Full Transcript

Welcome to Share the Word. Imagine you’re watching an episode of Judge Judy or The People’s Court or even Jerry Springer, and you find out that those who are arguing with each other are Christians. Well, the Apostle Paul has a real issue and isn’t afraid to address it. Keep listening. First Corinthians chapter 6. Take one for the team.

You’ve probably figured out by now that I like language and words, and it’s one reason I enjoy writing and public speaking. But I also am just fascinated with language itself and how it has developed over time, where words and phrases have come from, and so on. Idioms especially are fascinating. Idioms are phrases or expressions that have a different meaning than the literal meaning of their individual words. For example, beating around the bush. The meaning of that phrase has nothing to do with taking a stick and whacking the ground as you circle a bush.

The idiom means talking around and around something rather than just getting to the point. So maybe you could use this idiom right now and say, Paul, stop beating around the bush and get to the big idea in chapter 6 of First Corinthians. I didn’t come here for an English lesson. Well, at the risk of really ticking you off, here’s another idiom, but one that does have to do with the big idea in chapter 6. Take one for the team. You’ve heard that, right?

Because of my fascination with language, I actually researched where this one came from. The consensus seems to be it’s rather new, was first used in writing or public speaking around 1970 by baseball writers. The situation was something like this. Your best power hitter comes to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning with a runner on first or second base. Your team needs just one run to win this important game. You know the slugger wants to be the hero and swing for the fences, but the third base coach gives him the bunt sign and see if he can move that runner over into scoring position.

Goes against everything in your cleanup hitter’s instincts, but he lays down a good bunt and moves that runner over, and he takes one for the team. He puts the team’s best interest ahead of his personal glory. Another article I read suggested it originated when a batter in a similar position intentionally leaned into a pitch. He leaned over the plate further than he should have intentionally to be hit by a pitch. Ouch! Ouch!

He could get seriously hurt doing that. But you know what? If he gets hit, that will move him to first base and also will move the runner ahead of him into scoring position. As he trots to first base, rubbing his red, swelling wrist that just got cracked by a Bob Gibson fastball, the coach at first says, Willie, way to take one for the team. This idiom has broadened in our language and is used in many different situations now and means when one person makes a personal sacrifice for the greater good of a group they are part of. That’s the definition.

The Apostle Paul does not use the phrase take one for the team in 1 Corinthians 6, but that’s only because it hadn’t been invented yet. He could have because it captures the important point he wanted to make to these carnal Corinthian Christians perfectly. And he makes it in this way, a way I wouldn’t have expected, to be honest with you. Listen to the first several verses. If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? Do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world one day, 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, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church? I say this to your shame. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? But instead, one believer takes another to court, 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? Sounds like this is another problem that Chloe brought to Paul’s attention. Members of the church in Corinth were caught up in legal disputes against each other, which were playing out publicly in the city’s secular court system. We’re not told the exact issue or issues, and, you know, my inquiring mind would really like to know.

But I’m guessing it was a business or financial dispute because Paul uses the word here, cheated. Perhaps a situation like two guys are in business together, or in a new venture together, which doesn’t work out exactly like they’d imagined it would, and now one of them is suing the other one for breach of contract, something like that. The exact situation really is not the point. The point is Paul is concerned about how this is making them look, their church look, therefore the gospel of Christ and Christianity look, before the unbelievers in that city. Remember we were talking about entertainments a couple lessons ago and how people spent their time in that culture? Well, they had their own version of Judge Judy or the People’s Court, like our reality TV shows where people bring their grievances before a judge and spectators and air their charges against each other publicly.

Have you ever watched one of those shows and thought, My word, wow, what would possess these people to air their dirty laundry on TV? Such a public way. Sometimes it’s even family disputes, brothers and sisters going at it, parents and children going at it, disagreements that have grown and turned them into enemies. Well, in Greece at that time, secular court was held in the city center, the forum, which was as public as it got. Paul himself had stood trial of sorts in Corinth’s forum during the time he was there a few years before evangelizing and planting that church. We read about it in Acts 18, and that was a very public event.

The judge sat on the bema seat, surrounded by those who meted out the punishment. People gathered at the forum to watch out of interest and curiosity. It was entertainment to listen to other people’s issues and watch them go at each other. The apostle Paul was not at all happy that members of the Corinthian church were not only having personal disputes, but much more, that they were taking them to public court to be aired out before unbelievers. He decided that that was totally inappropriate. Pagan judges solving your problems?

