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For a short break, we come back
to our studies in 1 Corinthians. And I want to read the passage
that we'll be looking at later this evening. 1 Corinthians chapter
6, reading verses 1 to 11. 1 Corinthians 6, verses 1 to
11. Let us hear God's word. If any
of you has a dispute with another. Dare he take it before the ungodly
for judgment instead of before the saints? Do you not know that the saints
will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world,
are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will
judge angels? How much more the things of this
life? Therefore, if you have disputes
about such matters, I want to change the translation here slightly
because it is an accusation and not a command. If you have disputes
about such matters, you appoint As judges, even men of little
account in the church, I say this to shame you. Is it possible
that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute
between believers? But instead, one brother goes
to law against another. And this in front of unbelievers
The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been
completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why
not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat
and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. Do you not
know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do
not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual
offenders, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers,
nor swindlers, will inherit the Kingdom of God. And that is what
some of you were. 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. Amen. May God bless his reading, the
reading of his word to us all. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians
chapter 6, the passage which we read the first half of this
chapter, verses 1 to 11. And the title I've given to our
study this evening is Washing One's Dirty Linen in Public. washing one's dirty linen in
public and it's generally regarded in our society that that is not
a good idea. Some of our garments are better
washed in decency and in private than out in the street for all
to see. Now I say that it's not a good
idea to wash our dirty linen in public And one of the sickest
and saddest things of our modern society is the way in which many
people do precisely that. The wives or husbands or ex-wives
or husbands of famous people, one can almost predict that a
few months after their divorce, they will sell the grimy story
of their marriage to some popular newspaper. And a lot of things
will be printed which should never be printed and never be
known. And of course people delight
to hear of this embarrassing and shameful scandal. It's a mark of a sick society. It's a lesson which the Corinthian
Christians hadn't learnt. They were washing their dirty
linen. in public and sadly it's a lesson
that some Christians haven't learned today. And the situation
was made worse by the love affair which Greeks had with lawyers
and with the law. The Greeks are probably the most
litigious nation that has ever lived. One of the things that
startled my wife and me when we went to live in Cyprus was
the number of lawyers' offices. It almost seemed as if every
two or three shops there was another lawyer's office. And
we used to wonder how do they make money? But they make lots
of money because the Greeks still love taking each other to law. And it's almost a spectator sport,
a form of entertainment. If you've got a couple of law
cases going against your neighbours or against members of your family.
And right back in the first century, that was the case. They were
constantly going to law against each other. And in some cases
the juries were very large. The ancient writers tell us of
juries of over a thousand members. So that in a city, a typical
Greek city, the average Greek man would be an amateur lawyer.
He would have served on a few juries, he would have had a few
cases, he would have defended a few cases. It was almost an
entertainment. And when the Greeks had nothing
else to do, they would go on down to the local court and listen
to the cases being argued. That was the culture. The members
of the church in Corinth hadn't escaped this cultural pattern
and they were still influenced by the world around them and
being affected by the culture. This was a situation where apparently
several members of the church were taking each other to law. And the situation was made worse
by the fact that they were a very divided congregation. They had
a divided spirit. They were competitive people.
Argumentative. Very touchy about their rights.
They were addicted to judging. The verb to judge and its cognate
forms is used over 40 times in 1 Corinthians. Nine times in
the first eight verses of this chapter. They were addicted to
judging other people, to accusing, to defending, to arguing, to
debating, to disputing, to taking each other to court. That was
the atmosphere in which they lived. And here in 1 Corinthians
6, Paul is dealing with a situation where two believers in the church,
perhaps more, are at odds with each other. They have a disagreement.
