I'd like to begin today by reading something from John G. Lake, somewhere in The Collected Writings of John G. Lake:
"Beloved, there is a deep, passionate yearning in my soul that above all else this congregation may set forth, to the praise of God, such a character of righteousness in God, such a purity of holiness from God, that this people may not only be recognized in this city, but throughout the world, as a people among whom God dwells."
It is to this goal that the apostle Paul speaks in our passage today.
In chapter 6, Paul moves to a second issue reported to him about the Corinthian church. He begins by writing this, in verse 1:
(1) Does someone among you dare, a dispute having against the other, to be judged
before the unrighteous
and not before the holy/dedicated ones?
The verb in verse 1 I've translated "to be judged" reads differently in English Bibles, and in a way that muddies Paul's argument (by hiding the link of "to judge" between verse 1 and 2).
If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? -NIV
Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? -KJV
Young's literal translation again does a great job here:
Dare any one of you, having a matter with the other, go to be judged before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?
The verb Paul uses here is the passive form of "judging." One of the problems in this church is that Christians--people who are dedicated to God-- are deliberately placing themselves under the judgment of the unrighteous when they have a dispute.
And Paul marvels at the courage they show in doing this. How brave do you have to be, when you have a dispute, to bring that dispute to an unrighteous mediator, who isn't committed to acting rightly toward God or people, and willingly submit to his judgment?
Paul then expands on this, in verses 2-3:
(2) Or don't you know that the dedicated ones the world they will judge?,
and if by you the world is judged, unworthy/undeserving are you of the most insignificant courts of justice?
(3) Don't you know that angels we will judge-- not to mention the everyday things?
Many Christians have no sense of the dominion God has given them over the world. You were made to rule over all creation (Gen. 1). You were made just a little less than Elohim/God/angels (Psalm 8). And the day is coming when you-- the ones dedicated to God-- will judge the entire world.
And if it's by you that the world is judged, are you incapable of handling disputes over everyday things? One Christian has a dispute with another over something that would belong to a small claims court, and you can't handle that? That's too big for you? You think there's nothing you can do about this?
In verse 3, Paul broadens your perspective even more. The day is coming when we will examine angels' lives, in how they lived, and we will make a decision about their fate. Did an angel live faithfully, and rightly, or not? You will be the ones who decide. And it's not just angels you will judge-- you will judge the everyday things as well.
Paul picks his argument back up in verse 4 after asking these questions. This verse is complicated, but this is what it looks like before translations clean it up:
(4) Therefore, on the one hand, if you have the courts of justice for the everyday things, the despised/disdained ones by the church -- these ones do you seat?
If you have a dispute over everyday matters, why in the world would you pick someone despised by the church to settle it? Of all the people you could pick, you pick someone who is worthless? You think that judge, who is unrighteous, will make a fine choice?
Paul continues in verse 5:
(5) To your shame I speak.
So isn't there among you, anyone wise
who will be able to reach a decision in the midst between his brothers?,
but is a brother with a brother being judged-- and this before unfaithful ones?
Earlier, Paul had said that he wasn't trying to shame them (1 Cor. 4:14). But here, he absolutely is. The way that they are acting in disputes is shameful, and he wants them to feel this. This is embarrassing. It's humiliating.
The Corinthian church boasts in its wisdom and knowledge. They are puffed up, thinking they are something really special. And here, Paul deflates that. A Christian has a problem with someone else in the church, and he looks around the church, and he thinks to himself-- "there's no one here who can mediate. No one here is wise enough, or impartial enough, to handle this correctly. An unrighteous judge would be a better choice."
In the last line of verse 5, Paul then reframes his question using family imagery. He writes this:
but is a brother with a brother being judged-- and this before unfaithful ones?
We, as a church, are a family. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. Some of you think your families are dysfunctional, and maybe they are, but every family realizes that family members wrong each other at times. Sometimes, we lose our temper; we act selfishly; we argue about money, or how to raise kids, or how to split the holidays.
But families also understand that at the end of the day, you have to forgive each other when you are wronged. And when you wrong someone, you seek forgiveness. You make it work. Marriages don't work because couples never fight, or never wrong each other. They work, because couples forgive each other. Siblings make it work because they love each other, and they forgive each other.
If I find myself in a fight with my brother Greg, and we just can't seem to resolve it, how do I handle it? Do I take it to an outsider, who is unfaithful toward God? Do I seat a wicked person over both of us, and choose to let him judge us?
