WWUTT 1498 Why Not Rather Be Defrauded? (1 Corinthians 6:6-8)

Why It Is Better to Be Defrauded Than to Sue a Brother

It would be better for you to be defrauded than to take a brother or sister to court and sue them. May our witness and our testimony before unbelievers be of the grace of God when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study in 1 Corinthians 6, finishing up this section that we've been talking about this week about brother going to court against brother. I'm gonna be in 1 Corinthians 6, starting in verses one through eight in the Legacy Standard Bible.

The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. Does any one of you, when he has a case against another, dare to be tried before the unrighteous and not before the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?

If the world is judged by you, are you not worthy to constitute the smallest courts? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint those who are of no account in the church as judges?

I say this to your shame. Is it really this way? There is not one wise man among you who will be able to pass judgment between his brothers? On the contrary, brother is tried with brother and that before unbelievers.

Actually, then it is already a failure for you that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your brothers.

The Christian Witness Before Unbelievers

So we're picking up in verse six today where Paul says, on the contrary, brother is tried with brother and that before unbelievers. I talked about this a little bit yesterday regarding the testimony that we put before unbelievers.

When we're suing each other over small things, we cannot even communicate well. We can't be forgiving of one another. We show no grace or mercy to each other. Rather, we drag one another into court. And when the unbelieving world sees us treating one another that way, what a poor witness that is.

As we talk about the gospel, we use words, a certain kind of language that's common to the justice system. You know what I mean by that? So Romans 5, one, for example, therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

What does it mean to be justified? It means that we are declared innocent before God. Our previous faults have been paid for by Christ who died on the cross for our sins. So we have in Colossians 2 .14, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

So those debts that we owed were paid for by Christ with his death on the cross for our sins. You think about Jesus' last words on the cross when he died. He said, it is finished, right? Have you heard what the Greek word is that it is finished is translated from?

It's tetelestai, which also means paid in full. So the debt that we had incurred because of our sin, the debt that we owed God was paid for by Christ. And when that payment was completed, he declared it.

It is finished, tetelestai, paid in full. That same Greek word would be stamped on somebody's record of debt when that debt was paid off. The word redemption, when we talk about being redeemed, that has a legalese context to it.

Titus 2 .14, Jesus Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. This has the inference of having been purchased by the blood of Christ.

And in fact, Paul is gonna say that as we continue on here in 1 Corinthians 6, right at the very end of the chapter, verse 20, you were bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. So we owed a debt so great that we could not pay it, but Jesus Christ paid that debt for us.

And now before God, we are redeemed, we are bought, we are forgiven, we are justified, declared innocent by the grace and mercy of God. Consider the parable of the unforgiving servant that we read about in Matthew 18.

So Peter says to Jesus, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him, up to seven times? Even Peter's question here has a certain context of justice to it. Like when do I do justice against my brother?

Or am I just supposed to forgive him every time that he does me wrong? And Jesus says in verse 22, I do not say to you up to seven times, but to 70 times seven. And then he gives this parable. For this reason, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.

When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him 10 ,000 talents was brought to him. Now, 10 ,000 talents, that was an astronomical amount of money. I don't remember exactly what the comparison is. It's something like $50 million or something.

So this guy owes the master just an incredible amount of money. There's no way that he's possibly gonna be able to pay that off. And Jesus is meaning, he's intentionally drawing that just massive number.

And as he's giving this parable, surely the disciples are there going, whoa, 10 ,000 talents. How in the world did he even amass that kind of a debt? But this is comparable to the debt that we owe God.

It's so great, we can't pay it. And that's what's being illustrated here in this particular parable. So he owes 10 ,000 talents. He's brought before the king. And since he did not have the means to repay his debt, his Lord commanded him to be sold along with his wife and children and all that he had and repayment be made.

Verse 26, therefore, the slave fell to the ground and was prostrating himself before him saying, have patience with me. I will repay you everything. And feeling compassion, the Lord of that slave released him and forgave the debt.

He didn't just give him more time. He wiped it out. 10 ,000 talents, $50 million, right? That he couldn't even repay. And yet the king wiped it out. Wiped out the debt of this slave. Not just giving him more time, but saying you're innocent.

Tetelestai, paid in full. Verse 28, but that slave went out and he found one of his fellow slaves who owed him 100 denarii, which was like nothing, especially compared to 10 ,000 talents. And he seized him and began to choke him saying, pay back what you owe.

