Sunday School: Judgments Before Unbelievers (1 Corinthians 6:1-8)

Lawsuits Among Believers and Judgment Within the Church

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a New Testament book. On Thursday is a study in the Old Testament and then we answer questions from the listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series. Here's Pastor Gabe.

Open your Bible please to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. We'll be looking at verses 1 through 11 today. I'm gonna read through all 11 verses. And then we will say another short prayer here and then get to our exposition today.

So this is the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 6, 1 through 11. When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?

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? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more than matters pertaining to this life?

So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? 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?

But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers. 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.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you. But you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, as we come to our text today, lead us and guide us in these things, convict our hearts that we would desire purity and holiness.

And as we think about what we read last week in chapter 5, the desire for purity in the church, that we would want this among our brothers and sisters. This is not just a self-check in terms of what we individually consider about ourselves, but it's a self-check also in the way that we consider this body that we are a part of, all of the church together.

The brothers and sisters whom we love, may we desire that they would walk in holiness also. As Jesus said in Matthew 7, we examine ourselves first, remove the log from your eye so that you will also be able to remove the splinter from your brother's eye.

We look at ourselves and examine our own walk of holiness, but then we are also called to look out for our brothers and sisters also. And in these things, we are convicted and we desire the honor of God in our midst.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen. So what are we talking about here in 1 Corinthians 6, verses 1 -11? What seemed to be the theme of this particular instruction? Lawsuits, right. Sounds like some of the members of the church in Corinth were suing one another.

They were taking one another to court. They were judging each other, or rather, they were letting the unrighteous, unbelievers be their judges. What did we just read about in chapter 5? What was that section about that we were looking at for the last couple of weeks?

Judgment, right? Judge yourselves. There should be judgment within the body. As Paul said at the end there, what do I have to do with judging outsiders? He asks in verse 12, is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

God judges those who are outside, purge the evil person from among you. So what is he telling them to do? He's telling them they need to judge, but judge in what context? Within the church, right? Judge amongst yourselves.

We can't issue those kinds of judgments to those who are outside the church, especially when it comes to that final instruction, purge the evil person from among you. Well, we can't do that with outsiders.

They're already outside the church. As Paul had said with the guy who was committing sexual immorality in this way, he said, turn that man over to Satan. He's not safe within the body. He doesn't feel like he is part of the body or with Christ.

And so there is a putting out of the evil person that he might be amongst those who are already cast out into Satan, right? So we can't cast them out further. They're already out there with Satan. If this man is not going to repent, then he needs to be among them so that he will recognize his sin and that sin causes separation from God.

Sin separates us from God. And so that he would grieve over that and repent of that. And God willing, by his grace, he would be restored back to the body and the grace of God would be demonstrated. So Paul in that previous chapter, instructing them to judge, well, what's happening here in this section?

We go right from chapter five into chapter six and notice we haven't had any kind of transitional word here, right? Like we only think that there's some sort of change that's happened because of the big number six that's right there in your Bible.

But there's no transition word. Remember the chapters and verses are not divinely inspired. The chapter and verse numbers, the markers, that was added a thousand years later. What we have here, if you were to just read the text without the chapter and verse markers, it's a continuous flow of thought.

God judges those who are outside, purge the evil person from among you. When one of you has a grievance against another, what should happen? When you have a grievance against another, what should happen?

The same instruction that Paul had given in chapter five, right? You should be going to one another. You should be confronting these things and handling these things as a body. But when one of you has a grievance against another, what's happening instead?

Lawsuits. Yeah, right. Let's go get somebody else. Let's go get a mediator outside of the Christian faith to be our judges for us. And so, yeah, what we're reading about here is definitely lawsuits. And as if you're reading from the English Standard Version, as I read from this morning, then you have that bold text right above there that says lawsuits against believers.

But keep this in context with chapter five. We're still talking about judgment. And Paul is continuing this rebuke against the Corinthians and the fact that they're judging wrongly. They're not handling the judgments amongst themselves as they should be handling.

And those things that they can handle among themselves, they're abdicating it and giving it to unbelievers to handle these things. So thematically, we're still talking about the same thing as we move from chapter five into chapter six.

Still the same rebuke, which is why after we get through this rebuke about lawsuits among the believers, that Paul goes right back to sexual immorality. That's what he was confronting in chapter five.

We have these lawsuits against believers in chapter six, verses one through eight. Paul talks about the context in which we live. We're not to be judged by those who are unbelievers. We consider that in verses nine through 11.

And then we come back to sexual immorality in verses 12 through 20. But consider this section today as we're just looking at verses one through 11. Paul talks about the reasons for not taking disputes before unbelieving judges.

