Text for the Week: Committing to Relationships

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 6:1-11

When someone in your assembly has a legal case against another member, do they dare to take it to court to be judged by people who aren’t just, instead of by God’s people? ² Or don’t you know that God’s people will judge the world? If the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to judge trivial cases? ³ Don’t you know that we will judge angels? Why not ordinary things? ⁴ So then if you have ordinary lawsuits, do you appoint people as judges who aren’t respected by the church? ⁵ I’m saying this because you should be ashamed of yourselves! Isn’t there one person among you who is wise enough to pass judgment between believers? ⁶ But instead, does a brother or sister have a lawsuit against another brother or sister, and do they do this in front of unbelievers? ⁷ The fact that you have lawsuits against each other means that you’ve already lost your case. Why not be wronged instead? Why not be cheated? ⁸ But instead you are doing wrong and cheating—and you’re doing it to your own brothers and sisters.

⁹ Don’t you know that people who are unjust won’t inherit God’s kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Those who are sexually immoral, those who worship false gods, adulterers, both participants in same-sex intercourse, ¹⁰ thieves, the greedy, drunks, abusive people, and swindlers won’t inherit God’s kingdom. ¹¹ That is what some of you used to be! But you were washed clean, you were made holy to God, and you were made right with God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

Questions

1. Why is Paul so concerned that the believers would be going to civil judges instead of other Christians, is this a universal concern or was there something specifically wrong with the Roman legal system?
2. Why does the sin list of verse 9 contain so many sexual sins when such activities have not been in view prior to this verse?
3. What is the relationship between the sin list in verse 9 and Paul’s concerns about ajudicating disputes in verses 1-8?

Background

Related Scriptures: Exodus 20:1-17; Matthew 5:23-30; Mark 7:1-23

Paul’s concern with the courts is what we might call small claims court rather than criminal courts

This passage is built around the concept of “the other” Paul is being ironic with the Corinthians saying how dare you take the other to court when you are supposed to be protecting and loving the other.

Paul’s use of unjust does not mean the Roman courts were inherently unjust (or more unjust than other cultures) though they could be, rather the phrase is meant to highlight the difference between how believers seek and distribute justice and how unbelievers do so.

There is a connection between the unjust of the courts in verse 1 and those who cannot inherit God’s kingdom in verse 9. The people who cannot rule justly are the people who are committed to the sin that rejects God

The sin list of verse 9 is meant to demonstrate how people take advantage of others and to harm them. The sins listed revolve around sexuality because this reflects using people to fulfill one’s desires

Reflection

Many have a fascination with  1 Corinthians 6:9, which is exactly where I intend to focus; however, it is precisely the fascination that most have that makes me hesitant to ever approach this verse. The reason is so many want to oversimplify this verse to fit their desired narratives about life and so refuse to sit with it long enough to understand what Paul is genuinely saying. For me the question that stopped me in my tracks was, why does Paul connect these (mostly) sexual sins to unjust judges? Paul cannot simply be implying that all Roman judges were engaging is sexual misconduct, so why bring up these particular sins in the conclusion to his comments about believers taking each other to court?

To understand this we should begin by recognizing that the sins Paul lists were seen as sins against one’s neighbor, even adultery, which we think of as a sin against one’s spouse. All of the sins Paul lists were viewed by Jews as breaking down the bonds of community relationships and so were signs of injustice. Paul is trying to convey to the Corinthian church that activities that bring harm to relationships, injustice, are antithetical to God’s ideal. This is also why Exodus 20 prohibits adultery, because it was seen as stealing another’s spouse, it was a crime that disrupted the community. Adultery, like the other sins that Paul lists, was one committed against the community because an individual allowed their own passions to triumph over the rights of others. Those guilty of the sexual sins Paul lists are placing their own desires ahead of true and good relationships with others in the community. It is easy to get bogged down in the specific sins that Paul lists (or in the Ten Commandments) and miss the principle that motivated the list, and that principle is that my passions cannot dictate my life to the extent that they ruin relationships. This is why Paul can tie adultery to an unjust judicial system, because both are prioritizing filling some desire over sustaining healthy relationships.

Paul is saying to the people of Corinth that they as God’s people are focused on maintaining flourishing relationships that are committed to justice within the community. However, those outside the Church do not look for true justice and because of this they are no better than those who commit adultery, because they are unconcerned with promoting healthy relationships. He is telling them that they can handle disputes, tensions, and other difficulties in the communities because they are the kind of people who are faithful, faithful to God and to others. Paul even goes so far as to say that Christian fidelity to one another leads us to accept wrongs and slights from fellow believers so as to preserve our bonds together. This is the definition of laying aside our passions to maintain relationships within the community. Adultery is the exact opposite, it is destroying relationships in order to pursue one’s own passions and desires. Adultery is about saying “I want” without taking others into consideration, it is about allowing relationships to break down in order to satisfy one’s own apatite. This is injustice at the small scale, and it is the kind of injustice that we can easily criticize. We can see how allowing one’s sexual desires ruin relationships is wrong and we can condemn such activity. But Paul wants us to look deeper, he wants us to see how our visceral reactions to adultery should also lead us away from such injustice in the world around us.

Paul’s goal in 1 Corinthians 6 is to remind the Church that we possess God’s discerning wisdom and a motivation to pursue healthy relationships. This means that we are best situated to help resolve disputes between Christians and those outside the Church. But this is only true to the extent that we situation ourselves inside of the ethic that says we will allow ourselves to be hurt in order to help preserve relationships. And that when we pursue our own good without consideration for maintaining a relationship with others we are acting unjustly in a way that leads to breakdowns in community the same as the person who commits adultery. Our goal then is to consider how we build up relationships, and to prevent our sinful desires from destroying our community.