So his fellow slave fell to the ground and was pleading with him saying, have patience with me and I will repay you. Is that not what this slave had said to the king when he was brought before the king?

Same thing, begged him and said, give me more time, I'll repay you. Verse 30, but he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed, which wasn't even that much.

So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their Lord all that had happened. Then summoning him, the king said to him, you wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.

Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave in the same way that I had mercy on you? And his Lord moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him, which means basically he was gonna be tortured forever.

My heavenly father will also do the same to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from your hearts. So down to your very heart, you have to forgive your brother. You cannot owe, or you cannot owe, you cannot hold these debts against him.

Jesus said in Matthew chapter six, if you forgive others their sins, your heavenly father will forgive you of your sins. But if you don't forgive others their sins, neither will your heavenly father forgive you your sins.

It shows when you're not forgiving, it shows that you have not been forgiven. You don't have forgiveness that you can show it to other people. And so therefore showing that you have not actually been released of the record of debt that you owe because of your sins, it's still held against you and you will pay it on the day of judgment, paying it for all eternity.

Just as was illustrated in Jesus' parable, those who are not forgiven, do not forgive. Those who do not forgive will not be forgiven and will be cast into eternal punishment forever. Colossians chapter three, we are told, so as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

We talked about the fruit of the spirit yesterday. If we have the Holy Spirit of God, we must show these things, these qualities and grow in them. I'm reading by the way from Colossians 3, 12. So going on to verse 13, bearing with one another and graciously forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord graciously forgave you, so also should you.

If we know that God has forgiven us by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins and was raised for our justification, as it says in Romans 4, 25, then we must also show this love with one another.

Going on to verse 14, above all these put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. This is what the unbelieving world should see from us. Not that we hold grudges against one another, even to the extent that we're dragging one another into court.

Consider once again, Colossians 1 Corinthians 6, 6. On the contrary, brother is tried with brother and that before unbelievers. I'm gonna place this upon you as well. There are even gonna be certain instances where you shouldn't be suing unbelievers because that could be a ruining testimony.

You claim to be a Christian, you claim to be forgiven by God, but yet you're not showing forgiveness to anyone else. You're dragging people into court, even over simple and small things. So it would be a good testimony that if somebody owes you something to forgive them of that debt and then say to them, now let me explain to you why I forgave you because I owed a debt greater than what you owed me and God forgave me.

So just as God forgave me, I forgive you and share the gospel with them. A number of years ago, there was this man who was attending my church and he was telling his Sunday school class, it was actually the teacher of the class that shared this story with me.

But anyway, he was telling the Sunday school class at the beginning of class, how he had this neighbor and he was just constantly at odds with. And lately, the most recent thing his neighbor had done is that he built a fence that was too high.

And this guy who attended my church, he went and looked up the city ordinance and found out that you can't build a fence beyond a certain height. And this guy had built this fence too high, too high according to the city ordinance.

So he was taking him to court. He was gonna sue his neighbor and take him to court over his fence being too tall. Well, then later in the same class period, he started talking about how he was sharing the gospel with his neighbor, but his neighbor was just resistant to it.

Did not wanna hear anything about the gospel. Tried inviting him to church, he didn't wanna come to church. And he said, just kind of adds to the feud that I have with this neighbor. And the Sunday school teacher, his name was Joe, a friend of mine, he confronted this man after class.

And he said, this is the same man, right? The same man that you're suing because his fence is too high is also the man you're trying to share the gospel with and won't listen to you share the gospel. And the guy said, yeah, that's right.

And Joe told me I had to try to keep from laughing and just tell him, brother, we gotta sit down and talk with you about your tactics here because this is not how you win somebody to Christ. You can't be suing him over his fence being too high and then also be trying to tell him about the grace of God.

You've got some cognitive dissonance going on there. And it's of little wonder why this guy's having a hard time trying to understand a message of grace and forgiveness when you're not being gracious or forgiving toward him.

So there's even to be some instances, friends, in which we're gonna have to let those things slide and not even be suing unbelievers lest it harm our testimony of sharing the gospel with them. And so Paul says, if you're taking one another to court, this is already a failure for you.

