Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Corinthians · About this commentary
Lawsuits Between Brothers
1 Corinthians 6:1-6
1 Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbor, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? · WEB
Believers destined to judge the world are hauling each other before pagan courts, and Paul's objection is that they have forgotten who they are.
Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbor, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? 1 Corinthians 6:1.
Dare sets the tone. Corinth was a litigious city and going to court over property or contract was ordinary civic behavior; what appalls Paul is the venue. The two words are set against each other deliberately — the unrighteous and the saints — not to suggest that pagan judges were corrupt, but to point out that believers were asking people outside the community to settle disputes inside it.
Don't you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 1 Corinthians 6:2.
The argument is from destiny to competence, and it is the fourth of the letter's ten reproaches 1 Corinthians 3:16 1 Corinthians 5:6. Scripture does speak of the saints sharing in judgment Daniel 7:22 Matthew 19:28 Revelation 20:4, and Paul takes it as settled and reasons downward: people appointed to that cannot plead incapacity for a dispute about money. Don't you know that we will judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? 1 Corinthians 6:3 pushes it further, and the phrase things that pertain to this life is the letter's valuation of the whole quarrel — these are small matters, whatever the sums involved.
I say this to move you to shame. Isn't there even one wise man among you who would be able to decide between his brothers? 1 Corinthians 6:5.
Here he does aim at shame, and says so — the contrast with chapter four is deliberate 1 Corinthians 4:14. And the question is barbed for this particular congregation. This was the church that prided itself on wisdom, that had parties organized around wise teachers, that thought itself full and rich and reigning 1 Corinthians 1:5 1 Corinthians 4:8. Isn't there even one wise man among you — the boast is measured against the simplest practical test and fails it.
But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers! 1 Corinthians 6:6.
The sentence has no verb of judgment attached; it is left standing as its own indictment, and the word brother is used twice to make the absurdity land. Two members of one family, in a pagan courtroom, asking outsiders to arbitrate. The damage Paul has in view is not only to the parties but to the watching city — a congregation that had just been told it was God's temple 1 Corinthians 3:16 conducting its business where anyone could see the state of it.
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