Fighting Mad

Because we know the mercy and grace Jesus poured out on us, and because we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we have the power to do the right thing and be satisfied in it.

Renee and I were at our first church after seminary.

Balerma Baptist Church in Hancock County.

Sandersville was about 15 miles south of the church and we lived there.

Sandersville is like every small town in the America.

It has all kinds of mom and pop businesses - especially back in those days.

And everyone knew everyone else’s business.

One of the local businessmen was quite the Lothario

And after suffering through years of her husband’s unfaithfulness, his wife confronted him

Now he didn’t take that very well and one thing led to another until everyone filed for divorce

And the county couldn’t wait.

When the day the trial was to begin, the courthouse square was packed with cars.

People were turned away because there wasn’t enough room in the courtroom for all of the spectators.

Those of us who had to work would get snippets of news from those who got to see the proceedings all during the day.

The trial lasted nearly a week.

There were substantial assets that required all of their dirty laundry to be aired out in front of everybody.

In the end, they both lost of course.

Neither got what they wanted.

And both got trashed in the eyes of the people they shopped with, they played with - they went to church with.

Their lives were changed.

From that day forward, whenever someone saw one of them, they’d think of what they heard at that trial.

Today we go back to Corinth and Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthian Church.

1 Corinthians 6:1-11 is our text.

Please open you Bibles to follow along.

In case you ever wonder, I read from the English Standard Version.

My favorite is the old version of the New American Standard - but it’s hard to read out loud.

So, it’s the ESV.

If you are watching by live stream - welcome.

It’s a good day to be in the Lord’s house and we pray the Lord has already touched your heart.

And of course if you are our guest - and there’s been a lot of new faces this year.

We are so glad you are here.

And we pray the Lord is leading you to remain here to serve and love and simply be “one another.”

That’s the underlying theme of 1st Corinthians in my view - it’s how to be “one another.”

Hear the Word of the Lord from 1 Corinthians 6:1-11

1 Corinthians 6:1–11 ESV

When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers! Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

(Pray) And Lord, as we come to this text, help us to be true to your Word

But more so, speak to our hearts that we might see you.

Forgive the sins of this preacher that no thing of mine would hinder you from your people.

In Jesus’ name - Amen.

So, you see how the story I told relates, right?

Two people who loved each other, go to war against one another, and nothing ends up where they think it’s going to end up.

In Corinth, there are a couple of people who have some kind of property dispute.

How do we know that?

Well, we know it wouldn’t be a criminal issue.

In Hebrew thinking - which is how Paul thought - criminal complaints were to be handled by civil authorities.

That’s what Paul says in Romans 13 - the civil authorities are instituted by God to maintain law and order.

So, someone robs someone at knife point, call the local authorities.

But what if it’s not criminal - what if it’s civil?

What if your friend at church builds a house next door to you?

And you are all excited.

But when they build their house, the contractor grades their driveway across a part of your property.

And you call it to their attention

And they talk to the contractor and they come back and say, “No, you’re wrong.”

What are you going to do?

Before we go another step further let me say this about that.

In our society, this is probably one of the most ignored texts around.

We’ll read it.

We’ll study it.

And we will ignore it.

Because we are Americans.

Property rights are a big deal to a lot of us.

And you don’t mess with my stuff.

I’ll fight you for my stuff.

But is there a time when that might not be right?

1 Corinthians 6:1-3 “When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!”

What is a grievance?

The word has a number of synonyms, but my favorite is - a thing.

When one of you has a thing against another.

You know, I’ve been in the church for a long, long time and I’ve seen lots of things.

Friends falling out because they didn’t return a Pyrex dish after a pot-luck.

Someone didn’t return a hammer, a drill, a saw.

Someone borrows a chainsaw and tears it up and doesn’t offer to pay to fix it.

Those things turn into things.

People get angry with one another.

Bad mouthing one another - dogging each other out.

Now you wouldn’t take a church friend to court because they didn’t return your Pyrex dish

But if they built their driveway on your property you might?

And Paul says, why would you DARE - see that word - DARE to go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?

Why would you go to court before a judge who doesn’t think like you, doesn’t act like you, doesn’t know the Lord you know

Why would you go to that person seeking a Godly decision?

And to add insult to injury, now you are airing all of your dirty laundry in front of ungodly people.

And folks look at Christians and go - “what’s the matter with these people?”

“They are supposed to love one another - is this what their love looks like?”

Why would you dare do that?

Paul says there are two ways to solve this kind of dispute within the Church that honors us being “one another” and a part of the body of Christ.

The first way is found in verse 5: 1 Corinthians 6:5 “I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers,”

Now, this is Paul being as snarky as Paul can get.

It’s kind of lost on us but it wouldn’t have been on them.

They were all about Greek sophia - Greek wisdom - remember?

They’ve found the meaning to live, the universe and everything.

They see how Christianity has a place in this sophia but the sophia is the guiding thought.

So Paul almost sneers at them, “Can it be,” is it possible, that in this church full of such intelligent philosophers and diviners of all wisdom, “Can it be that there is no one another you wise enough,” the word wise is sophos - there’s the link -

In the midst of such superior intellect and insight, are you to tell me that there isn’t anyone there with enough sense to help two brothers work out their differences?”

