Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Corinthians 5-8.

At the end of yesterday’s post I mentioned that we have to interpret what Paul wrote about division in the Church in light of his instructions regarding Church discipline.  Today’s passage begins with Paul discussing a specific application of Church discipline.  Throughout history Christians have either over-emphasized Paul’s teachings about divisions in the Church, or over-emphasized his teachings about Church discipline.  As importantly, we rarely see the connection between what Paul writes about this specific instance on Church discipline and what he says immediately afterwards about lawsuits among Believers.  When speaking about Church discipline, Paul writes that we should only apply what he is writing to those who claim to be a Believer.  He explains that by saying that we are called to judge those inside the Church, not those outside it.

Before I go on to discuss what Paul says about lawsuits, I want to look at those whom he says we should not associate.  Now, we always remember that he tells us not to associate with those Believers who are sexually immoral and/or greedy. but we sometimes overlook one or more of the other sins which he writes about.  OK, we generally remember that idolatry and being a drunkard are things which Believers should avoid.  However, if we remember that we should not be a slanderer we tend to forget that the person spreading the slander does not need to know that what they are saying is false.  Which was why the Church used to teach the truism, “If you can'[t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all”   We should all attempt to practice that.  The final sin which Paul writes we should not tolerate among Believers is swindling.  We typically get that, but Paul makes a further point on that.  We should allow a fellow Believer to swindle us before we take them to a secular court.  If we have a dispute with another Believer, we should take that dispute to another member of the Church for resolution.  Some Church bodies establish formal groups for resolving such disputes, but Paul’s wording suggests to me that if we have a disagreement with a fellow Believer we should agree on another Believer to resolve the dispute.  I do not mean that those Church bodies which establish a formal group to resolve such disputes are wrong, just that we as Believers should be willing to seek informal “judges” of our disputes.  Sometimes the person with whom we have a dispute will, rightly or wrongly, believe that the formal body cannot be trusted to judge the disagreement without bias.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.