That's in verses one through four. Then part two, the results of taking disputes before unbelieving judges. That's verses five through eight. And then part three, the reminders of the gospel that saves.

That's what we'll have in verses nine through 11. So let's come back to chapter six, verse one. Once again, Paul says, when one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare? Does he dare to go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?

So once again, there are things that are happening in your midst you should be able to take care of. The guy that was in sexual immorality, sleeping with his stepmother, you didn't handle that. When that is a sin, remember what Paul said about that in chapter five, verse one, that's a sin that's not even tolerated among pagans.

And yet, you all are tolerating it. You are letting it happen in your midst and not even doing anything about that guy. But then you have these little trivial things that should be handled among the brothers and sisters in the Lord.

And instead, you're going outside the church and you're having unbelievers take care of that. When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?

So what kind of lawsuits do you think we're talking about here in this section as Paul addresses this? As we were reading through that in our introductory reading, what kind of lawsuits do you think they might be having against one another?

Personal property? Yeah. Possessions? Money? The use of the world? Yeah, exactly right. There was a man in my church back in Kansas, and this was a number of years ago, and I think I actually had this story relayed to me from one of my Sunday school teachers.

I might not have been personally there, but I've now heard it enough times that I feel like I was. But anyway, the Sunday school teacher was a friend of mine, and he was teaching in this class. And he had a guy who was causing a lot of problems at the time.

He would eventually leave the church because he was just that divisive. Anyway, his name was Randall. And Randall was talking about how evangelistic he was, how he would go out in the parking lot at Walmart and would share the gospel with just about anybody and was, quite frankly, a little bit prideful about it whenever he would talk about those things.

Sometimes he would come into church, and he would have a Bible and have these markers in his Bible. He would go, you know what each one of these colors represents, little tabs that were sticking out of his Bible?

And I would say, I don't know, are you marking verses there? He goes, no, these are the people I've saved this week. And I would say, I would tell him this every time, Randall, you didn't save anybody.

Praise God for you sharing the gospel with somebody else, but you didn't save anyone. You shared the gospel with them. They were convicted of heart and came to Christ. And I was even kind of skeptical about that because I knew the methods that he practiced in terms of believing that he was leading others to Christ.

Anyway, coming back to this Sunday school class, this one Sunday school period, he was talking about how we needed to be more proactive in going out and sharing the gospel and was really kind of rebuking, and we're not doing that enough.

This class just doesn't do that enough. So the Sunday school teacher let him say his piece, but then, okay, we got to get back. Let's get back to the lesson here. And I don't remember what the Sunday school lesson was about, but sometime later on, Randall kind of spoke up and he goes, you know, I have this neighbor that I've been witnessing to, and he just, you know, he continues to not want to come to church.

I've been trying to share the gospel with him, but he won't come to church. But anyway, I just had this dispute with him earlier this week. He's building his fence too high, and he's building his fence higher than what the city regulations are.

I went out there and I measured it, and he's like two inches over. And so I told him that he needed to lower his fence because it was obstructing my view. It was outside of the regulations of the city, and he wouldn't do it.

And so I had to take him to court. So we had to go downtown. We had to settle this downtown. And in the middle of explaining this, my friend, the Sunday school teacher, just kind of was like flabbergasted.

He's like, hang on a second. You've been witnessing to this guy, and you've been trying to get him to come to church, but you're suing him over two inches of fence? And Randall said, well, I want him to be a law-abiding citizen.

You know, anyway, how much witness do you think he's going to be to that guy taking him to court over two inches of fence? Now, in this particular instance, you're not talking about a man who is a believer in the church.

This neighbor of his is not a Christian, so this wouldn't be a dispute that you would be able to handle among the brothers. But let's say that it was. I mean, that could have been the kind of frivolous lawsuit that Paul was talking about here, somebody suing someone else over the height of the fence.

Or even thinking about lawsuits like that and what kind of witness that is to other people who are not of us, who are not yet Christians, who are not yet believers. Do they see us as somebody who's going to be nitpicky and legalistic to that extent, or do they see us as somebody who's going to be gracious and forgiving, and is going to let things go and not try to obsess over every little thing?

The Apostle Paul is talking with the Corinthians here about what a defeat it is for them to be going to law against one another. It's already a defeat for you, he says, so it's not good for the body of Christ.

But it's also a poor witness to the people who are outside the body when they see these Christians suing one another over things that they should be able to take care of on their own. Furthermore, you look at the double poor witness that we've had here over two chapters.