It seems to be a financial dispute. Those, in any case, are often
the most common and the most bitter disagreements. And they
couldn't settle this disagreement. And what did they do? One member
took the other member to court. to a pagan law court in Corinth. And in that pagan law court,
one member accused a fellow Christian. And the whole city was able to
know that two Christians were at law against each other. The
whole city was able to talk about it and gossip about it. And that's
what Paul is dealing with here. He is extremely upset and very
angry. Now Paul was quite willing to
go to court to save his own life against injustice. We read in
Acts 25 11 that he appealed to the Roman court of Caesar and
exercised his right to be tried there. If his life was threatened
by an unbeliever, Paul was quite willing to go to court and use
process of law to defend his life and his integrity. but never would Paul take a fellow
Christian to court. And his annoyance and upset come
out so clearly in this chapter. The first word in the original
Greek of chapter 6 is the verb, do you dare? Do you dare to take
your dispute before the ungodly for judgment. In other words,
he begins the chapter by saying to the Corinthians, how dare
you? Here's a man who is angry. There
is very little calm argument in this chapter. There are many,
many burning, piercing, rhetorical questions. He keeps saying, do
you not know, do you not realize Why are you doing this? There's
a sense of horror and upset in almost every phrase. And he's
disappointed not just with the individuals involved, but perhaps
even more so with the whole church for allowing this to happen.
and his upset is directed to the whole congregation. These
people are always getting things the wrong way round. We saw last
time that there was blatant sin inside the church and they refused
to judge that at all. But when there's a financial
dispute They can't wait to run outside the church for judgment. They won't exercise judgment
within the church where it should be exercised, and they insist
on looking for judgment outside the church where it shouldn't
be exercised. Everything wrong back to front. And as we shall see, Paul could
react with similar horror today. And I think we'll find this passage
is a lot more relevant to us, perhaps a lot more uncomfortable
than we anticipate. The section is divided into two.
In verses one to six, he deals with the inconsistency of public
quarrels. And then in verses 7 to 11, he gives instruction to disputing
believers. First of all then, verses 1 to
6, the inconsistency of public quarrels. And he makes four main
points here. The first is that there is a
sad loss of perspective. there is a sad loss of perspective. We don't know the reason for
this argument in the church at Corinth. It almost certainly
involved money of some kind. Some Christian felt that another
Christian had cheated him or her in some way. Paul uses words
in the chapter like cheat, do wrong, thieves, greedy, swindlers. Some financial matter. Perhaps
someone had borrowed and wouldn't pay back. Perhaps someone had
bought something which hadn't come up to standard. Or some
other matter. Some financial matter. And Paul
strongly suggests that it simply isn't worth quarrelling. He describes it in verse 2, these
things as trivial cases. Trivial things, literally in
Greek, the very least things. Things that aren't important.
Things that don't matter. He says in verse 4, if you have
disputes And he uses a particular grammatical form, there are two
Greek words for if, and the particular word he uses with the mood of
the verb that comes afterwards implies that you shouldn't have
disputes. There shouldn't be disputes about
these trivial things, but if you have them. What he's saying here is, in
view of all that I have taught you, about the privileges and
blessings of the Christian, and that you have received these
blessings by God's grace, is it right to fall out over a few
pounds? That's what he's saying. There's a lack
of perspective here. You remember chapter 3, verse
21. All things, he says, all things
are yours. All are yours. And you are Christ's. Christ is God's. You've been
given forgiveness of sins. You've been given a new nature.
You've been given the Holy Spirit. God has promised to care for
you and to provide for you and to protect you and to guard you
and keep you. You know that when you die You
will go to heaven to a glorious new world and a new life where
you will reign as kings and queens forever and forever and forever
in a new universe with everything that you could possibly want
or possibly need freely provided for you. You have received all
this though you didn't deserve it. You've received it for nothing. You've received it as a gift
and you're fighting over a few pounds. Is that not very inconsistent?
Is that not a sad thing? Is that not a lack of perspective?