Unbelieving juries solving your problems? How dare you do that? He thought it was shameful. Wait a minute, Paul. You said a moment ago Paul himself was in this public court in Corinth. Yeah, he was, but it was a completely different situation.

Paul was taken to court before the proconsul Gallio, accused of breaking Roman laws, being a troublemaker disturbing the peace, and his accusers were unbelievers. He didn’t have a choice in that matter. On other occasions, as we went through Acts, we saw Paul taken to court in different places and him using his legal rights as a Roman citizen after he was arrested for preaching the gospel when some people reacted very negatively to the message. Opponents tried to use the legal system against him, and he defended himself as a Roman citizen so that he could continue his Great Commission work. He wasn’t breaking any laws by doing that. And what’s going on now in this church, though, is very different.

Its members have disagreements with one another, which grew into legal disputes and which they were taking to public courts. Paul scolds them, What in the world are you doing? You can’t find anyone in your church wise enough to hear your issues and help you settle these disputes as brothers? You know, among the religious Jews at the time, they did their best to settle issues in-house. Their attitude was, To take our disputes before the pagans is to blaspheme God, for it’s like saying He doesn’t have an answer for this, so let’s go to them. This is what Paul was used to.

If two people in their community had an issue, it would be taken to the synagogue leaders, and the issue would be resolved using principles from the law of Moses in the Old Testament. In fact, the Roman government gave the Jews a lot of leeway to do that. Remember when Pontius Pilate first heard the charges against Jesus? His initial response was, These issues don’t concern me. Take him yourself and judge him according to your own laws. The only reason that wasn’t how it played out in that case is because the Jewish religious leaders demanded Jesus be put to death, and that was further than the Romans allowed them to go.

But in most instances, the Jews had the authority to resolve things among themselves, and that is what Paul is telling the Corinthians is the right course. He says, When you go before unbelievers with your dispute, you’ve already lost. Even if you win in their court, you’ve lost, and we’ve all lost. You’ve made us look bad. You’ve undercut our message that Christianity is a higher and better way. You’ve damaged and weakened your church’s reputation, and you’ve given unbelievers ammunition to scoff at us.

Wouldn’t it be better, he says, to allow yourself to be wronged in these trivial matters? Wouldn’t it be better, in the big picture, to allow yourself to be cheated, to absorb a loss if that’s what it comes to, rather than give unbelievers a spectacle? I mentioned in an earlier First Corinthians episode that this church’s problems, really, when you boil them down, get to pride. You know, there are surface issues, surface problems, the things that present on the surface, and then there are the root problems, the real causes. The root causes of most disputes are pride. People feel wronged, they get offended, they get their back up, and they won’t back down.

Animosity develops. If it has to do with money in particular, many times that turns into a legal dispute. Not long ago, I stopped at Popeye’s for lunch. I was in a truck with four big trash can containers standing up in the back. When I backed out of my parking spot, I did so very slowly because I had very poor visibility straight behind me, and oops, I bumped into something. When I got out to check, there’s this young guy sitting there in a beat-up old Audi.

I mean, his car looked like a loser in a demolition derby. I’m sure he saw me backing out because I came out so slowly, but he apparently just sat there till I bumped him. He didn’t honk to warn me I was backing into him, just let me bump him. I got out. I checked his car for where my back bumper would have touched him. It looked like it hit on the plastic grille.

The grille was cracked. But then again, pretty much everything on this old beater was damaged in one way or another. I offered to pay the kid—he was a young man—to buy a new replacement for his car for the grille. No, no, he insisted. He said, I’m going to call a policeman and have him write up an accident report. Oh boy, I knew I was about to get scammed, and as it worked out, my insurance company didn’t even care enough to come investigate, paid out a bunch of money to fix all kinds of things on that old car—the bumper, the hood, the front fender—things I definitely did not damage, and to the tune of lots of money.

And that annoyed me. My flesh wanted to fight back because I knew this was going to go on my driving record as an accident, and I felt like I was being wronged. It felt unjust. But in the end, I decided to just let it go. It was too trivial a matter to get bent out of shape about. But it ticks us off when we feel our rights are being violated, when we feel wronged, and we live in a very litigious society too.

I was thinking as I considered that incident against the background of this passage. What if that had happened in the parking lot of our church, and the other person was a member of my church, and then we had a disagreement about who was at fault and about the extent of the damage that had actually been done? You can see that could easily escalate into hard feelings. He could sue me for the damage as he claimed I caused on his car. I could countersue him for a fraudulent claim, right? And it could grow from two members in a church crossways with one another to others taking sides, then to airing our issues in a public court somewhere before a bunch of unbelievers.