We got one guy who's got a reputation for doing something that even the pagans think is ridiculous. They're like, look at those Christians. Apparently, they have a law that says that's bad. That's not even in our law, but we know it's bad, and yet here these Christians are, look at what they have going on in the middle of their church.

And then on top of that, some of those unbelievers are judges in the courts where these Christians are taking one another and suing each other. And probably down there at the local pub, I don't know what they had in Corinth, you know, people, wherever they went to congregate and drink and talk or whatever else.

But they go down there to the local place and there they are chatting with one another. Yeah, I had another group of those Christians come into court with me just earlier this week, suing one another over, hey, that tunic belongs to me, that pig was mine, whatever it was.

It's like Hatfields and McCoys going on here back in Corinth. Suing each other over pigs. When one of you has a grievance against another, you go to law before the unrighteous instead of handling these things before the saints.

Consider what Paul says in verse 2, 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? Turn with me over to Revelation 3.

Keep your marker there, but let's go to Revelation 3 here for a moment. Revelation 3 where Jesus addresses the church at Laodicea. This is in verses 14 to 22. I'm going to start in verse 19. Revelation 3, beginning in verse 19.

Jesus says, those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me.

The one who conquers, listen to this, verse 21. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me, where? On my throne. As I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

That's a really, really big throne. For Jesus has conquered and sat down with his father, and everyone who conquers and joins Christ in eternity will likewise sit with him and rule on his throne. What does that throne represent?

Judgment. The throne represents judgment. The one who sits there judges. Ruling with Christ on his throne means we get to be judges along with him. And we have in other places, Revelation chapter 20 even talks about the saints reigning together with Christ for a thousand years, where we read there about the millennium.

So consider again, let's go back to 1 Corinthians 6, do you not know that the saints will judge the world? Now we know that the power of judgment relies with the Son. Jesus said in the commission, in Matthew 28, verse 18, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

So the Father has given all authority to the Son. All judgment is given to the Son. In Matthew 25, in the Olivet Discourse, where Jesus is telling his disciples what that last judgment is going to look like, he says that the Son of Man is sitting on the great white throne of judgment, and then all of the nations are brought before him to be judged.

And then he's going to separate the nations out, right? Like a shepherd separates what from what? The sheep from the goats. The goats go on his left hand, the sheep go on his right. And it's to the sheep that they inherit the kingdom of God that has been prepared for them before the foundation of the world.

It's to the goats that they go into the place that's been prepared for the devil and his angels where there will be eternal punishment by fire. This is the judgment that is given to the Son, and he is the one who sits in judgment over all, even given the authority over all the nations, as talked about in Revelation 19 and in other places.

But consider that as that judgment is given to the Son, he also shares with us to judge with him. And when Christ sits on that throne, according to what we see there in Revelation 3, when Christ sits on that throne to judge, we will be seated with him in judgment over those who will be judged.

Do you not know that even the saints will judge the world? Now in the current context in which we live, when you think about the ramifications of that, that could be a very difficult thing for us to swallow, at least in our current context, because we have family members, friends or co-workers or acquaintances that we want to have follow Christ, but we know one day if they don't follow, we might be sitting in judgment over.

Or we may know somebody who has already passed on, and they did not receive Christ. And so there's that grief that we have there, not just of the loss of that person, but even the loss of the opportunity to follow the Lord, because they did not follow the Lord in life when they had that chance.

So we think about those things in eternity, and we think about, you know, as it says in Revelation 21, we'll be entering into a place where there will be no more tears, there's no more crying, no more sorrow, all the former things have passed away, Jesus will have wiped every tear from our eyes, and yet we're going to sit in judgment over those who are going to be judged, and we won't mourn over those who are going to be judged?

Those are difficult things for us to fathom, to conceptualize now, and it's not for us to understand the fullness of the scope of everything right now. But what we do hold fast to is the promise of knowing that our sins have been forgiven, and everlasting life has been given to us in the Son.

And we know that part of that eternity that we are guaranteed means that we are fellow heirs with Christ, Titus 2 .14, we will reign with Him, as we just read in Revelation 3 .21, and we become judges along with Christ as well.

And so what would be the practical application for that? If we know, according to the promises of the Word, that we're going to reign with Christ and even judge with Christ, what's the practical application?

Well, Paul gives it right here. Look at it again in verse 2. 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? These things that you should be able to handle amongst yourselves.

If you know that you're going to judge the world, again consider what's going on here in Corinth, why are you then going to the world and letting them be your judges? You're going to judge the world, but you're letting them judge you.

Let me give you an example of that, a more real-world example of that. You are opening your mail one day, and you get a letter from Iran. And some tribunal in Iran has been conceived, they've been assembled together, and they've made a judgment.