Two of you at least are so angry over a small trivial matter of
money that you're taking each other to court and all the wealth
of heaven is yours. A lack of perspective. And then
he says secondly, there's a denial of their position. There's a
denial of their position, verses 2 and 3. Do you not know that
the saints will judge the world? We will judge angels. Now it's
uncertain exactly what this involves, what Paul means here. Perhaps
you remember how in Matthew 19, 28, Jesus said to the first disciples,
at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his
glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on
twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. We don't know
exactly what Paul is referring to here, but it is a position
of great honour, of great credulity. of great rule. The saints will
judge the world and we're all going to share in that honour
and in that rule and in that privilege. We are going to pass
judgement, as it were, on this corrupt world, doomed to destruction,
from which we have been delivered. We've been saved out of the world.
We've been lifted above the world. By grace, we are superior to
the world. And someday we're going to look
at that world in all its lostness and condemnation and express
judgment on it, Christ's judgment, God's judgment. That ruined,
empty, dead, blind, useless world from which we have been rescued
and which we're going to judge. And yet Paul says, when you want
someone to judge for you, Who do you go to? You go to a poor,
blind, dead sinner on his way to hell and you sit under his
authority and you ask him to be your judge. Is that not a
pathetic thing? Is that not a denial of your
position? We're going to judge the world! And yet we have to
go trotting off to some corrupt little Roman official to tell
us how to organize our affairs. The Corinthians are submitting
themselves to the authority of perishing men. Men whom they
will one day see condemned, lost, blind, ruined men. And they're
going to them and they're saying, tell us what to do. Proper translation of verse 4
which I gave you in the reading. Paul shot the irony. If you have
disputes about such matters, you appoint as judges men of
little account in the church. It's a tragic irony, a complete
denial of their whole position. There's a loss of perspective. There's a denial of our position. And thirdly, there's a neglect
of their resources. There's a neglect of their resources.
If there was anything the Corinthians were proud of, it was of their
wisdom. They were always going on about
it morning, noon, and night. They were in love with wisdom.
We are wise, they said. As Christians, we are the wise. We have the knowledge, we have
the mystery. The world are lost and blind
and ignorant. We are the wise. Look at the
stinging sarcasm of verse 5. Is it possible that there is
nobody among you, nobody among you, wise enough? to judge a dispute between believers. You're all great wise people,
aren't you? You've such wisdom, such ability,
wiser than everybody else. And yet when there's a dispute,
apparently there's not one single person in the whole church wiser
to judge a simple dispute. All your pride all your gifts,
all your abilities, all your blessings, but you can't seem
to deal with a very, very simple problem. Paul says, if there are disputes
among the fellowship, why not appoint a respected Christian,
one of your own number, someone with wisdom and sensitivity and
graciousness to listen to both sides. And to come to a decision
which will honor God, why do you run off to the ungodly? Is there nobody wise enough in
the church to settle this? And then the fourth and last
point he makes in this section, there is the loss of perspective,
there's the denial of their position, there's the neglect of their
resources, and then worst of all, far worse than anything
else, is the damage to their witness. The damage to their
witness. That's the most grievous thing
to Paul. And there's a tremendous shock
in the original, in the closing phrase of verse 6. He says, instead,
one brother goes to law against another, and this in front of
unbelief. in front of unbelievers. They're distressing their own
church before the world. They're erecting a massive barrier
to the gospel. They're bringing dishonor to
Christ their Savior. Paul says, what sort of a witness
is it when the whole city of Corinth is gossiping and sniggering
and laughing about the Christians who can't get on together. What sort of a witness is that? What sort of a message is it
in a town in Ulster when it's known to everyone that there's
a row in the local church? What message can that church
have? What influence can it have? They can't even get on with each
other. They talk about the peace of God. They can't even be at
peace among themselves. They talk about loving your enemies.