No one would likely be satisfied with the result because people are angry by this time. I should say no one, but really the enemy would be very satisfied with this result, wouldn’t he? So know the apostle Paul is saying, aren’t there people inside the body of Christ who are wise enough to resolve your issues? And if not, wouldn’t it be better to absorb the loss rather than fighting publicly, rather than hurting your church by your dispute, rather than making people take sides and, worst of all, looking bad before outsiders? As I said, demanding our rights is a very American thing. It’s our first instinct.

If you aren’t mature enough as a believer to choose peace and forgiveness over demanding your rights, at least use a Christian arbitration service to stay out of secular courts when it’s a problem with another believer. If it’s a major problem, there are organizations that offer Christian arbitration. Just Google that term. You’ll see several of them. They help Christian parties at odds with each other arbitrate and resolve issues. Both parties agree up front that their decision will be binding.

And then wise people with legal expertise resolve it and you stay out of court. That’s a more godly thing to do if you ever find yourself in such a situation. But if it’s the typical smaller issue that could just blow up into a bigger issue because of pride, why not go to the leaders of your local church? Ask a few people you both respect there to hear what’s going on and recommend a just solution. Or, if it’s really a trivial matter, why not just let it go? Why not, out of love, rather be wrong?

That’s Paul’s question. Why not give up some of your rights in order to protect the unity of your church and protect Christ’s reputation in your community? Why not take one for the team? Wouldn’t that bring glory to God? Wouldn’t he bless that attitude? It might seem strange that it’s right on the heels of this that Paul continues, 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, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers or swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you have been washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of our God. I’ll be honest, I have never put that little section there together closely with what had just come before. You know, the lawsuit thing. Not until I was studying this passage this time did I realize the connection in Paul’s mind.

Elsewhere, in Colossians chapter 3, he writes to another early church. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy, dearly beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other. Forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. Humility rather than pride. Bearing with each other rather than getting offended. Forgiving as the Lord forgave you. A little humility goes a long way in de-escalating problems. Bearing with one another has to do with letting things roll off your back rather than getting your back arched up, you know, getting offended.

Forgiving others as the Lord forgave us. Now that’s really having the mind of Christ. That’s spiritual maturity. Paul is reminding the Corinthians here of the kinds of serious sins God has forgiven them of because of Christ, because Christ absorbed their wrongs and paid the penalty on Calvary. He says, You know people who do the sorts of things you were doing go straight to hell, right? But because of Jesus, you were washed.

You were sanctified, made holy. You were justified, declared righteous. Not because you were right. Not because you deserved it. No, because Christ decided to take one for the team. The most out-there, extreme example of taking one for the team that’s ever occurred or is even imaginable.

Jesus, who for the joy set before him endured the cross and despised its shame. For us, do you see the connection? Paul is saying, remember who you were. Some of you have been thieves, lived very immoral lives, been idolaters, been practicing homosexuals, been drunkards, etc., etc. But for Jesus, where would you stand with God? But for Jesus absorbing your wrongs, where would you be?

But for Jesus laying aside his personal rights, humbling himself and going to the cross, where would you be? Do you see? Paul is saying to the people in this church, you call yourselves followers of Christ, you call yourselves Christians. Can’t you set aside some of your personal rights, humble yourselves a little bit, absorb a loss if need be to honor God, to protect the unity of your church, to protect Christ and the gospel’s reputation before unbelievers there? The underlying big idea in this lesson goes well beyond the problem of going to court against another believer. Although it’s clear that dishonors God and should never happen, it gets down to the idea of being willing to sacrifice our rights for the greater good, as Jesus did for us in an amazing way.

There’s probably no other test as difficult for us to show we have the mind of Christ than when we feel wronged and how we react. So, have you been hurt? Maybe you feel slighted, believe you have been wronged by someone else in your church family. Paul’s challenging us to take one for the team. To give up our rights to seek revenge, to demand restitution, to make ourselves look exonerated, to look like the winner. Because in those prideful pursuits, it’s the body of Christ that loses and the name of God that is damaged before the unbelieving world around us.

This is Paul for Share the Word. Thank you, Paul. In 1 Corinthians, it’s very clear that the church in Corinth suffered from serious issues, and Paul set out to address every single one of them. He admonished them, but it was always through the lens of truth and love. In this broken world, we are so often overwhelmed by pride that we forget that all we have is not ours, that we are only stewards, and our actions as Christians should reflect just that. From all of us at Share the Word, our blessings and prayers go out to all of you.