Posted in A Father's Love, Devotions, Holiness, spiritual warfare

1 Corinthians 6 Part 1–How the Church Should Settle Its Disputes

Unity among believers is and has always been a vital part of the health of a church family.  Paul had been apprised of the Corinthians tendency to drag each other into court whenever there was an issue.  Paul knew that this church was growing and thriving and that the divisions and disputes were a major issue for them. What was worse was that they were parading their problems in front of heathen courts, judges, and spectators making the church a joke to the public.  Paul spelled it out well; “How are you going to judge the world if you can’t even settle your personal stuff?!!?”
 
In our culture, we have made civil and criminal disputes a spectator sport–Judge Judy, Judge Faith, Judge Wapner, 24-hour news cycles all play into the idea that airing the problems and disputes we have are a great way to entertain ourselves.  Sadly, such behavior among Christians also makes a spectacle of the Church and the cause of Christ.  We, as a family, need to act selflessly and deal with our disputes in a way that preserves what is right, without making us and the church a joke in a world that hates our faith anyway.  We must act honorably, but also with the same grace, we have been shown. If we will, then the church will be a light in the most litigious society on earth, and Christ will be glorified in both the good and the bad.
 
God Bless You

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? Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church? I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers!

The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters. Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men[a] 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. 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.

Author:

This is an amazing Journey. I hope you will hear from the Lord, as you seek Him with your heart. Matthew 6:33

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s