No. Of course not. If I have a dispute with my brother, and we can't resolve it, I'd ask for my family's help. We should be able to figure this out, make things right, and move on. That's what families do.
And if my brother and sister were in a dispute, and they couldn't resolve it, what would I do? What would my parents do? We would try to help. We would offer to mediate it, and help them work through this. Because we understand that we are family. We are blood. We are committed to each other.
The church is God's family. We are not disconnected Christians who worship together on a Sunday morning. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are committed to making this family work. And if there is a dispute in the church, we will help each other. We won't stand on the sidelines, and watch the church tear itself apart. We won't act like that dispute is too big for us to handle.
Paul continues, in verses 7-8:
(7) Therefore , on the one hand, already completely a loss/failure for you it is,
that disputes you have with one another.
Why not rather/instead be treated unrighteously?
Why not rather/instead be defrauded?,
Let's say that you have a brother in Christ with a legitimate financial need. He's been struggling to pay the bills lately. Every few weeks, something big has come up-- car repairs, house repairs. And now, his furnace has gone out. He needs a couple thousand dollars to replace it, and he doesn't have the money. You know you can't just say, "Stay warm and well fed; I'll pray for you" (James 2:16). You know you have a couple thousand in your bank account that you can lend him, until he can pay you back. And so you lend him the money.
Maybe you find yourself thinking, why not just give 2 grand? Are you being selfish if you lend, instead of just giving him the money?
The Bible teaches that lending is a perfectly acceptable form of help (Exodus 22:25; Psalm 15:5; Matthew 5:42; Luke 6:35). Sometimes people don't need charity/alms. They just need, legitimately, something more like a payday loan-- but without being charged interest. And trying to force alms on them is offensive to them, in this situation. It's not what they need. They aren't destitute. They just had a bad month.
So let's say you obey Jesus, and James, and you lend your brother the money for his furnace. And a couple months go by-- and now you need it back. You're not made of money. So you go to him, and ask him if or when he can start repaying you, and he says this to you: "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Really?
Your brother in Christ ripped you off. You're out two thousand dollars.
What do you do next?
Let's reread verse 7:
(7) Therefore , on the one hand, already completely a loss/failure for you it is,
that disputes you have with one another.
Why not rather/instead be treated unrighteously?
Why not rather/instead be defrauded?,
I've fought with what Paul has said here for four days. But I can't wiggle out from it. I have to just accept it. What you are supposed to do, is let yourself be treated unrighteously. You are supposed to let yourself be defrauded. You are supposed to eat the two grand.
If you go to the courts over this-- or even take it to the elders-- it's already a total failure for you.
Paul asks, "Why not rather be defrauded?" And we can think of two thousand reasons why that's not a good idea. But we are just supposed to accept it. We are supposed to look at our brother, and say, "Ok."
When you are wronged in church, and you find yourself wanting to run to the pastor's office or to the elders, and cry about what someone did to you, you know who has the problem? It's you. In fact, you are the problem. Church isn't about you. You're not the big deal. Everyone else is the big deal. And so you serve them, pouring out yourself for them. And if it costs you two grand to do that, then that's what it costs. God will take care of you. You will be okay. So let yourself be defrauded. Let yourself be treated unrighteously. That's better. Doing anything different in this situation, is already a total failure for you.
With this, we come to verse 8. I'm going to read verse 7 one more time, and then push through:
(7) Therefore , on the one hand, already completely a loss/failure for you it is,
that disputes you have with one another.
Why not rather/instead be treated unrighteously (??d???? )?
Why not rather/instead be defrauded?,
(8) but you act unrighteously (??d???? )and you defraud-- and this to brothers.
In verse 8, Paul turns to address the brother in the wrong. If you are a Christian, you are part of this family. Everyone around you is your brother or sister in Christ. How do you treat your family? Would you defraud your brother? Your sister? Really?
It's really important that you pay attention to the first verb in verse 8. I translated it, "You act unrighteously."
It's the verbal form of this word "righteous" we've found throughout chapter 6. English Bibles translate it lots of different ways, but it's important that you hear this word "righteous" in the translation. What they are doing is acting unrighteously (??d????). Or you could say, they are "doing unrighteousness."
And why does that matter?
Let's read the question at the start of verse 9:
(9) Or don't you know that the unrighteous (??´d????)ones God's kingdom will not inherit?