They can't even love their friends, their brothers and sisters. Paul
says, in front of unbelievers. That's why he begins, how dare
you? How dare you? Take all this dirty
linen and wash it in public for people to point the finger and
laugh and mock Christians who can't get on together. In spite of all their boasting,
this public quarrelling is totally inconsistent with their Christian
position and their profession. The inconsistency of public quarrels. But Paul's a true pastor, and
he doesn't stop with rebuking their inconsistency, so he moves
on to some practical teaching in verses 7 to 11. It's pointed,
it's painful, but it's very helpful. Instruction to disputing believers. Instruction to disputing believers. And he is still addressing the
whole church, the whole congregation, but I think certainly in the
opening verses he's focusing specially on the two parties
to this dispute. And I think that in verse 7 he
is speaking to the injured party, to the injured party, the party
who has been offended, the person who has been wronged, who has
been cheated, the person who is innocent, The person to whom
some harm has been done. And look what he says to this
person. The very fact that you have lawsuits means that you
have been completely defeated already. He's speaking to the
injured party who has taken his brother or sister to court. Couldn't
get justice, went to court. And Paul says the fact that you've
gone to court means that you're a loser. You may win your case,
but you're still a loser. You're still a loser. You may
be in the right. You may be in the right, but
you're wrong. You're in the wrong. You may
achieve victory in the law court, but as a Christian, you've been
defeated. What does he mean? Well, he says,
you may gain your point. You may get a few pounds awarded
to you. You may keep the piece of property
you want. You may safeguard your pride,
but you have shown yourself to be an unforgiving, ungracious,
revengeful, selfish person. How many times has it been true
of all of us that we have won the argument, and walked away
quite pleased that we had won the argument, and then five minutes
later felt ashamed of ourselves. How petty we had been, how touchy,
how selfish. Wouldn't it have been far better,
even if we were in the right, just to let the whole Oh no,
I'm not going to be the prophet. I'm in the right, and I have
to be seen in the right. Paul says, you're a loser, you're
a loser. Even if you're in the right,
technically, you're still a loser. Because you've said to the world,
I'm not willing to suffer. I'm not willing to carry my cross. I'm not willing to take second
place. I would rather ruin the reputation
of my church than be injured. I would rather damage the prospects
for the gospel than suffer. Paul says to the person who's
taking the lawsuit, you're not a winner. There are no winners
in this situation. you've been completely defeated.
And he goes on to say in verse seven, why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Why
not just let go and forget about it? Why make an issue of it? Be big enough to forgive and
to forget. All right, somebody did you wrong. Somebody in the church did you
wrong. We'll agree to that. You were right and they were
wrong. They shouldn't have done it. But how often have you wronged
God? How often have you sinned against Him? What does God do? Does He take you to court? Of
course He doesn't. God forgets. You ask forgiveness,
you're cleansed. We have cheated God, we have
wronged God. We say, forgive us our debts
as we forgive our debtors, not as we take our debtors to court.
So there's a very hard word, hard to put into practice. But
there's this word to the innocent man, to the guilty party, to
the innocent party, to the injured party, listen, to take this person
to court. To make a big issue of it is
to be a loser. And even if you win, you'll still
be a loser. Because you'll be ashamed of
yourself. Let it go. Forget about it. Forgive. Just
let the person wrong you. Put it out of your mind. Don't
get bitter. Don't get angry, don't get up onto your high horse
and start disrupting unity and spoiling the reputation of the
church for the sake of your name. Let it go. Let it go. Why not rather be wronged? Why
not rather be cheated? Very hard to put this advice
into practice, isn't it? We might ask, but does this not
leave innocent people in the church very vulnerable to horrible,
selfish, dishonest people? Does this not mean that the people
in a church who are soft and gentle and humble and easy going,
are they not going to be ill-treated and abused and robbed with no
weapons to defend themselves? Is Paul not letting the guilty
person off lightly? Is this not a charter to profit
here in the church? But just wait a moment, for Paul
has something far, far more devastating to say to the guilty party. He
speaks to the innocent person first, he says, listen, don't
make a big deal of it, just let it go. But then he turns to the
guilty party, verse 8, verse 9 and so on. He says, you cheat,
and you do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. doesn't
pour his punches. He knows exactly what is going
on. He calls sin by its proper name. You're a cheat. You're a wrongdoer
to your brothers. And even worse, he goes on to
deal with the implications in verse 9. Do you not know that
the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. He says to this person, you are
behaving wickedly. Do you realize what this means?
