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Lawsuits - 1 Cor 6
Lawsuits - 1 Cor 6
There ARE some differences in the overall situation that seem to make things different to me. The legal courts in most Roman cities were not ‘Federal courts’ as we know them. The judges were usually local men of importance or position and SUCH positions were not always based upon character! Correspondingly, there were few, if any, believers in such a position to judge such disputes. In much of the Empire those who were lowly and poor were simply unable to sue those who were above them in ‘station and position’ in the community.
There was also the very local nature of such commandment here in 1 Corinthians. The Christians made up a very small group within the much larger pagan community. Their lawsuit was not against someone in a distant city of the empire but a local person. Many lawsuits today are brought against people whom we don’t know that live in metropolitan areas across the country from us; theirs would have been taking a local brother before a pagan judge.
Today many lawsuits are brought where neither party knows if the other person is a brother or not. Such lawsuits are ruled over by a judge who we have no idea if he is a believer or not. Today we have judges that have been appointed and that must know and follow a national law-code. Their verdicts (at least in theory) are to be based upon simple right and wrong concerning the law. We might draw close to a similar situation in small town America where the judge lives two streets over and everyone in town knows the business of everyone else. Yet, that doesn’t bring about an absolute code of conduct for all who are believers in America. It is difficult to draw a parallel situation to the situation going on in Corinth.
Having said that, I can state that I have never brought a lawsuit against anyone and I have no intention of doing so. Particularly would this be true if it was a brother in the same congregation. The real problem, it seems to me at least, was not the lawsuit itself but the greedy, unloving, materialistic attitude that would bring the lawsuit. This was not simply a lawsuit, they were doing wrong and defrauding their brothers and doing it before the unbelieving community.
In a city like Corinth, the Christians had a difficult time just being Christians. They were out of step with the whole city. They were adversarial to the religions of the city. They were disliked and persecuted by many different parties in the town. If they NOW splinter their own group because of greed and materialism, they destroy whatever influence for Jesus that they might have had. They would destroy the church and cause division and ill will among its members. Hence Paul could say “to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you” (vs. 7).
There was, said Paul, a simple solution to their lawsuit problem - actually, two of them. First, just suffer the wrong and be defrauded! Most of us rebel against the very idea for that would mean (to us) that we are allowing the culprit to get away with something. Yet, we COULD just suffer the wrong! The second solution is that we put the problem before our brethren who are also seeking first the kingdom of God and have the best interest of each of us in their hearts. Such brethren would approach it with honesty, humility, and seek the right and equitable solution. You would, wouldn’t you?
We need to love the Lord and each other more, and love the things of this world a whole lot less.
Hugh DeLong
