06/09/19 - Take One For The Team 1 Corinthians 6:1-11

Are you competitive? Even if you're not chances are you don't like losing. For the competitive Corinthians, life is all about winning and losing. Lawsuits are certainly about winning and losing. So imagine their surprise when Paul makes a most troubling announcement: any Corinthian Christian who takes another believer to court over a trivial matter has already lost. Going to court with a fellow-believer is a no-win situation. The better way is to take it to the church first. If the church lacks the maturity to mediate, then take the loss. Imagine Paul telling us that it is better to be a victim than a victor. Is Paul saying that it is better to be wronged, better to be defrauded? How can this be? Looking at Paul’s words from the dark side, just what keeps the Corinthian saints from taking the loss, from being the victim? The only reasons I can think of are all bad ones. We don’t want to take a loss because of our pride. We don’t want to let the other person get the better of us. We don’t want to lose. If we are materialistic, we don’t want to lose money or possessions, which are more precious to us than our relationships with fellow-believers. Those who are self-centered and self-serving do not want to have any of their rights violated. We protect and exercise our rights, no matter what the cost to others. Paul’s instructions to the Corinthian Christians can only be understood in terms of the utterly different value system of the Christian, as opposed to that of the unbeliever. The Christian life is dominated by the cross!