You're saying by your dishonesty, I am not a Christian. That's
what you're saying. The wicked will not inherit the
kingdom of God. And you're being wicked. You're
behaving in a wicked fashion. You're cheating, you're doing
wrong, and people who do that aren't Christians and aren't
going to heaven. And you're full of yourself as you
plead your case in court. You're a proud, arrogant Christian. You think yourself so spiritual,
pleading your case, defending your wrongdoing. In fact, he
says, you're really lining up with the dregs of humanity. You're
claiming as your associates, and he mentions them in verse
10, the sexually immoral, male prostitutes, homosexual offenders,
thieves, drunkards, slanders, swindlers. These are your friends. These are your allies. These
are the people you're lining up with. These are the people
you say you belong to. You're losing the friendship
of God to join with the scum of the earth. Is that what you
want to do? Do you want God to mark you down
as a cheat? As a wrongdoer? This should never
have gone to court. He says you should have acknowledged
the wrong that you did. You should have paid back the
money. You should have sought your brother's forgiveness. How
dare you wrong your brother? How dare you treat him in such
a fashion? He's wronged to take you to court, but you're far,
far more wrong in committing the injury which tempted him
to take you to court. He has committed a little sin,
but you have committed a huge sin. So you see, Paul is far,
far sterner. with the guilty party and with
the innocent. He says to the innocent party,
look, don't make a big deal of it, don't take it to court, just
let it go. But when he turns to the guilty
party, he's very, very fierce and very strong. He says you're
behaving in a totally non-Christian way. And the point is And notice
pastoral concern here further on in the passage in verse 11. The point is he says, I don't
think you are really like that. You used to be like that. You
used to be a wicked evil person. That is what you were. But you
have been washed, you've been sanctified, you've been justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our
God. He says, Christian, I think you're
a Christian. Don't behave like a sinner bound
for hell. People outside cheat and lie
and defraud. You can't do that. Remember what
God has done for us. Remember what God has made of
you. Remember how Christ has died for you. Stop behaving,
stop acting like a lost sinner. Be what you are. And surely it would be a very
hardened person who wouldn't repent after this instruction
from the Apostle. I wonder who it was or who they
were in the church at Corinth sitting listening to this letter
being read. Paul says you're cheating, you're
wronging, you're behaving like a sinner bound for hell. You're selling heaven for a few
pounds. And I would like to think that
after this letter was read, one man would stand up with tears
in his eyes and start moving across the church and say, look
brother, I'm going to drop the lawsuit. And the other would
come to meet him and say, look brother, I'm going to pay you
back the money. And it would all be solved. See how the gospel is very practical. Very, very practical. Now just
for a moment or two could we say something by way of application
to ourselves. It's not probable that any of
us will end up facing a fellow believer in court. And I suppose
it's even more improbable that we'll end up taking a fellow
member of this congregation to court. I devoutly hope that will
never be the case. Although tragically Christians
do end up in court. against each other. But what
can we learn from this passage? Surely one thing we can learn
is that as Christians, Paul is telling us here not to fall out
over what is trivial, and not to get agitated about secondary
things, about temporal Surely he's telling us to keep a biblical
sense of proportion about what is really important, what is
eternally important, our riches in Christ, our salvation. Wouldn't this be a good passage
to preach in parts of Ulster today? Christians, some of them
said they were ready to die, to die. to be able to walk down
one particular road with an orange sash and a banner.
I wonder what the Apostle Paul would have to say about that.
