Picture: Paul Challenges Lawsuits and Sexual Looseness 4TC 154.1
This chapter is based on First Corinthians.
For a year and a half Paul had worked among the believers in Corinth, pointing them to a crucified and risen Savior and urging them to rely completely on the transforming power of His grace. Before accepting them into church fellowship he had carefully taught them about the duties of the Christian believers, and he had tried to help them be faithful to their baptismal vows. 4TC 154.2
Paul had a clear sense of the conflict every Christian has to wage with the agencies of evil, and he had worked untiringly to strengthen those who were young in the faith. He had pleaded with them to make an entire surrender to God, for he knew that when the heart fails to make an entire surrender, sin is not forsaken, and temptations confuse the conscience. Every weak, doubting, struggling person who yields fully to the Lord comes into direct touch with heavenly powers that enable him to overcome. Angels help such Christians in every time of need. 4TC 154.3
The members of the church at Corinth were surrounded by idolatry and impurity. While Paul was with them, these influences had little power over them. Paul’s prayers, earnest words of instruction, and godly life helped them to deny self, for Christ’s sake, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin. 4TC 155.1
After Paul left, however, little by little many became careless and allowed natural tastes and desires to control them. Many who had put away evil habits when they were converted returned to the degrading sins of heathenism. Paul had written briefly, urging them “not to keep company” with members who persisted in immorality, but many argued over his words and excused themselves for ignoring his instruction. 4TC 155.2
The church sent a letter to Paul, asking for counsel on various matters, but saying nothing of the terrible sins existing among them. The Holy Spirit, however, impressed the apostle that the church had hidden its true condition. 4TC 155.3
About this time members of the household of Chloe, a Christian family in Corinth, came to Ephesus. They told Paul that the strife that had arisen at the time of Apollos’s visit had greatly increased. False teachers were leading the members to reject Paul’s instructions. Pride, idolatry, and sexual sins were steadily increasing. 4TC 155.4
Paul saw that his worst fears had more than come true. But he did not allow himself to think that his work had been a failure. With “anguish of heart” and with “many tears” (2 Corinthians 2:4) he went to God for counsel. He would gladly have visited Corinth immediately, but he knew that in their present condition the believers would not be helped by his efforts, so he sent Titus to prepare the way for him to visit later on. Then the apostle wrote to the church at Corinth one of the richest, most instructive, most powerful of all his letters. 4TC 155.5
With remarkable clearness he answered questions and laid down general principles which, if they followed them, would lead the believers to a higher spiritual level. Faithfully he warned them of their dangers and rebuked them for their sins. He reminded them of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that they had received and showed them that it was their privilege to advance in the Christian life until they reached the purity and holiness of Christ. (See 1 Cor. 1:4-8.) 4TC 156.1
Paul spoke plainly of the strife in the Corinthian church. “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,” he wrote, “that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you” (NRSV). 4TC 156.2
Paul was an inspired apostle. The truth he taught he had received “by revelation,” yet the Lord did not always directly reveal to him the condition of His people. In this case, those who were interested in the church had told the apostle about the situation, and from divine revelations he had received before he was prepared to judge these developments. Even though the Lord did not give him a new revelation for that special time, those who wanted light from God accepted his message as expressing the mind of Christ. As evils developed, the apostle recognized their significance. God had commissioned him to defend the church. Wasn’t it right for him to notice the reports of the divisions among them? Surely it was, and the reproof he sent was as certainly written under the inspiration of the Spirit of God as were any of his other letters. 4TC 156.3
The apostle did not mention the false teachers who were trying to destroy the fruit of his labor. He wisely decided not to irritate them by such references. He called attention to his own work as “a wise master builder” who had laid the foundation that others had built upon. “We are God’s fellow workers.” He acknowledged that divine power alone had made him able to present the truth in a way that was pleasing to God. Paul had communicated lessons that were to apply at all times, in all places, and under all conditions. 4TC 156.4
One former convert had backslidden so far that his sexual sins violated even the Gentile world’s low standard of morality. The apostle pleaded with the church to put this evil person away from them. “Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened.” 4TC 157.1
Another serious evil was that church members were filing lawsuits against one another. Christ Himself had given instruction about how to resolve such matters: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church” (Matthew 18:15-17). 4TC 157.2
“Dare any of you,” Paul asked, “having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? ... I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers! Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong?” 4TC 157.3
Satan is constantly looking to introduce distrust, resentment, and spite among God’s people. We will often be tempted to feel that our rights are invaded, even when we have no real cause for such feelings. Those who will place their own interests first will go to almost any length to defend them. Pride and self-esteem keep many from going privately to those whom they think are in the wrong, to talk with them in the spirit of Christ and pray together. 4TC 157.4
Instead of following the Savior’s rule, some will even go to the law when they think their fellow church members have injured them. 4TC 158.1
Christians should not appeal to civil courts to settle differences among the members of the church. Even though someone may have done an injustice, the followers of the meek and lowly Jesus will allow themselves to “be cheated” rather than to present the sins of their fellow church members before the world. 4TC 158.2
Christians who go to court against one another expose the church to ridicule from her enemies. They are wounding Christ again and putting Him to open shame. By ignoring the authority of the church, they show contempt for God, who gave the church its authority. 4TC 158.3
In this letter Paul tried to show the Corinthians Christ’s power to keep them from evil. To help them break from their slavery to sin, Paul reminded them of the claim of Him to whom they had dedicated their lives: “Do you not know that ... you are not your own? You were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body.” 4TC 158.4
Paul begged them to control the lower passions and appetites. He stirred up their better nature and inspired them to make every effort for a higher life. He knew that Satan would oppose the Corinthian believers at every step in the Christian pathway and that they would have to face conflicts daily. They would have to force back old habits and natural desires, always mindful to pray. But Paul also knew that in Christ crucified they would find enough power to enable them to resist all temptations to evil. 4TC 158.5
The Corinthian believers had seen only the first rays of the early dawn of God’s glory. Paul’s desire for them was that they would follow on to know Him whose “going forth is established as the morning” (Hosea 6:3), and learn of Him until they would come into the full daylight of a perfect gospel faith. 4TC 158.6