They've said, you've not worshipped Allah, and so now you are in judgment here in Iran because you've not worshipped Allah, you are to remove yourself from the United States and come over here for your sentencing date.

Would you do that? Would you let Iran be your judge in matters of the practice and the free exercise of your religion? I'm going to go over to Iran, I guess. They've summoned me, I guess I've got to go appear before their court.

No, you're not under their laws. Why would you let them sit in judgment over you? You're under the laws that protect you here as a citizen of the United States. And so consider that we are all citizens of the Kingdom of God.

So why would you let the judges of this fallen world preside as judges over you instead of trying these things amongst the saints? We can decide this amongst ourselves. We don't need to be going to law and having unbelievers try these cases, taking brothers and sisters in the Lord to court.

Verse 3, do you not know that we are to judge angels? Boy, Paul is just piling it on. We're even to judge angels. How much more than matters pertaining to this life? Now where else do we find in Scripture that we will judge angels?

Anybody know? What's it say there? Paul? I almost called you Doug. Paul, what does it say there? Second Peter 2 .4. Okay. Okay, right. So in Second Peter 2 .4, we have a message of judgment over angels.

But whose judgment is that there? Is it us judging angels or what does it say there? Right, it's God's judgment over angels. We have that in Second Peter 2. We also have it in the book of Jude where it says the same thing, that Christ has judgment over angels.

Is there anywhere in the text, in the Bible where it explicitly says that we will judge angels? Say again? There's not one in Revelation. Not explicitly. Not an explicit statement that we will sit in judgment over angels.

There's only one place in the Bible where you will find a statement about us, an explicit statement about us having judgment over angels. Do you know where that is? Hebrews 1? Where was it say there? Yeah, but who's that about?

That's about Christ. Yes, that's not us yet. So only one place in the Bible where we sit in judgment over angels. Where is it? Yeah, 1 Corinthians 6, which verse? Yeah, that's right. That's the only place.

I know, that was a trick question, wasn't it? Yeah. 1 Corinthians 6, 3 is the only place where we read, you will judge angels. Now I say again, that's the only place where that's explicitly mentioned.

Where is that implied? Some of these passages that we just read, right, that you read aloud. Because if we're reigning with Christ, and he has judgment over all, and we sit with him on his throne, and we read in 2 Peter 2 and in Jude that he is going to have judgment even over the angels, and Hebrews chapter 1 as well, he has a name that is even higher than theirs, then what does that mean for us?

We also will sit in judgment over angels. So it's implied in those passages. It's explicitly stated here. We are to judge angels. Now consider the way that Paul phrases that question. Do you not know that we are to judge angels?

Now we should be able to come to that conclusion just from the passages that we've read. But I would believe that Paul has said this to them previously, and that's why he asked the question that way. Remember that back up in chapter 5 verse 9 he said, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.

So there were instructions, remember I said last week there were instructions in that previous letter. We don't know what they were. That letter's been lost to time. It was specifically for the Corinthians.

Paul was with the Corinthians for a year and a half when he planted the church there and taught there. And so amongst the things that Paul taught them or wrote to them, he has said this to them before.

So now he comes back to repeating it and saying, do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more then matters pertaining to this life? If we are to judge the world, and if we are to judge angels, then you are certainly competent amongst yourselves to be able to try some of these simple matters you should be able to take care of.

Verse 4, so if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? Now I appreciate the way that Paul phrased that. They have no standing in the church. He did not say they have no standing in eternity.

Because do we know that they have no standing in eternity? Now we don't know that yet. They could still come to know the gospel and then come to become part of the church. So here he's just talking specifically within the context of the church.

You have the knowledge, you have the spirit, you have the capability to be able to handle these things amongst yourselves. Why do you lay them before those who don't have any standing in the church? Verse 5, I say this to your shame.

He does want them to be ashamed for their behavior and for the way that they've acted. And I appreciate statements like that in scripture as well. Just the very fact that Paul says that convicts me as a pastor because my how tempting it is to want to tell somebody the thing that they want to hear and to just go along with whatever they have decided in their own mind or in their own heart to do.

But sometimes we need to hear tough things. And sometimes I as a pastor have the responsibility of having to tell somebody difficult things so that they would be ashamed of their sinful behavior. And I don't do that to them to make them feel bad so that I can lord myself over them and become verbally abusive in some way.

I do that because I love this brother or sister whom I must address. That they would be convicted of their sin and that they would turn from it back to righteousness. Paul has been very rebuking here in these couple of chapters.

