See the Revision. To be sanctified is to be set apart to God. Ye were
justified. That is, their sins were blotted out and they were counted
righteous. Sinners as they were before, the gospel had washed, hallowed, and
justified them. By the Spirit. The work was consummated by the gift of
the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).
12–17. All things are lawful for me, … but not expedient. Paul had taught that a Christian could use liberty in
regard to things indifferent. Some seem to have held that this justified
indulgence, as was taught by the Epicureans. Paul says in substance, “Be it
so; but all things are not expedient,” for the Christian, Christ’s freeman,
must not be brought under the power of any appetite. Whoever is thus
subjected is not a freeman, but a servant, the servant of sin. Though all
things are in our power, we must not be brought under their
power. 13. Meats for the belly, etc. Self-indulgence was also excused,
because food and the stomach were made for each other. But these are both
perishable. Moreover, if “the belly was made for meats,” the body is not
for fornication. It was not made for this, but for a nobler purpose—for the
Lord. Hence, sensuality cannot be thus justified. 14. And God … will also
raise us up. As the Lord was raised, so shall we be. Hence, we are for a
nobler purpose than engaging in sensuality. 15. Know ye not that your bodies
are members of Christ? This is a doctrine emphasized by Paul. Our bodies
are a part of Christ’s mystical body, the Lord’s holy temple, designed for the
indwelling of the Spirit. How sacrilegious to take a member of Christ’s body
and degrade it to fornication, or to any act of licentiousness! It is a duty
which a Christian owes to Christ to keep his body pure. As the arm or finger
has the life of the body until cut off, so we have the life of Christ until we
sever ourselves from him by sinful acts. 17. He that is joined to the Lord,
etc. There is one life and one spirit until severed from Christ.
18–20. Flee fornication.
The sin must be fled. The way to avoid it is to avoid temptation. We
must conquer by running away. Thus it was that Joseph prevailed. Every sin …
is without the body. The temptations come from without and assail the man
through the senses. This is the rule in the case of sin. It is not said of
fornication that it is not stimulated without, or that it, alone of sins,
assails the body, but that it is peculiarly a sin against the body. It defiles
a body which is designed to be a member of Christ, and a temple of the Holy
Spirit; separates it from the union with Christ, and unites it with a harlot.
The grievousness of the sin is in the desecration to such an unholy purpose of
a body which has become a member of Christ, a part of the temple of God. 19.
What? know ye not that your body, etc. This makes clear how terrible is the
sin of defiling the body by licentiousness. It is desecrating God’s temple. As
the Shekinah dwelt in the temple of Israel, so the Holy Spirit in Christ’s
temple, which we are. Ye are not your own. But members of Christ, and
hence have not the right to use our bodies to our own pleasure. 20. Ye are
bought with a price. Christ paid the price, even his blood. Hence, since
both body and spirit are God’s, both should be used to glorify him. The fact
that we are his, purchased, parts of his spiritual temple, makes the obligation
imperative to consecrate the body and spirit to his service.
Excerpt from:
The People's New Testament
by Barton
Warren Johnson
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