He talks about travail matters. You are Christ. All the heavens
and all the earth is yours. All the riches of salvation are
yours. Or how a vote goes in a city
council, or whether there's been a little bit of discrimination
Where there are road signs put up in Irish, oh my word, the
heaven is full. And are we living in a province
where people, and many of them Christian people, get so agitated,
so wound up about matters that are utterly, utterly trivial. Utterly trivial. Happens in churches
too. What colour are we going to paint
the church hall? And the church is nearly split
open. So whether it be pink or green, perhaps green is not a
very good choice, but whatever color is going to be painted,
arguing over trivial matters. Paul says keep a sense of perspective. There's another principle. All
personal disagreements among Christians must be settled inside
the church. all personal disagreements among
Christians must be settled inside the church. Inside the church. One guarantee I think I can give
you on behalf of myself and my fellow elders. You, the members
of the congregation, will never hear of any argument or disagreement
in our session. And whether we have them or not
is for us to know. But if we ever do differ, our
differences are always settled in that room before we leave. Before we leave. Always. And
we always leave in harmony. It has to be settled. And it's
true also. It's true in the family. It's true in the congregation.
We're not to talk about our differences to the outside world, or not
to parade them. Paul says, look, settle it among
yourselves. Don't let your congregation die.
Don't let your Savior die. Settle it among yourselves. Let
us make that an unbreakable rule. Isn't it tragic when you hear
of a quarrel in a church, and you hear stories from both sides?
people are running around, getting support, should be settled in
the church. And one final point, remember
always to use Schaeffer's phrase that the church is before the
watching world. We are being watched. We cannot
afford the luxury of selfish disputes. There's enough controversy
that we have to engage in, necessary controversy, biblical controversy,
God-honouring controversy. We have to make a stand for things.
We have to say things that are unpopular and offensive. We have
to contend for the faith given to the saints. We have to say
things that people don't want to hear. But we can't add to
it by our own disagreements. People are looking for a community
which is different. And we believe in a saviour who
gave up his rights for the sake of other people. And allowed
himself to be robbed and cheated and hurt and injured and killed. And he took it all. and he could have called down
legions of angels at any moment, but he didn't do it. Now are
we willing to follow our Saviour, to allow ourselves to be injured
and treated badly and cheated? Are you willing for that? That's
what happened to Jesus. That's what happened to Jesus.
He glorified God not by striking back. We're called to follow him whatever
the cost may be. He said in John 13, 35, by this
all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one
another. I believe there would be no better
New Year resolution than we could all make than something like
this. If I, in this coming year, am
annoyed or angry or upset with a fellow Christian, I will either settle it with
them, or I'll try to get someone else in the church to help us
to settle it, or I'll forget about it. But the one thing I
will not do is talk about to anyone outside the church. Don't dare to do it. Amen. Let us bow in prayer. Heavenly
Father, we seek to be realistic as we come before you now. And
we know from the knowledge of our own hearts and from our past
experience that there is no way in which we are going to get
through 1997 without hurting and upsetting
some of our dear brothers and sisters here. For we all have
too many sharp angles, we are thoughtless and insensitive,
we are stubborn, we are mistaken, we all have flaws and failures. And so Lord, we know that without
meaning to, in the slightest way, it is quite possible that
we will wrong. some of our brothers and sisters.
And it is more than possible, it is certain, that we will upset
them at some time, either by what we do or by what we don't
do. How we thank you, Father, that
none of that matters in the slightest, if the love of Christ fills our
hearts and our lives. For it is the lubricating oil
which soothes all the shrieks and scraping noises of our humanities
rubbing together against one another. So, Father, we pray
that you will help us to be sensitive, help us to be loving and kind,
help us to think before we speak, help us to try to overcome our
own personal thoughts. But more than that, O God, help
us to learn how to forgive and how to forget. Help us to reflect
on how much you forgive us every day and how dependent we are
on you forgetting and not holding our iniquities against us. We
thank you for the spirit of love with which you have blessed us
over the years.
Washing dirty linen in public
Series 1 Corinthians
| Sermon ID | 229121741320 |
| Duration | 47:16 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 1 Corinthians 6:1-11 |
| Language | English |
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