1 Corinthians 6:1-8 For All the Saints

Last week, all of the snow shoveling I had to do gave me ample time to catch up on some podcasts. I was listening to a discussion on worship, in which one of the guests was critiquing certain hymns and songs for excessive use of the first- person perspective. He argued that too many instances of words like "I" and "me" could promote a self-focused or individualistic approach to worship. Glancing at the hymns in this week's bulletin, while there are some that describe the Lord in third person (such as All Hail The Power Of Jesus' Name and Man of Sorrows!) and several times where we address Him directly ("Lord, tear out the horrid fangs of these young lions" in Psalm 58 and "Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blessed" from For All The Saints), there are also a fair amount of first person pronouns. But notice how many of them are plural: "At the lamb's high feast we sing," "we at His feet may fall," Unto Christ who loved us," "Lamb of God … have mercy on us," "We give You thanks for Your great glory," "We cling alone to Jesus." Christ saves us individually, but He also calls us together to be a people—to be saints. This is part of the point behind Paul's injunction against lawsuits among the brethren in 1 Corinthians 6. Let us avoid quarreling, and instead remember that we are to be "bound in love together" on the heights of Zion. —Henry C. Haffner Key Words: Saints, Judge, Angels, Suffer, Wrong, Defraud Keystone Verse: Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? (1 Corinthians 6:2) 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? 2Or 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? 3Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! 4 So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? 5 I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, 6but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? 7To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? 8But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brother