Oh, as I write this, my heart hurts at the times I’ve said, that’s between the two of you - you just need to work it out.

I know the dangers of an outsider getting involved in people’s things.

But wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing, that if we loved each other enough

And respected each other enough, and could see Christlikeness in us enough

That when an inevitable dispute arose, we could come alongside and help our brothers and sisters work it out?

That’s how it’s supposed to be.

But the second way of settling the dispute is in verse 7: 1 Corinthians 6:7 “To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?”

Why not just let it go?

Well, that will get your dander up.

I’m no doormat.

They took my stuff!

The dirty dog!

I want my stuff back!

But Paul says, “the high road is to let it go.”

I know. I know. Doesn’t sit well, right - it’s un-American.

It’s just not right.

But Paul looks at things differently that we do sometimes.

There are several words here that give us a clue about how Paul thinks about the world.

In verse 2, he uses the words “trivial cases.”

What makes them trivial? because someone building their driveway over on my property doesn’t feel trivial to me.

At the end of verse 3 he defines it for us - “matters pertaining to this life.,” to daily life.

And in verse 4, this is kind of hidden because of the translation, but he says, “So if you have such cases,” and that phrase “such cases” is actually the exact same word that is translated “this life” in the verse before it.

So, you could read it, “How much more, then, matters pertaining to daily life. So if you have daily life cases...”

See? Daily life kind of deescalates the passion - but it’s still a thing - it’s just life - in the grand scheme of things, it’s just not worth bothering with.

It’s just a part of everyday life.

Follow me - Star Trek and Star Wars fans.

In Star Trek, the Starship Enterprise would go into warp speed.

On the screen you would see stars zipping by looking like lines of light.

In Star Wars, they would enter hyperspace - everything would elongate and then, poof they were gone.

Do you remember how you felt - how the movies made you feel when they were in warp speed or hyper speed?

I was always a little on edge - we were going really, really fast.

But when they transitioned out of warp speed.

Everything slowed way down - and you calmed down - at least I did.

And there is Paul’s worldview.

Everyone is in warp speed grabbing as much as they can as fast as they can.

Because, we don’t have much time.

We must have our best life now.

It’s almost like we think THIS is our heaven.

But Paul’s not in hyper drive.

He’s doing Star Treks impulse power.

He’s moving ahead.

He’s experiencing life.

But his life has no end so he is not in a hurry.

If he loses 10 feet of property but eventually gains a brother, that’s a great thing.

But if he loses 10 feet of property and the brother won’t reconcile, he’s still good.

He protected the body.

He’s still proven to those watching him that, this is what “one another” requires occasionally.

And he’s stored up treasures in heaven - where we will be sooner than we expect.

It’s hard to live Christian when we live at warp speed.

Our minds can only process so much.

So we narrow our focus to those things we think are urgent.

And we start, maybe not forgetting - but maybe unintentionally ignoring something really important.

Look at 1 Corinthians 6:8-11 “But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers! Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

If you said this sounds like a warning, you’d be right.

If you said this sounds like you can lose your salvation, you’d be right again - but that’s not what he is saying.

What Paul is saying is - slow down and remember

Remember where you’ve come from

Remember what gives you the power to do superhuman things - things you don’t think you can do.

This is one of my favorite scriptures in the entire Bible.

We are quick to criticize folks - and there is plenty to criticize in this world.

All of these people on this list are doing bad things.

They will not inherit the kingdom of God - they won’t go to heaven when they die.

Plain fact.

“And such were some of you.”

It’s so easy to say, “why in the world would they treat someone that way?’

When we forget what we did in junior high school.

It was Sadie Hawkins day - for the uninitiated that was the day girls could ask the guys out.

And at my school, as a fund raiser, that was the day a girl could “buy” a guy to carry her books all day.

And a very unpopular girl bought me.

And I refused to go along with it.

And it made her cry.

I remember her name - I’m just not going to call it.

Childishness, I know.

I was all of 13 or 14 - and kids are cruel and I proved that.

But - to this day I carry that memory as a reminder.

“And such were some of you.”

That begs the question - why is that past tense?

Why is that we were those things but we are not those things now?

And here is right were we gloss over the answer - we’ve heard it so many times - we’re almost immune

1 Corinthians 6:11 “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

Yep, I was saved, Hallelujah - let’s go home!

But no.

This is a - a really big deal.

My sin of being so callous towards a sister was washed away.

I was sanctified - that sin was reborn - repurposed - to remind me to treat everyone from the least of these to the most of these with as much respect as God allows me to give.

And I was justified - I was made right with the Lord.

So He will hold me close and He will be my Father.

And He will remind me that He made me for more than this daily life.

That settling for what everyone else in the world wants is to settle for less.

That my gratification will come - but over a period of eons - not days.

I’m going to live forever.

This is NOT my heaven.

I can do much better than I do now.

But I do better than I did then because of Jesus.

I would not be who I am without Jesus.

You would not be who you are without Jesus.

Hold that close.

Don’t forget that.

“[Because] such were some of you.”

And because we know the mercy and grace Jesus poured out on us, and because we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we have the power to do the right thing and be satisfied in it.

Let us pray: