It is the age of lawsuit and
litigation. Everybody rushes to the court to settle down the matters in dispute.
Some win and others lose and hurt. Even the church is not an exception. It
manifests the intricacy and complexity of life. How difficult it is to handle
the even trivial things in our midst after all! It also manifests how much
narrow-minded and intolerant we are. Everyone is an expert in making a small
and little thing a federal case. How tiny our heart is! In fact, lawsuit is the
expression of greed deeply entrenched and hidden in our humanity. The intolerance
and hate to any loss drives and causes inundating litigations. That’s the world
says “fight more and more.” Is it not the principle of the world? It says, “Get
your right and get it now. Take care yourself!” But Apostle Paul says that
Christians should be different from the world in handling the disputes among
them.
“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!” (1 Corinthians 6:1-3)
There was a lawsuit reported in
the church of Corinth. One brother sued another in the human court. We are not
told what the problem was. But it tells that the brothers couldn’t find out
a solution before the Lord’s people. Paul strongly rebuked them, saying “Do you
dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s
people?” Why should Christians not bring the disputes to the human courts? It’s
because the Lord’s people will judge the world, not the other way around ever. The
world is under utter darkness and confusion. There is no truth in it. However,
Christians have been delivered out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom
of light by the power of God, Jesus Christ the Lord. So, Paul is saying, “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 this life!”
What does it mean to judge
angels? The Scripture says that mankind was made rulers over everything. “You
have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with
glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put
everything under their feet.” (Psalm 8:5-6) Yet we do not see that’s happening but
do see Jesus who was now crowned with glory and honor through the taste of
death on the cross. “In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is
not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. But
we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now
crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of
God he might taste death for everyone.” (Hebrews 2:8b-9)
Our Lord Jesus rose from the
dead and sat down at the right hand of God and is reigning everything, waiting
for His enemies to be made his footstool. “Day after day every priest stands
and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same
sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered
for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and
since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.” (Hebrews
10:11-13)
“For he must reign until he has
put all his enemies under his feet.” (1 Corinthians 15:25)
So, Paul rebukes them on this
issue because it’s a shame to bring a dispute to the human court.
“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!” (1
Corinthians 6:4-6)
The position of church is to
scorn the way of life in the world. Ah, it doesn’t mean to bring brimstone and damnation
by protesting and picketing on the streets and condemning the world. Christians
are called to live such a way in Christ, which shall be demonstrating how to
live and how to handle pressures and obstacles in their midst. It can be and should
be done in a quite matter without making the gong of noise at all. “If I speak
in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a
resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.” (1 Corinthians 13:1) Paul says this to
shame them because there is nobody among them at Corinth wise enough to judge
the dispute between believers. All Christians have been called into a new
fellowship with Christ Jesus the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:9). We no longer live an
old way of life under the bondage of darkness but do a new way in Christ. We do
not need to choose to be the victim of the devil any more but have a choice in
Christ to resist the evil one who will flee away by the power of God.
“Therefore, if anyone is in
Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2
Corinthians 5:17)
“Such confidence we have
through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim
anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us
competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit;
for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:4-6)
Why is lawsuit among brethren
wrong? Paul explains why.
“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 nor
thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit
the kingdom of God. 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.” (1 Corinthians 6:7-11)
Lawsuit among believers is
wrong because it’s not a way worthy of calling, reigning with Christ in the heavenly
realms. It’s the way of total defeat already. How did our Lord Jesus respond to
the accusers and wrongdoers? Apostle Peter says, “When they hurled their
insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats.
Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.” (1 Peter 2:23) Our
Lord chose to be crushed in His body, shedding the blood in order to save the
sinners like us. Our Lord said to Pontius Pilate that He could dispose multitudes
of angels at once. “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at
once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53) In
fact, our Lord Jesus knew that God the Father put all authority and power in
His hand.
However, our Lord Jesus
deliberately and voluntarily chose to be wronged and ill-treated in an act of
obedience to the Father up to the point of death. That’s the message of the cross
marvelously displayed in the life of Christ Jesus our Lord. He chose to be
emptied Himself and became a servant and submitted Himself to the Father as the
burnt offering and drink offering in the heavenly temple. Then God raised the Son
from the dead and exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that
is above every name.
“Who, being
in very nature God,
did not
consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he
made himself nothing
by taking
the very nature of a servant,
being made
in human likeness.
And being
found in appearance as a man,
he humbled
himself
by becoming
obedient to death—
even death
on a cross!
Therefore
God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him
the name that is above every name,
that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven
and on earth and under the earth,
and every
tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”
(Philippians 2:6-11)
Suing brothers in Christ is
doing wrong and cheating them. It’s exactly the opposite way of our Lord Jesus
who showed to the world in the cross of Calvary. But we shall rather be wronged
and cheated, following the Lord Jesus Christ, because the wrongdoers cannot
inherit the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of God is where God reigns and rules
and nothing impure and wicked can stand at all before Holy God. There is
nothing to do with malice and wickedness in the kingdom of light. The kingdom
of God is in the invisible realm. What is seen is the manifestation of what is
unseen. “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of
righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17)
Christians have been made
righteous and holy by the power of God and the foreknowledge of God. We have
been delivered from the bondage of wickedness and lawlessness through the blood
of Christ. That’s called rebirth in Christ. It’s the regeneration of life in
Christ. In this way, we have been adopted into the family of God in the kingdom
of light. Since we have been adopted, we are heirs of God. “Now if we are
children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we
share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (Romans
8:17)
All of us including the first
century saints at Corinth were dead in sins and transgressions and so we were
far away from the kingdom of God. Paul describes who we were in the past before
being delivered by the power of God, saying “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 nor thieves
nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the
kingdom of God.” But in Christ we now have been washed, sanctified, and justified
in the blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ. “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.”
New life in Christ is a completely
different dimension of living in the kingdom of heaven. Of course, until we
enter into eternity, departing from time and space, we’re living in this world.
However, we have been washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We have been made peace with God and henceforth we have access to
the throne of grace with confidence and boldness. “Therefore, since we have
been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we
now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:1-2) This is
a whole new way of living in Christ. The good news is that it’s all available
to all Christians both young and old.
The question is whether we
continue to appropriate our inheritance, Christ Jesus who invites anyone to
come and drink out of river of living water. “On the last and greatest day of
the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty
come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of
living water will flow from within them.’” (John 7:37-38) That’s the eternal
promise of blessed God in the Son Jesus Christ.
Prayer: Thank you Father in heaven for rescuing us
from the bondage of wickedness and lawlessness and taking back into the kingdom
of light, so that we no more have to be the victims of the devil but may obey
our Lord Jesus all time, following Him who chose to be wronged and ill-treated,
and even to die for our sins. In Christ’s name. Amen.
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