Kingdom Case Study

A case of two Christians who couldn't make it right.

The bickering, partisan spirit that ran rampant through the church at Corinth not only showed itself in taking sides over their favorite preachers, but some were taking each other to court, apparently defrauding one another (1 Corinthians 6). For Paul, the whole situation was absurd on so many levels, least of all the case's merits.

It's easy to get dragged into a side in someone else's issues. But Paul doesn't address the problem specifically—we have no idea about the details because they don't matter. Paul questions how they decided to resolve the issue and whether it was worthy of a public fight.

Paul questions their decision to go to court in the first place because going to an unbelieving judge to make a sound decision pertaining to two believers is ridiculous. I'm not saying that Christians have to set up an alternate society, as some of our post-millennial brethren are attempting. But the point here is that two Christians felt that unjust unbelievers had better wisdom and discernment to settle disputes than they did. Since God's people are kings and priests and will rule with Christ in the millennium, how are we not qualified to resolve a dispute among ourselves? They were worldly-minded, not kingdom-minded. It seems they were stuck in a rut, not considering the way they have always lived and the way everyone is living might be wrong.

It was also shameful that no church member stepped in to help settle the dispute. No one had the gumption to mediate the issue between the two. The church was not concerned with settling the issue, dealing with the sin, and doing the hard work of reconciliation, but instead handing the problem off to people who they would call ungodly. Was there no one there with enough wisdom to discern right from wrong? No one to judge between two brothers and have the issue settled? Too many church problems that could be handled quickly are ignored by people who hope the issue will simply go away. But nine out of ten times, it will just get worse.

The person who was sinned against, when he couldn't have worked it out with his brother, should have gone to the church (Matthew 18). In 1 Corinthians 5, they wouldn't judge the man who was committing open, incestuous fornication but then would take another matter to court. There, they should have made a decisive judgment. In this case, they should have deliberated with the offending parties until there was a resolution of some sort. Going to court should have never been an option. Paul then addresses the person who was wronged. Could he not have born being defrauded? Are his rights that important? Could he have born the injustice for the sake of the kingdom? And then, he turns to a person who was doing the wrong -- you are going to defraud someone? And of all people, a brother in Christ?

The heart of the matter, the thing that underlined all of this, was they were not thinking like Christian people. They were not thinking with the minds of citizens of the kingdom of God. They were living like citizens of the kingdom of man. In verses 9-11, Paul brings it back to the kingdom focus. Don't you understand that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom? That's not who you are. You used to be, but not anymore. They thought about the kingdom on Sunday, but on Monday morning, they were back to living in the world. We need to be kindom-minded people in all our dealings and live like the people Christ has made us to be.