Lawsuits Among Believers
Study note
Paul expresses shock that believers are bringing disputes before pagan courts when the saints will one day judge the world and even angels. Surely someone within the church is wise enough to arbitrate. The very existence of lawsuits between believers is already a spiritual defeat. Paul challenges them: would it not be better to suffer wrong or be cheated than to defraud a brother and display the church's disunity before unbelievers?
1 When one of you has a complaint against another believer, how can you take it to public courts? Why go in front of people who do not follow God instead of handling it among believers? Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?
2 Do you not realize that one day God's people will judge the world? And if you are going to judge the whole world, are you not qualified to settle a small disagreement? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
3 Do you not know that we will even judge angels? We should certainly be able to handle everyday matters! Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?
4 You have fights about everyday things. Why put the least fit people from outside the church in charge? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.
5 You should be embarrassed. Is there not even one wise person among you who could help settle a dispute between two believers? I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?
6 Instead, one believer takes another believer to court. And they do it in front of people who do not even believe in God! But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.
7 The fact that you take each other to court at all is already a loss for you. Why not accept the wrong done to you? Why not let yourself be cheated? Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?
8 But no -- you are the ones doing wrong and cheating, and you are doing it to your own brothers and sisters in the faith! Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.
Washed, Sanctified, Justified
Study note
Paul lists those who will not inherit the kingdom of God, including the sexually immoral, idolaters, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, slanderers, and swindlers. But then comes one of the most powerful statements of transformation in Scripture: some of the Corinthians were these very things, but they have been washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God. Their past no longer defines them.
9 Make no mistake: people who keep doing wrong will not receive a place in God's kingdom. Do not fool yourselves. People who are sexually immoral, people who worship idols, people who are unfaithful in marriage, men who sleep with men, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Thieves will not be part of God's kingdom. Neither will greedy people, drunks, those who tear others down, or cheaters. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
11 Some of you used to live exactly like that. But you have been washed clean. You have been set apart as holy. You have been made right with God through the name of the Lord Jesus and through the Spirit of our God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
The Body as a Temple of the Holy Spirit
Study note
Paul refutes the Corinthian slogan that all things are permissible by insisting that not all things are beneficial, and he will not be mastered by anything. The body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord. Since God raised Christ and will raise believers, their bodies are members of Christ himself. Paul asks the horrifying rhetorical question of whether one should take Christ's members and unite them with a prostitute. He commands them to flee sexual sin, declaring their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, bought at the price of Christ's blood.
12 Someone might say, "I am allowed to do anything." Sure, but not everything is good for you. "I am allowed to do anything" -- but I refuse to let anything control me. All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
13 Someone might say, "Food was made for the stomach and the stomach for food." That is true, and God will do away with both of them someday. But your body was not made for sexual sin -- it was made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about your body. Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
14 God raised the Lord from death, and he will raise us up too through his power. And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
15 Do you not see that your bodies are parts of Christ's own body? Should I take part of Christ's body and join it to a prostitute? Never! Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
16 When someone joins themselves to a prostitute, the two become one body. The scriptures say, 'The two will become one.' What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
17 But when you join yourself to the Lord, you become one spirit with him. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
18 Run away from sexual sin. Every other sin happens outside the body, but sexual sin is a sin against your own body. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
19 Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.