Bible Talks - Sunday Night Church
Series: 1 Corinthians · Talk No. 7
Courting Disaster!
Sunday, 14 November 2004
1 Corinthians 6:1-11 ESV or NIV
Beaten before they hit the field.
In the world of media and entertainment, people tend to have very short memories...
Consider the last season played by the Canterbury Bulldogs...
While they finished the year as Premiers, they spent most of the year as a team getting a lot of coverage in the media for all the wrong reasons.
They were in the news because of what's going wrong.
You will probably recall the reports back in last February of allegations of sexual assault, which led to a drawn out investigation and much internal drama. As the year progressed, separate charges of assault were proven in court and one of their players fined, then the Oasis development scandal and the subsequent resignation of the club’s General Manager...
The picture painted by the media through the year was of a football club being torn apart by internal conflict.
I mean, it's one thing to be torn apart by the opposition on the field. But it's another thing… if the opposition is actually on the inside.
A couple of years ago, it was the Sydney Swans. Andrew Dunkley – one of their veteran players at the time, went public with word that the team was badly damaged by internal fighting, and personality clashes... And it showed. In 2002, the Swans lost the plot and were beaten before they even hit the field.
Which is exactly Paul's sentiment when it comes to this church in the city of Corinth. A church that we've seen earlier is full of spiritual pride. Considering themselves more spiritual than everybody else - including the apostle Paul.
A church full of people who think they're spiritual kings. A church that won't tolerate the simple gospel message.
And yet we saw last time they're boasting over their tolerance of sexual immorality. A church that won't exercise judgment over appalling sin inside the church. And yet we're going to see today, they are taking each other to court… over trivia.
And Paul shakes his head and says, "you're worse than the Swans or the Bulldogs" V7, he says, you're beaten already. The very fact that you have lawsuits among you, means you have been completely defeated already.
Corinthian Quarrels
Now we live very much in an age of lawsuits; so I guess it's not hard to imagine. And so we're used to stories like a guy called Brian Horan taking an airline to court in the UK, because he claimed his legs were cramped on a flight between Manchester and Canada. Which put him at risk of Deep Vein Thrombosis. And he was awarded $1000. My legs are always cramped on aircraft, so I guess I might stand to pocket a few bucks myself!
Something goes wrong, you sue. Which of course is why as a community before long we're not going to have doctors or street parades or swimming pools. One local council in Victoria has banned cricket teams from hitting sixes on their grounds, because they are afraid of legal action from spectators who might get sconed!
But Paul here is talking about a church. A church family, where that's the tone.
Disputes. Between Christians. That are being dragged off to court to be settled. Civil cases. Which back then were held in the marketplace in front of great crowds.
V 1. “When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?” V2, he says, these are trivial cases he's talking about. Not even as if it's something significant. The Greek word Paul uses, he says this stuff is smaller than microscopic. And yet instead of sorting it out like brothers, he says, one brother goes to law against another. and this… v6… here's the real sting in it… and this in front of unbelievers.
Here's a church where one Christian backs into another Christians car in the carpark. And the guy with the damaged bumper bar shakes his fist and says, I'll see you in court.
Which is why they're in worse shape than the Bulldogs And he says in v7, “To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you.” Absolutely failing to be what a church is meant to be.
Look forward to what they will be (The future).
Now if they're going to get things in perspective, if there's any hope of sorting things out, the Corinthians need to do two things. They need to look forward to the future. And they need to leave behind the past. To get their attitude to the present right… they need a clear view of their future. And they need to walk away from their past.
Which you can see is what Paul's telling them in V2 & 3. And then v9-11.
Verses 1-3, Paul's so steamed up, it's a funny thing, he doesn't make a single statement, he just hits them with a barrage of questions. Four in a row. Rhetorical questions; one on top of the other. How could you dare do what you're doing? Question 1.
And then this one. Which is a reminder that they're meant to be looking to the future. verse 2 “Don't you know that the saints… [you Christians]… will judge the world?"
That on the last day, if you've trusted Jesus, you'll be saying "I'm with him?"… when the rest of the world is being judged. Don't you know, v3, that we're going to judge the angels?
Now I don't know about you, but that's not exactly something I've really got my head around. But the fact is, Paul's saying even the angels are just there as messengers. And that on the last day, there's going to be nobody, no creature in all creation, more significant than the Lord Jesus Christ. And those who stand in his name. And that as he judges all things… we'll be there with him.
Which makes it just ridiculous, says Paul, that in the here and now, we'd run off to the unrighteous world… and ask them to judge our petty quarrels!
He says, remember where you're heading... and act accordingly.
So if one day you're going to judge angels, how come you can't sort out the little things of this life? How come you can't sort out between yourselves the trivial cases you're fighting over?
That's the future. Now the past. Because there's a problem looking that way as well.
Forget what they were (The past).
Here's a church made up of people from all sorts of backgrounds. Now, there's actually no problem about the fact that there are people with all sorts of pasts. The trouble is, as Christians, they're meant to be leaving their pasts behind.
And they haven't.
And so the reason one brother is taking another brother to court is that he's been cheated. He's been defrauded in a way that should never happen among Christians.
Verse 9 &10, he says, that's the stuff you've got to leave behind. And he lists off the same pile of sins he listed before in 5:11.
