“So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?”

Complete breakdown of fellowship, absolute failure—that is what it is when believers take other believers to court. How in the world can two Christians who follow Christ and Him crucified, who have been “enriched in Him in all speech and knowledge” (1 Cor­­­ 1:5), require a binding, legal ruling from someone who is without Christ and the advantage of being “enriched in Christ in all speech and knowledge”? That is like going to a person with a low IQ to settle a dispute between two mathematicians about the answer to a complex equation. Or an Olympic athlete approaching a ten-year-old for advice on how to run faster. What were the Corinthians thinking?

Earlier Paul did not shame, but corrected them for the divisions, because they didn’t know any better. But here the apostle engages in “behavior-shaming” because they should know better. Resorting to legal courts is a sign that they had given up on the centrality of Christ in their fellowship; they had abandoned the blessings they had been given in Christ. When push came to shove (proverbially speaking, although it may very well have come to physical blows), the bottom line was each one was looking out for himself at all costs, even if it meant using the full leverage of the court system.

The enriched speech and knowledge they had gained in Christ was sufficient for them to resolve their difficulty, but such would not stand up in court, where Christ-centered speech and knowledge are irrelevant. The way of the court is to defend and ensure one’s rights, but in Christ one gives up his rights for the sake of the fellowship and what is best for others. Christ and Him crucified sets the standard of sacrificial living, not self-centered obsession. To be sure, this does not mean being a doormat to allow other self-centered Christians to take unfair advantage of your Christlikeness. Christ (and Paul) did not hesitate to speak up amid injustices; however, our Lord did not live for Himself but for others—and ultimately, for His heavenly Father.

No mention is made of the specific issue, for two reasons. One, going to court may have not been uncommon among the believers there. And two, Paul is more interested in the principle. The Corinthians were fully capable (or should have been) of deliberating right and wrong among conflicting believers. Shame on them for going to court against each other.

Lord, help me never to resort to ungodly means to get what I think I deserve.