When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? 2 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?
“How dare you!” Those words have been weaponized in our society and used against people who merely disagree with them on an issue. It sure beats calm and intelligent discussion and it is far easier; all one syllable words! It is an attempt to shame their opponent. Paul’s shaming of the Corinthians is more carefully thought out. Apparently, one sued another in the church and Paul was horrified at the appearance of disunity that it showed to unbelievers. Paul used the word saints twice here. I would have thought he used the words to mock them but I do not believe Paul did that. He did seem to coin a new word in Scripture for “incompetent”. That should have sent a clear message to this struggling church about their “wisdom”.
Come to Cape Community Church tomorrow as we plumb deeper into the moral cesspool that was the church in Corinth. We will examine the heart condition required for this sort of outrageous behavior. And we are just getting started! Come and see that the Lord is good and the church can be terrible at representing him to the world. May we be empowered to change that.
Dear Lord, thank you for the church. Thank you for the example of Corinth and may we never repeat this. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church