When one of you has a dispute with another believer, how dare you file a lawsuit and ask a secular court to decide the matter instead of taking it to other believers! 2 Don’t you realize that someday we believers will judge the world? And since you are going to judge the world, can’t you decide even these little things among yourselves? 3 Don’t you realize that we will judge angels? So you should surely be able to resolve ordinary disputes in this life. 4 If you have legal disputes about such matters, why go to outside judges who are not respected by the church? 5 I am saying this to shame you. Isn’t there anyone in all the church who is wise enough to decide these issues? 6 But instead, one believer sues another—right in front of unbelievers!The next issue that Paul feels he must address in this letter is members of the believing community going outside of that community to find judicial redress against other members of the same community. The Greek term pragma is rendered here (v. 1) either "grievance" (NRSV, ESV), "dispute" (NIV, TNIV, NLT), or "case" (NAB). This is a fairly general term for lawsuits. But Paul further specifies what he is talking about with two other terms: in verse 2 he scolds them for not considering themselves capable of judging the "most trivial" issues (Greek elakhistos). And in verses 3-4 he designates such cases as biôtikos "relating to ordinary daily life". As the NIV Study Bible note rightly stresses,
7 Even to have such lawsuits with one another is a defeat for you. Why not just accept the injustice and leave it at that? Why not let yourselves be cheated? 8 Instead, you yourselves are the ones who do wrong and cheat even your fellow believers.
9 Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, 10 or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. 11 Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Paul seems to be talking about various kinds of property court cases here (cf. the phrase “why not rather [let yourselves] be cheated?” v. 7), not criminal cases that should be handled by the state (Rom. 13:3-4).What is at stake is either property or money that may be lost, not bodily injury, theft, or homicide. It is what would be handled in a "small claims" court today. It involved disagreements or misunderstandings between brothers in Christ, not crimes against the Corinthian society. As such, Paul points out, it belongs within the community, and the goal should be conflict resolution and the restoration of peace, harmony and justice within the body of Christ.
What needs to be recognized here is that in Paul’s day:
"the Romans allowed the Jews to apply their own law in property matters, and since the Romans did not yet consider Christians as a separate class from the Jews, Christians no doubt had the same rights" (NIV Study Bible).Paul does not, however, consider the issue to be the right of a religious group to judge their own people—at least he does not overtly word his concern thus. Instead, he contrasts the two groups who might judge the case. In doing this, he bases his argument on the impropriety of employing an "unrighteous" person as arbiter instead of a "holy one" ("saint" = a believer).
The terms he uses in opposition to each other are the adikoi "unjust" or "unrighteous" (NIV's "ungodly" is not a very apt translation) and the hagioi "holy ones". With these terms he is clearly referring to the non-believers (Jews, Greeks and Romans) as the adikoi, and fellow believers in Jesus as the hagioi.
This is a somewhat unusual pair of adjectives to use for purpose of contrast, and this particular pair is not attested elsewhere in either Paul's own writings or the rest of the New Testament. One would expect rather a pair of exact opposites, such as adikoi "unjust, unrighteous" versus dikaioi "just, righteous". Or if Paul did not aim to put the stress on the moral character of the pair, he could have used apistoi "unbelievers" versus pistoi "believers". In fact, Paul uses the term apistoi "unbelievers" in verse 6. Why does he not seek precise linguistic symmetry here in verse 1?
Questions such as these have led some interpreters to see in Paul's labeling the judges in the public courts of Corinth adikoi "unjust" a special indictment of local Corinthian corruption.1 Thiselton (The First Epistle to the Corinthians, p. 418) paraphrases it "a court where there is questionable justice".
This seems out of character with the fact that Paul is here establishing a principle that he probably intends to be the norm in other cities where his churches are located. Furthermore, in Paul's own experience of appearing before a judge in Corinth (Acts 18) he was cleared by a wise verdict from the famous judge Gallio.
But there may in fact be a sense in which Thiselton's paraphrase, when not restricted to the local scene in Corinth, may be on point. In cases in which there is no actual infraction of Roman or Corinthian law, but simply a disagreement between the parties, certain unique issues need to be considered between fellow believers in Christ that no secular court would be willing to raise, or even be aware of. One such issue is actually mentioned here by Paul—in verse 7: "Even to have such lawsuits with one another is a defeat for you. Why not just accept the injustice and leave it at that? Why not let yourselves be cheated?" (NLT). The principle Paul has in mind is Jesus' command to his disciples:
"Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back" (Luke 6:28-30, NLT).Most likely, that is also the reason for contrasting adikoi, those who do not understand Jesus' radical principle of response to a wrong, with the "holy ones" (hagioi, "saints") who can and do understand the nature of disciples' obligation to repay evil with good. Believers are called upon to settle one another's cases because they share in God's holy character and are willing to respond to personal injuries with God-like mercy and grace.
Paul's words in v. 7 show that this was the primary reason behind his instructions here, even though it may also be true that certain local conditions of a practical nature also entered into his decision. For example, it has been suggested that these were civil suits. And only wealthy believers could afford the costs of mounting a case against another. The poor believers could not, nor could they afford legal representation to defend themselves. These inequities would not exist in a private hearing within the Christian community. Rich and poor would be on an equal footing, and the goal would not be to gouge the losing party with a huge settlement plus the court costs, but to seek a just and mutually accepted solution.
It is Paul's primary underlying rationale that makes this advice of enduring and universal significance to us today. For us who are disciples of Jesus every response to harm done to us must be governed by our Lord's command and his own example:
He never sinned,What is more important to you: winning some "small claims" suit against your brother, or gladly acknowledging the big claim that Jesus has on your life?
nor ever deceived anyone.
He did not retaliate when he was insulted,
nor threaten revenge when he suffered.
He left his case in the hands of God,
who always judges fairly.
He personally carried our sins
in his body on the cross
so that we can be dead to sin
and live for what is right.
By his wounds
you are healed
1 Peter 2:22-24 (NLT)
References
1. Advocated, for example, by Alan F. Johnson (IVP New Testament Commentary on 1 Corinthians).
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