Here, we again the same word-- only here, it's the adjective (??´d????). If you defraud your brother, you are an unrighteous person. And Paul begins verse 9 with a question: Do you not know that unrighteous people don't inherit God's kingdom?
What this brother has done, in acting this way, is become an unrighteous person. And unrighteous people don't inherit God's kingdom. This is a sharp warning. But what does it mean, exactly?
What does it mean, "to inherit God's kingdom"?
Maybe, you think Paul is talking about some type of extra reward that comes with eternal life. But "inheriting God's kingdom" is eternal life. They are equivalent, throughout the NT. I've explained this before, I think, but this is something we can't hear too often. We need to make sure we understand what the Bible actually teaches on this-- because you will probably never be in a church where this is taught correctly. The church, for almost two thousand years, taught this faithfully (read any old systematic theology on the basis for the final judgment; for Baptists, James Leo Garrett or Millard Erickson). But now it's almost entirely lost-- and I think it's the loss of this, more than anything else, that has weakened the contemporary church.
Let's turn to Matthew 19:16-30:
16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”
(We don't like this. But Jesus is very straightforward in giving him the correct answer.)
18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20 The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
23 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” 26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” 27 Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” 28 Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world,[b] when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold[c] and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first (the rich) will be last, and the last (those who give up everything) first.
"Entering the kingdom of heaven" and "having/inheriting eternal life" all mean the same thing. And what does Jesus say you have to do, so that you will have eternal life? (1) Give up everything. (2) Follow Jesus as his disciple. (2) Keep the (his) commandments, as interpreted by Jesus (Matt. 7:24-27). That's your answer.
So let's go back to Paul, and see if Paul disagrees with Jesus (Gal. 6:7-9; Romans 2:6-8; 6:22). 1 Corinthians 6:9:
(9) Or don't you know that the unrighteous ones God's kingdom will not inherit?
Paul says, if you defraud your brother, and you act unrighteously toward him, you won't inherit God's kingdom. You won't gain eternal life. Unrighteous people don't inherit God's kingdom.
Paul sounds like Jesus, right (Matthew 7:21-23)? Paul then continues:
Don't be deceived: neither sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor passive homosexual partners, nor dominant homosexual partners, nor thieves, nor greedy people, nor drunkards, nor insulters, nor robbers, the kingdom of God will inherit.
(11) And these things some of you were,
but you washed yourself,
but you were made dedicated/holy,
but you were made righteous by the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
We read these verses, and we again want to wiggle out of them. We search the Greek desperately. We assume something is wrong with the translation.
I can guess what some of you want to say. You want to be able to say, "I can have an affair without being an adulterer. I can defraud my brother without being a thief. I can get drunk, without being a drunkard. I can "have" someone sexually that's my gender, without being a homosexual."
But ask your spouse: How many times can you cheat on her/him, before she/he considers you an adulterer? Ask your brother: How many times can you steal two grand from him, before he considers you a thief?
The real question we should ask ourselves, is this: Why do we want so badly to be able to wiggle out of Paul's words, or Jesus' words? Why does almost every pastor, when they come to verses like this, pass over them, or tell you that Jesus and Paul don't mean what they say? Why is it that Christians want so badly to say that we can commit these sins occasionally, and still be okay? Why do people become angry over this, and fight it? Why is it, that some people, when they hear this, can only hear "legalism" and "works righteousness"?
I'm not sure. I think at least part of the answer is probably, that we still want to do these sins.
If you find yourself struggling with this, let me help you from two different angles. The first is this:
(1) Being saved is not only about what you were saved from. It's also about what you were saved to.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15:
For love for Christ controls/holds us,
having concluded this:
that one for all died,
and consequently, all died,
and for all he died,
in order that the living ones no longer for themselves shall live,
but for the one who died for them and was raised.
Jesus died for people, (in part) so that they would no longer live for themselves but for him. This is why when you hear the gospel as good news, you respond with repentance and allegiance. This is why you bend your knee to Jesus as King-- you are offering yourself to Jesus. This isn't optional. It's not something you do later. There is no such thing as a carnal Christian. When you are saved, you are saved from sin, to allegiance to Jesus. You are free, because you are under new ownership (Romans 6).
(2) The second way I'd like to attack this, is by challenging any desire you may still have to cling to sin.
