1 Corinthians 6:1-11--Butterflies, not Caterpillars

1 Corinthians 6:1-11
New International Version
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6 If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? 2 Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! 4 Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church? 5 I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? 6 But instead, one brother takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers!

​7 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? 8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters. 9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 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.

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I used my own title for this passage to connect it back with the reoccurring theme we've been talking about in these devotionals and in The Gospel Project.  I'll also say this is one of those passages that you will get wrong if you read it out of the context of the entire book of 1 Corinthians and if you read it at by itself at the exclusion of the rest of the Bible.  So, let's refresh a bit--we started our devotions with the Sermon on the Mount and we've talked much about how the gospel is something that changes you from the inside-out.  It is not simply external like how people thought of the Law--that is simply a mirror that showed people the imperfections so that they could go to God to deal with them.  While good works will never save you this passage along with others (especially that book of James) tell us that our works and our faith must act in concert with one another.  If we say we believe in one thing and our works say that we believe in something else, it usually are words that are lying and not our actions, and many times we are lying even to ourselves.  Paul is addressing such a situation here where people call themselves Christians but are acting as bad or worse than the pagans and heathens that live in the world around them--the gospel appears ot have taken no root and is producing no fruit in their lives because it fell among stony ground, the hard path or among the thorns and thistles, but appears no to have fallen on "good soil."

Paul's first complaint though has to do with these Christians wanting to sue each other about anything and everything and always dragging each other before the courts which was ruining the reputation of the Church as a whole and Christ as it appeared that these "Christians" were just as bad or worse than everyone else in society if they were always coming up through the legal system.  Why would anyone want to trust any of them if they were either going to get ripped off by them or sued at the first sign of infraction--you'd want to stay away from them.  No, they must be above reproach and able to handle their disputes internally according to the authority that Christ vested in the Church for the good of the whole Body so that they may at peace with one another and not have divisions within the Body.  It is not the place for the world to judge believers because the world will not judge according to the Word of God like we ought to be judged and will not be included to offer grace as we are meant to offer in generous amounts to one another.

In fact, Paul tells them that they are already in the wrong by suing each other as they have violated the principle of "turn the other cheek" that Jesus taught where we should be okay with being taken advantages of and entrust judgment to God.  Instead they are the ones being called cheaters and wrong-doers and they are doing this to their brothers and sisters in Christ too.  What a dysfunctional family this is!!!  Remember the point Paul just made about their reputation among the world and among each other--it is key to understanding the next verses.

Paul asks them how they don't know (because their actions certainly aren't showing that they know) that the wicked person will not inherit the kingdom of God--the one whose identity and reputation is found in their carnal sin nature and not in the Spirit of God is not fit for heaven since they have not been "born again"  (See John 3).  Paul then lists a lot of sins that they were being identified with that showed that they had never become a new creation because they were producing fruit in accordance with the flesh and not the fruit of the Spirit (as we studied a little while ago in Galatians--that's why I wanted to talk about that passage first as I think it says it in a way that is more easily understood what Paul is talking about here).  If your identity is in sexual immorality, idolatry, adulatory (let's say a "womanizer"), homosexuality, thievery, greed, drunkenness, slander (attacking people with your words), or swindling (manipulating people to get what you want) then these are not attributes that reflect the character and nature of God and are inconsistent and impartible with the person who calls themselves a son of God who is supposed to be called this because they are made in the very likeness and nature of the one and only Son of God, Jesus Christ.

This is what we used to be in our flesh and are no longer to be as we walk by the Spirit of God.  Our identity has now been changed and our identity is now found in the fact that we have been washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.  Therefore we should no longer walk according to the flesh but walk in the Spirt.

Let's end today with that similar passage in the book of Galatians (and I also recommend you review The Sermon on the Mount to see that it's not about doing, but about being and that correct actions come out of a transformed heart).


Galatians 5:16-25
English Standard VersionKeep in Step with the Spirit16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.