I Corinthians 6:1  Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?
2  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  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?
4  If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.
5  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  But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.
7  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  Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.
9  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  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
11  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.

In chapter 6 God directed the apostle Paul to address the matter of conflict resolution. It is quite common for people to have disagreements with others. We have the distinct possibility of a healthcare workers strike in our area, this week. We have mentioned before that unions are not according to God’s will. Christians ruin their testimony by being a part of a union. If a person works honestly as a child of God, He will look after the person. If you work hard and honestly and you think you need a little higher wage, then go and talk to the boss. Discuss your needs with him and if you do not think he is being fair with you, you can always go and look for a job that you think is better suited to your needs. The Christian should make all things a matter of prayer.
Paul talks about Christians going to the law before the unjust. You cannot expect justice from unjust people. Disputes among true Christians should be settled among true Christians. Jesus taught the right way of dealing with problems in Matthew 18. True saints have the mind of Christ and will be able to give wise counsel regarding disputes. Carnal Christians will not take a right approach and things will not be resolved properly.
God directed Paul to confront the saints in Corinth regarding this situation. They had quite a few problems. It all started with a lack of humility and squabbling over whom they should follow. A right foundation is essential. Rather than following Christ, they had a false view of Peter, Paul, and Apollos and even of Christ. This caused them to ignore the important matters of life.
In verse 2 we are reminded that the saints shall judge the world. This is likely a reference to the saints judging the world during the Millennium. Jesus Christ could look after everything by Himself, but as God often does, He enlists the services of the saints for various tasks. Paul stated that since the saints will judge the world, then surely they should be able to look after small matters among themselves.
In verse 3 Paul reminded the saints that they will also judge angels. Since this is true, then again, the saints should be able to look after the things pertaining to this life. The saints in Corinth were in the flesh. They were blinded by their carnality. They needed to deal with differences among themselves.
Today as well, saints should be able to deal with disputes among each other. There is no need to go to the law to deal with these things. There are too many professing saints who demonstrate their depravity by ignoring what God tells us and by insisting on having their own way.
It is important to note here that God is not talking of compromising doctrine. There is no wiggle room on that. We see that already in this book. The pastor needs to be sure of where he stands and he needs to stand true to the Word of God. We have said before that the pastor cannot be a ‘politician’. He needs to be more than a hired servant. He needs to be called of God and he needs the prayers of the saints to keep him on the right path. The membership needs to be reminded often, as Paul was doing with the church in Corinth, of the importance of true, Biblical salvation.
In verse 4 we see that saints should be able to set the least esteemed member of the church as their judge. Even the least esteemed saint would know how to judge matters because the Holy Spirit indwells all saints. The Holy Spirit is able to reveal the nature of the dispute and guide in the right resolution to the situation.
In verse 5 God directed Paul to point out that these words were to their shame. How come he even had to address this problem? How come God had called upon him to confront the saints with this matter? They should have heeded God’s Word and dealt with the matter on their own. How was it that no one in that church was capable of judging between the brethren?
They were bringing disrepute to the name of Christ by taking matters to the secular law rather than keeping them within the local church. They were going before unbelievers to find a resolution to issues that should have been dealt with between the saints.
What a tragedy. What a blot on their record. The world was given occasion to scoff at God due to the carnal nature of these saints.
In verse 7 Paul stated that a brother would be better off to be defrauded, than to go to the ungodly to resolve the problem. God will take care of any injustice far better than any secular court ever could. When the saints deal with things in God’s way, there is not that bitterness that comes from going through the secular court system.
In verse 8 Paul continued to remind them that they were doing wrong in the way they dealt with their differences. In verse 9 they needed to be reminded that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. He then named some of the sins that the unrighteous commit in verses 9&10. God used this list to remind us that there is a difference between fornication and adultery. An adulterer is one who is married and then commits immorality with another person. A fornicator is one who is not married and commits immorality with another person. An effeminate is a sodomite. It is important to note that those listed shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Some commentators have suggested that those listed here might still go to heaven, but they would lose rewards in heaven. The plain reading here is that they will not inherit the kingdom of God. They will not be there. That is why the fornicator in chapter 5 needed to be dealt with. He was a saved man and he could not lose his salvation and he could not carry on that way. The command to turn his body over to Satan was a drastic measure but it was necessary to break him. This is not voodooism, or some other pagan ritual. This was a matter of following God’s will according to His Word. God’s purpose for chastening is to bring about the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
These verses should be very sobering for those who are saved. They should also be very sobering for those who are lost. The New Evangelical philosophy is in direct opposition to what God says here. Sadly, there will be many professing Christians who will not be in heaven because they live in these sins and have been told they are good by false teachers. They have seared their conscience and accept the lies of the false teachers. Others observe this and they too look to man instead of to God for truth.
In verse 11 Paul reminded the saints that they had been guilty of these same sins. However, they had been saved. They had been washed. They were sanctified. They were changed and they were set apart unto holiness. They were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. They were saved through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That gift had changed them. The Holy Spirit now indwelt them and they had the power to say no to sin and yes to God. They were changed in a miraculous and powerful way. There can be no denying of the power of God’s salvation. It is different from the deception of false teachers. The saved are set free from the bondage of sin. They can and they must glorify God. When they do not, as the man in chapter 5, God demands that the local church deal with the sin rather than trying to white wash it.
God is holy and He demands holiness of His children. The good news is that God provides all that is needed for His child to be holy. He is not a mean God who requires things that we cannot do in His strength. A while back I talked with a man about his lifestyle. He is a professing Christian but his life does not add up to what God declares a true child of God will be. Rather than consider what was being said to him, his response was that he was glad that I was not God. I not God. I cannot set the rules for life. I am human and I am fallible. As I study God’s Word more and more, I cannot see any justification for the careless nature of the New Evangelical crowd. A person has to dismiss the inspiration of God’s Word and use the Bible as a book of suggestions, rather than the truth, in order to accept the popular trend of “Christianity”. I do not consider myself to be in bondage. I am not the judge, and I must submit to God’s Word just as any other saved person must. There is liberty in submitting to God’s authority.

Galatians 5:1  Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

We need to be sure we are letting God define liberty for us, and not the world and the devil.

Pastor Bartel