Why Christians Should Rather Be Wronged Than Defraud One Another

Verse seven, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? Yes, Paul says, it's better for you to take the loss than to take your brother to court. Hey, it stinks, but it's better to just go ahead and be defrauded than to be suing one another in courts that are ruled by unbelievers and then doing this ungracious thing to your brother in view of the world.

This was a story I shared in a sermon a couple of years ago. I manuscripted this sermon, so I'm going to go ahead and read what I had preached in the sermon. I know of a man, a Christian author, who was betrayed by some very close friends, a couple who had fallen into very serious sin.

And that sin led to financial difficulty for this couple. But rather than repent of their sin and ask their church for help, they came to this author and demanded that he pay up on a sizable debt they believed that he owed to them.

They showed him the paperwork, a financial oversight that was several years old. He asked for some time to investigate the matter and they gave him one week. He did his due diligence and took up the discrepancy with his bank.

It just so happened that the couple banked at the same place. So a bank clerk was able to look in both accounts and she assured the author that he did not owe the money this couple insisted that he owed.

It cleared when he paid it the first time. He went home and prayed about the matter with his wife. And he was reminded that Jesus said, let every charge be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses, Matthew 18, 16.

A couple of days later, he returned to the bank and spoke with a different financial examiner. The clerk reviewed the matter with fresh eyes and got the same result. She also assured the author he did not owe this couple the money.

If they had any further questions, they could come into the bank. And the author shared that with the couple. He even offered to go to the bank with them, but they remained indignant. They demanded he pay up.

But in frustration, the author replied that he investigated the matter thoroughly and he was not going to pay what they were demanding he pay. Later that evening, his conscience began to weigh on him.

He was reading his Bible and he was reminded of another word from Jesus. This one from Matthew 5, 40 to 41. If anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.

In 1 Corinthians 6, 1 through 8, the apostle Paul rebuked the Corinthian Christians for taking one another to court. He said to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong?

Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud even your own brothers. Would this couple try to sue the author? He didn't know. Already he had been astonished how quickly they'd been turned by their sin.

But he wondered if going ahead and paying them the money would diffuse any further escalation. It was a lot of money, but was it worth the legal battle that might happen if he did not pay? Would they be dragging mutual friends into this, forcing them to have to choose sides?

And as an author, someone with a platform, what was the possibility that this would become a bigger deal over in the scheme of things would just be a few dollars. The gospel would be mocked by unbelievers, observing the behavior of these Christians.

It didn't matter to them who was right and who was wrong. So the author and his wife made a decision. They were going to pay the money. The author contacted the couple and personally apologized for the delay.

He expressed his embarrassment for the mistake. He wrote the check himself and his wife delivered it by hand. When he was asked later by a friend why he did it, even after the two witnesses at the bank told him that he did not owe the money.

He replied, I'd never been faced with such a situation before, but here I had a real opportunity to live out the words of Jesus. If anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. So I paid the money to the glory of God. My only regret is that I did not pay them sooner and I did not pay them more. Yesterday, when I came to the conclusion of the lesson and I prayed, I said in my prayer that no one has done anything against you equal to or greater than what you have committed against God.

And yet God has forgiven you and cleansed you from all unrighteousness and is sanctifying you, shaping you into the image of his son and has made you a fellow heir of his eternal kingdom. My brothers and sisters in the Lord, do you understand what you deserve for your sin?

And do you understand what you've been given instead? You have betrayed God and you have gone after your sin and it's sin that begat sin that begat more sin. What you deserve for this treason against God is death and more than death, but eternal punishment at the hand of God who is eternally just.

But what you receive by faith in Jesus Christ is life. And more than life, you get eternal life. And more than eternal life, but life with him as a fellow heir of the kingdom of Christ. Romans 6 .23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

We know God is merciful when we know God is just. If you do not know the God of justice, then you do not know the God of mercy. Isaiah 30 verse 18 says, therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you.

And therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you for the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him. And as God has shown you mercy, my friend, so you must show this grace and this mercy to one another.

Let it begin in the household of God and then also show mercy and grace to the unbeliever. Heavenly father, forgive us our sin and give us a heart that desires righteousness, the justice and mercy and grace of God that we have been shown through our Lord Jesus Christ.

May we show that grace to one another so that they may see our good deeds and give glory to our father who is in heaven. It's in Jesus name that we pray, amen.

Closing Announcements and Ministry Schedule

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.