At risk of stealing thunder from a future sermon, I’m going to post something about 1 Corinthians 6:1-11 (mostly because I don’t plan on preaching anything from 1 Corinthians anytime soon).
Anyway, a while back I was meeting with a couple of guys to work with them on how to better study and interpret the Bible. And for a “practice” text, one of them suggested that we work through the first part of 1 Corinthians 6. Honestly, I love to study the Bible…but I was not sure how applicable studying this chapter would be to us and our goal of learning to interpret the Scriptures well. I thought something that had a little more “relevance” to us might be better. But I agreed to 1 Corinthians 6 as the passage for the next meeting’s discussion.
So, before we got back together, I worked through the text…from translation to application. And I was surprised by how much I got out of it (note: I shouldn’t be surprised at the goodness of God’s word).
As part of working through passages that I’m going to preach, I typically go through six questions from Dr. Greg Scharf’s book, Prepared to Preach. These questions typically get me thinking about the Scriptures in a way that brings clarity to the message of the passage. Below are the answers I came to after studying the text that will form the foundation of any sermon that may (or may not) develop out of this process. Regardless of whether or not I get a chance to preach through 1 Corinthians 6, I’m so thankful that God has given me something much better than justice!
SIX QUESTIONS
1. What is this text, functionally? This text functions as a pastoral challenge and address to a struggling church.
2. What is the main thing this text is speaking about? This text is speaking about the issues of divisions and lawsuits within the church at Corinth.
3. What is this text saying about its subject? This text is saying that seeking justice in matters between believers from the unjust world is foolish (“is there not among you even one wise man…”), because the church will judge the world! It also results in “utter defeat” even before the case is tried because believers shouldn’t be ultimately concerned about earthly rights.
4. What response does this text call for? This text calls us to judge our own disputes with God’s wisdom in the church, to rather be wronged and defrauded than appoint unbelievers to judge the church. There’s also an implied call to be more concerned about our witness to the world around us (vv. 1, 6, 11) than with our own rights and worldly justice.
5. How does this text elicit that response? The text calls for this response by pointing out the foolishness of the saints being judged by the world, when it’s the saints that will judge the world; by reminding us of our redemption that was purchased by a perfect (never committed any wrongdoing) Savior who received God’s justice on our behalf, so that we are willing to suffer instead of seeking “justice”; and by contrasting our state with the “unrighteous”, showing the bad witness that it is when we go to the unjust seeking justice.
6. How does this text contribute to the larger drama of redemption? This text starts out in vv. 2-3 by pointing us to the eschatological judgment, where it hints that we will actually assist in some way in the judgment of the world and angels (Daniel 7:22; Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:30; Revelation 3:21, 20:4). And given that’s where history will end up, it seems foolish that the saints would go to those they will judge seeking judgments to be applied within the church. The passage also ends on an eschatological note by reminding us who inherits the kingdom of God…it’s the saints, not the unrighteous who might be sought out for earthly “justice”. And, finally, the passage (vv. 9-11) walks through what we were and the redemptive work applied to us by Christ through the Holy Spirit—we were washed, sanctified, and justified—showing that we have received something much better than earthly justice (what we deserve)! Jesus took the just punishment of our sin and gave us what we did not deserve—grace!