The failure of the two men who were suing each other was another evidence that the Corinthian church was not functioning properly. It indicated how lacking in true wisdom these Christians were. Paul argued with a series of rhetorical questions in this pericope.
6:1 Again Paul used a rhetorical question to make a point (cf. 3:16; 4:21). The answer was self-evident to him.
In view of the context the "neighbor"(NASB) must be a fellow Christian. The "unrighteous"or "ungodly"(NIV) contrasts with the "saints"and refers to an unbeliever (v. 6). When people had disputes with each other in Corinth and wanted official arbitration, they went to the bema(judgment seat) in the center of town.
"The phrase translated has a dispute' is a technical term for a lawsuit, or legal action; and the verb krino(judge') in the middle voice can carry the sense of going to law,' or bringing something for judgment,' as it does here."128
"He does not mean that Christian courts ought to be instituted, but that Christian disputants should submit to Christian arbitration."129
6:2 The earlier revelation that the saints will have a part in judging unbelievers in the future may be Daniel 7:18, 22, and 27. This judgment will evidently take place just after the Lord returns to earth at His second coming to set up His millennial kingdom. We will be with Him then (1 Thess. 4:17).
Since the Lord will delegate the authority to judge unbelievers to Christians in the future, Paul concluded that we are competent to settle disputes among ourselves now. In the light of future eschatological judgment, any decisions that believers must make in church courts now are relatively trifling.130Obviously some cases involving Christians arguing with one another are more difficult to sort out than some of those involving unbelievers. Paul's point was that Christians are generally competent to settle disputes between people. After all, we have the help and wisdom of the indwelling Holy Spirit available to us.
Earlier Paul wrote that the Corinthians were judging him (cf. 4:3-5, 7), which was inappropriate in view of God's final judgment. Now they were judging in the courts, which was inappropriate since the saints will participate in eschatological judging.
6:3 Evidently God had not revealed the fact that believers will play a role in judging angels earlier in Scripture. He apparently revealed that for the first time here through Paul (cf. Jude 6).
6:4 The first part of this verse seems to refer to the disputes and judicial procedures the Christians should have used with one another rather than to the heathen law courts. The context seems to argue for this interpretation. Paul was speaking here of Christians resolving their differences in the church rather than in the civil law courts.
The second part of the verse is capable of two interpretations. Paul may have been speaking ironically, as the next verse may imply (cf. 4:8). If so, he may have meant that the Corinthians should select the least qualified people in the church to settle these disputes. His meaning in this case was that any Christian was capable of settling disputes among his brethren. He did not mean that the Corinthians should really choose as judges the most feebleminded Christians in the church. The statement is ironical. This is the interpretation of the NIV.131
On the other hand he may have been asking a question rather than making an ironical statement. This is how the NASB translators have taken Paul's words. In this case he was asking if the Corinthians chose as judges in their church disputes the members who had the fewest qualifications to arbitrate. The obvious answer would be no. They would choose the best qualified brethren. This interpretation understands Paul as advocating the choice of the best qualified in the church forthrightly rather ironically. This seems to me to be a better interpretation.132
A third possibility is that Paul really advocated the selection of the least qualified in the church for these judicial functions. He was not speaking ironically. The main argument against this view is its improbability. Why choose less qualified people for any job when better qualified people are available?
6:5-6 What was to the Corinthians' shame? It was that by going into secular courts to settle their church problems they seemed to be saying that there was no one in their church wise enough to settle these matters. Certainly they could count on the Holy Spirit to give them the wisdom they needed to do this (cf. John 14:26; 16:13).
"A church has come to a pretty pass when its members believe that they are more likely to get justice from unbelieversthan from their own brothers."133
Clearly this church did not understand its identity as an eschatological community nor did it demonstrate much concern about its witness to the world.
"Every Jewish community throughout the Roman Empire and beyond its frontiers had its own bet-din, its own competent machinery for the administration of civil justice within its own membership; the least that could be expected of a Christian church was that it should make similar arrangements if necessary, and not wash its dirty linen in public."134
This passage does not deal with how Christians should respond when pagans defraud or sue us. We should participate in public litigation only as a last resort.