(An aside: the media and others are always claiming that the church is always on about sex and stuff... but reading Paul, you realise that it’s the world that is always on about sex, and that the church is just responding to it!...)
You don't even associate with people who call themselves Christians and still want to do this stuff. This time around, with special emphasis on the thieving, the greed, the swindlers.
There wouldn't be an issue… there wouldn't be a court case between these two Christians in the first place… if there hadn't been swindling and greed going on.
And so Paul says don't be fooled. V9, he says don't you know – and it's put as another rhetorical question – “Don't you know that the wicked, the unrighteous, will not inherit the Kingdom of God?”
Neither the sexually immoral nor idol worshippers nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders … nor thieves. Nor the greedy. Nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God.
And that, he says, is what some of you were.
That's what some of you used to be.
The problem is, that's what some of them still are!
They haven't put the past behind them at all.
V11 is important. Because it's a reminder of what lies at the heart of what it is to be a Christian. That we need to always keep in mind. That there's a turning point involved, and here's what they've forgotten.
But you were washed, he says. Cleaned on the inside.
But you were sanctified. Set apart by God as his special possession.
But you were justified. You were counted completely not guilty.
I see last week that supporters of Malaysia’s former deputy primed minister, Anwar Ibrahim , will ask for a Royal Pardon to erase his criminal record and allow to stand for office again. A couple of years ago, a bloke called Lyle Doniger received a royal pardon from the King of Thailand.
A convicted drug smuggler on death row, commuted to 50 years in prison. Then he walked free. And as he was asked whether he was going to stay out of trouble now he's free and back home in Australia he said this. He said, “of course I'm going to stay clean. It's cost so many people so much to get my freedom, there's no way I'm going to make the same mistakes again.”
Which is exactly the point.
Paul says, you used to do all that sort of stuff, but you've been washed and sanctified and justified. At great expense to the Lord Jesus. He says, the Holy Spirit is at work in you. Why go back?
No matter what your past was, the reality is that as a Christian, v11 is your verse. “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.”
So how could you go back…?
How could you even think about swindling your brother? Like somebody in Corinth has…
Now it's easy to talk tough about stuff like that. And if it's describing you, you need to take warning. Our niece is doing the whole England/Europe trip and she tried to walk into the Ritz Hotel in London in her jeans and joggers. They wouldn't let her in.
Get this right. If you think you're going to walk into the kingdom of heaven as a thief or a swindler, you won't get past the door.
But the really tough thing in this passage is what it's got to say to the Christian who's been wronged. The really tough word is the word for any of us… who have been treated unfairly like that… and just want to stand on our rights.
The toughest words in the whole passage are the words in v7. They're words to the guy who's been cheated and defrauded, who's taken the other guy to court as he's legally entitled to. And yet in doing it, has totally lost the plot.
Why not rather be wronged?
Here's the verse we started with. V7. “To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you.” Not just because it shows there's someone who's cheating someone else. But because of the reaction. But because ‘I'll see you in court’ are the first words on the lips of the person who's been wronged.
Look what he says. Because here are the tough words for all of us:
He says, if you've been wronged like that, why not rather be wronged… than drag your brother off to court in front of unbelievers? Why not say, I'd rather be cheated a thousand times… than to see the name of Jesus disgraced? As the crowds in the market place cheer and jeer over these two so called Christians having it out with one another in public.
Why not rather be wronged… that going to law against one another – in front of unbelievers?
I wonder if you ever think that through… in all sorts of areas? What your actions and attitudes are doing as an advertisement for Jesus Christ? As a demonstration of what the gospel is on about?
Because the irony is, there's no better way to show the gospel… than in the way you handle being wronged.
There's no better visual aid of the Christ who lived perfectly… and yet died for sinners… than the innocent party who's been wronged… letting it go.
Which is what Jesus actually said, isn't it? If someone slaps your cheek or bends your bumper bar… turn the other cheek and offer it as well. If someone steals your coat, say, look, I've got this really nice shirt and tie that go with it, take them as well.
It's at the very heart of what's meant to be different about Christians. Except the Corinthians don't seem to get it.
I wonder if we do.
Paul says, if you've been wronged like that, don't go to court. Find a Christian brother who'll help you sort it out. V4; kind of an insult, isn't it, if someone asks for your help in this, but he says, "anyone can do it." I mean, any Christian… would have to be more help than dragging each other in front of the court for your trivial disputing. So find even someone of little account in the church, he says… and take your dispute to them, instead of unbelievers.
Or is it possible, says Paul, that things are so bad in Corinth… that there's nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?
And if in the end you can't sort it out to your satisfaction… then just be content that in being wronged… you're being like Jesus. In not standing on your rights… you're being like the one who put everything aside and hung on a cross… for you.
It's a big ask, isn't it? Especially if you're carrying a pile of hurt and frustration because you know the way you've been treated just wasn’t fair. You're right. It wasn't.
Whether you're wronged on the sports field. Or wronged in The Office. Or wronged in the family. Or wronged by someone who slandered you and it just isn't fair.
And you're right, Christians shouldn't treat other Christians that way.
But being like Jesus isn't about getting even. Or demanding justice. So why not rather be wronged… and see it as a great opportunity to advertise Jesus in the way you forgive? Instead of standing on your rights.