Maybe you look at this list, and you know you want to commit some of these sins. You want to defraud your brother. You want to be sexually immoral. Not all the time, maybe. But once in a while, when you get the urge.
Do you think these things are good for you? Do you think God took these things from you because He hates you? Because He wants to be cruel toward you?
Let's think about adultery. If you have an affair with someone, you are probably going to destroy your life. You will probably ruin your marriage. You will probably lose your relationship with your kids. You will never, ever, find coworkers or friends who will take you seriously when you try to tell them about Jesus. Your entire life is going to fall apart. And for what? Is that little bit of pleasure worth the cost?
When God says, "Don't be an adulterer," He is showing you his love and kindness. He is pointing you to the way/yoke that gives rest to your souls (Matthew 11:29). Living rightly toward your spouse is good for you. Living a life dedicated to God is good for your soul. God wants to help you. God wants to protect you. And so He points you toward the road of life. He points you toward the path that's good for you.
So, yes. You can't be an adulterer, or a thief, or a homosexual, and gain eternal life. If you are doing those things, you are no longer living for Jesus. But you shouldn't miss those things, either. Those things are the trash, and slavery, that God rescued you from. And you should be raising your hands, and voices, in praise to God for giving you freedom from these things. You shouldn't reject Jesus or Paul, when they tell you that you can't do those things without consequence.
Let me reread verse 11:
(11) And these things some of you were,
but you washed yourself ,
but you were made dedicated/holy,
but you were made righteous by the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
In verse 11, Paul says, some of you used to be these things. Each of us is tempted to sin in different ways, and not tempted in others. But some of you, when you look at this list, know that you used to be able to put your name by some of these things.
Now, though?
When you came to Jesus, you washed yourself of those things. You were made dedicated to God-- you became God's possession, to be used for God, and by God. And you were made righteous. You were made into a people who act rightly toward God and others.
All of you are going to find yourself wanting to go back to your old sins at times. You miss defrauding people. You miss sexual immorality. You miss getting drunk. You find yourself eyeing these sins, or hearing coworkers talk about these sins, and something rises up inside of you, that wants those back.
The question you need to ask yourself is this: Which of these sins is so great, that it's worth giving up your inheritance for (Genesis 25:29-34)? Which of these sins brings such happiness, and peace, and rest to your souls (Matt. 11:29), that it's worth throwing away what God has promised to you?
If you are caught in these sins, you need to repent. You need to make restitution, and pay back that brother you defrauded. But please: Don't be deceived about what your fate is going to be. Don't assume you're okay (Matt. 7:21-23).
When we look at this chapter as a whole, we should be struck by Paul's vision for how this church should look. We, collectively, are a people who live dedicated to God. We, collectively, are committed to acting rightly toward God and each other. And we, collectively, are a family. We help each other; we live as a blessing to each other.
We forgive each other.
And if/when your brothers and sisters treat you unrighteously, let them. Let them take advantage of you. Let yourself be defrauded. You are not the big deal. Your rights, and your desires, are not the big deal. Your brother and sister in Christ are the big deal.
Translation:
(1) Does someone among you dare, a dispute having against the other, to be judged
before the unrighteous
and not before the holy/dedicated ones?
(2) Or don't you know that the dedicated ones the world they will judge?,
and if by you the world is judged, unworthy/undeserving are you of the most insignificant courts of justice?
(3) Don't you know that angels we will judge-- not to mention the things belonging to everyday life?
(4) Therefore, on the one hand, if you have the courts of justice for the things belonging to everyday life, [the despised/disdained ones by the church] -- these ones do you seat?
(5) To your shame I speak.
So isn't there among you, anyone wise
who will be able to reach a decision in the midst between his brothers?,
but is a brother with a brother being judged-- and this before unfaithful ones?
(7) Therefore, on the one hand, already completely a loss/failure for you it is,
that disputes you have with one another.
Why not rather/instead be treated unrighteously?
Why not rather/instead be defrauded?,
(8) but you act unrighteously and you defraud-- and this to brothers.
(9) Or don't you know that the unrighteous God's kingdom will not inherit?
Don't be deceived: neither sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor passive homosexual partners, nor dominant homosexual partners, nor thieves, nor greedy people, nor drunkards, nor insulters, nor robbers, the kingdom of God will inherit,
(11) And these things some of you were,
but you washed yourself , but you were made holy, but you were made righteous by the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