But he does this so that they would be ashamed. The right way to be ashamed. They would be ashamed of their sin so that they wouldn't do it anymore. And that they would turn from that sin. They would turn to loving one another because man if they're taking brother to law against brother not demonstrating love with one another at all.

If they're letting brothers continue in sin that remains unchecked and unconfronted they're not really loving each other at all. Paul is wanting them to check their pride, humble themselves, turn from their sin.

Now I talk about that responsibility that I have as a pastor. Sometimes I have to say tough things to people so that they will be ashamed of their sin and turn from it. But as Paul is addressing this, he's not saying this to pastors, right?

Hey, you elders of the church, this is shameful that this is going on. He's addressing the whole church, right? And so we all have this responsibility with one another. The guy who is in sexual immorality, the whole church has a responsibility to look out for that brother in the Lord.

This man who calls himself a brother. Verse 11 again, chapter 5 verse 11, I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of these things. So if he calls himself brother, confront this brother so that he would be ashamed of his sin and he would repent.

And he's saying this to the whole church. Verse 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? See, I must believe as a Christian, as a person who believes the Bible, as a follower of Jesus Christ, that among us who are followers of Christ are people who are filled with the Holy Spirit of God.

And you at least have some knowledge of what God says is right and what God says is wrong. Right? Everyone who is a follower of Christ has at least some sense of that. We came to a knowledge of wrong when we first heard the gospel.

Because we recognize, I'm a sinner in need of a savior. I'm wrong and he's right. And so that kind of wisdom exists only among the believers. That kind of wisdom does not exist in the world. And so since we all have the Spirit of God and we all have at least some sense of what God says is right and what God says is wrong, any single one of you in here, I should be able to come to for spiritual guidance or spiritual wisdom.

And you would be able to give it to me. Now there might be an extent to the spiritual wisdom that you have. Maybe you would think, hey, I'm an idiot in the faith. I've been a Christian for 30 years, but I've just, you know, I grow so much slower than you've grown, Brother Gabe.

Okay? Well, in Romans 12, verse 3, it says that God apportions to each one a measure of faith. So there are going to be some that have a greater maturity in faith than others. But nonetheless, we all have the Holy Spirit.

And I think all of us to some degree could counsel one another in what is right and what is wrong. We should be able to. We should be able to do at least that much for one another. And so Paul says, it's shameful that there's not one, there's not one of you who could handle these disputes that are going on between these brothers in the Lord.

Verse 6, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers. So as again, in the first section we had in verses 1 through 4, Paul says the reasons for not taking disputes before judges.

And the second part we're looking at, verses 5 through 8, these are the results of taking disputes before the judges. In verses 5 and 6, it dishonors wisdom and fellowship. Look at verse 6 again, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers.

They've dishonored each other. They've dishonored the wisdom of God. They've dishonored the fellowship of the saints. When we can't handle these things amongst ourselves, so we need to go find some unbelievers to take care of this for us.

The second result of taking a brother to law and letting unbelievers try these cases, it defeats witness and faith. Look at verse 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? So we had in verse 6, brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers. That's a bad witness before unbelievers. And then in verse 7, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you.

It's a bad witness to each other. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? What's Paul saying there? What's he asking there? Why not rather suffer wrong? Remember, we're talking about, you know, what are probably money matters or property rights or something like that.

So why not rather suffer wrong and why not rather be defrauded? What's he telling them? Yeah, right. I mean, the damage that it does to the body of Christ and the damage it does to your witness to unbelievers, it would be better for you to just take the loss.

Just let it go. Like you can't convince your brother that this belongs to you or he owes you this money. You've tried, you've had somebody else as a mediator come in and try to oversee this thing for you, and he still won't budge.

He's still holding onto that money that you think belongs to you. Okay, whatever. Let it go. Your relationship with that brother is way more important. And the witness that you have before unbelievers who still need to hear the gospel and repent so that they would be saved is way more important.

So why not just rather suffer wrong? Why not be defrauded? And friends, I want to tell you, not as somebody who's blowing his own horn up here, but just to give you an example, I've been through this before to the loss of tens of thousands of dollars.

Yes, I've been there. And it was better for me to be defrauded than to either cause separation between me and a brother or sister in the Lord or to be a terrible poor witness before the world. It wasn't easy.

And there are times, usually when I'm in the shower and thinking about stuff that just pops into my brain, man, what I could have done with that money if I still had it today. But it's better to let it go.

Now I'm not saying that in any and every circumstance where somebody wrongly accuses you or they take money from you, that you should just be like, okay, whatever. I mean, if we care about our brothers and sisters being obedient to God, then you should go to them and say, look, this isn't fair.