Lawsuits before unbelievers and the catalog of those shut out (1 Cor 6)

church; and there will be blame on those judged when they need even the despised rather than the wise. For the one who follows the Word, if he needs a judge, should seek a wise one that he may be admonished by the wisdom of the wise man who brings him words that build up. Therefore seat those who are despised in the church. I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you anyone wise who will be able to decide between his brother? He charges the Corinthian church that, though seated in the middle of Greece, they had no true wise men, although he had said earlier that many among them profess wisdom—on whose account he also said: “He catches the wise in their craftiness” (1 Corinthians 3:19). But some are wise of this age, and others wise according to God. Paul knew those former ones; therefore he says: Is it so, that there is not among you a wise man who will be able to decide between his brother?

But brother goes to law with brother, and this before unbelievers? We have rulers of the church to whom we ought to bring our judgments, that we may not be laughed at in the courts of the nations. Already it is altogether a defeat for you that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? (1 Corinthians 6:7). Let us withdraw from the judgments of Gentile tribunals, from having lawsuits and disputes. For the one who has lawsuits with his brother is already defeated, and the one who is wronged has conquered; the one beaten and reviled who does not repay the one doing these things has conquered, for he keeps the command that says: Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? But you wrong and defraud, and that your brothers. Everyone who does these things sins; and the more honorable the person wronged, the heavier the sin. For if someone wrongs the blessed one, he wrongs Christ in effect and defrauds Christ.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? If the kingdom of God is in Christ, and Christ is righteousness, the righteous inherits the kingdom of God in Christ who is righteousness; and accordingly the one in the opposite state does not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral… Let no one deceive you with persuasive words: “God is merciful, kind, and loving toward humankind; he forgives sins.” We must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that each may receive the things done through the body, whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10). Let no one make excuses: I was young; I was unmarried; before taking a wife I committed fornication. Why then did you not take a wife? Do you not believe that if anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him? Do you take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? The one who fornicates acts impiously toward the God of all.

Do not be deceived, then: neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters will inherit the kingdom of God; and so neither adulterers. The one who fornicates destroys the temple of God; the adulterer, in addition, also sins against the husband. Neither adulterers, then; nor the soft / effeminate. We exhort you also, children, to keep your own season pure and not to be defiled with such womanish pollution. Nor will men who lie with men inherit the kingdom of God; and may it be far from the church that even one such be found. Then he descends also to sins that seem lesser, saying: nor thieves. This sin of theft nearly all who serve in the army commit, not content with their wages, as the gospel taught, but shaking people down and bringing false charges. And those who lie in business are thieves, not inheriting the kingdom of God; and so also those who overreach in business are greedy; and others are drunkards; and he says revilers also do not inherit the kingdom of God. Therefore let sin reign over no one; for the kingdom of God must be pure from all sins and stumblings, that God may reign.

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything (1 Corinthians 6:12). One must stand above the things over which one has received authority—things which, even if we do them, we will not sin. For those who live more ambitiously live in this way. Do we not have authority to eat and drink? Do we not have authority to take along a sister as wife, as also the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? (1 Corinthians 9:4–5).