(audio cuts out) - Getting into the church and seeing various habits of the flesh. And I pray, Lord, that in seeing these things, we would not simply become dull or judgmental, even, but Father, with humility, realize that these are all things we need to be convicted of, these are all things that we are susceptible to, and I pray, Lord, that from learning, we would desire to be both protected and guard ourselves from it.

I pray, Lord, that in every time we read your word, we would have a heart of obedience, we would have a desire to apply into our lives. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Okay. All right, well, taking a look at our Bible passage for today, 1 Corinthians chapter six, verses one through 11.

And this is what it says. Does anyone of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts?

Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? I say this to your shame. It is so that there is not, all right, is it so that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren?

But brother goes to law with brother and that before unbelievers? Actually then, it is already a defeat for you that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud, you do this even to your brethren.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the spirit of our God.

Okay? So we're looking at this passage here and we're looking at the first segment. Remember I said that when you look at your Bibles, you can kinda see where the break-in thought of the writer was by looking at the verse numbers. And if it's bold, you're seeing a kind of paragraph indent, so to speak.

And so let's tackle the first paragraph together. And in the first six verses, I asked you this question originally. Identify what the Corinthians were doing wrong. Well, it's really, really obvious, but in this current context, the simple thing is the Christians in the Corinthians church, they were suing each other or taking each other to the court of law and having the court of law decide between them when there were disagreements, right?

But I ask you this question. When Apostle Paul sees this wrong behavior, what is his tone? What observations do you make of how Apostle Paul feels and thinks about what they're doing? Anyone? Again, I know sometimes I ask obvious questions that are just right there in the text, but we wanna be good, I guess, observance of what's going on.

What? It's shameful, okay? He's thinking it's shameful. What else? Kind of foolish. How does he personally, do you think he feel about this? Angered and indignant, okay? This is kind of like funny because, you know, in more common like lingo lately, it's actually not something more recent, but from a while ago, you know, people would use this term like, how dare you?

You know, they do something, you're like, how dare you? You know, and I find that to be something of an indicator of how he feels about it, right? If you think about this idea of how dare you and what kind of context you use that, Apostle Paul doesn't see this as a small problem, does he?

Rather, that kind of behavior is so far, far beyond what he thinks is acceptable. He's like, how dare you? And I want you to just jot down something really interesting about that term. It's because he asks in this way about, you know, dare, who basically dares to go to the law before the unrighteous and not before the saints.

But that term dares really interests, like almost hard to translate because it's used in many contexts as bold faced or in a good way, super courageous. Really interesting, right? So the way he's talking about it is he's almost like, oh my goodness, you know, not only are you doing it, but you're like brazen, you're bold, you're like doing it with a sense of gusto.

How dare you, you know? Like that's the kind of tone I see with Apostle Paul. What more, what's more when someone said, yeah, is he getting indignant? I think he is. Because you read the passage and the way he comes off is just like, well, don't you know that the saints will judge?

And then he asks in verse three, don't you know? Right? When you hear his tone then, as we're reading it, we're not listening to him audibly, but you can kind of guess how he feels about this particular sin and error in the church of Christians taking each other to the courts, right?

I just wanna highlight the fact that there has been already multiple things happening in the church, right? Everything from pride, everything from selfishness to then immorality. And there's a sense in which with each one, it's not a small deal, you know? So we see Apostle Paul trying to express to them this isn't something that you should be taking lightly.

This is something I need to address now. But in so doing, my next question to you was, in verses two through four, what is Paul trying to remind them of? How is he broadening their life perspective? (mouse clicking) Okay, that they're going to be judges themselves, right? So, jot that in there.

How is he broadening their perspective? He's reminding them this truth, they are going to be judges. That's really interesting. We take a moment now to think about this a little bit. And the scripture teaches us that for those who are in Christ, we are heirs with Christ. That is a repeated theme in the Bible, right?

Now, to be heirs then with Christ, we are also going to reign with Christ. To tell you honestly, I don't know the details of specifically what's that going to look like. But the fact of the matter is, even in this passage, Apostle Paul says that we are going to reign.

Who are we going to reign over in this passage, just by way of simple observation? Who are we going to reign over? Just yell it out. (laughs) What? (laughs) What? The world, what else? Angels too. So combination of that, it's just kinda like, I don't know the details of what it's going to mean for us as individuals, as redeemed in Christ, to share in his authority and reign with Christ.

But the fact of the matter is, the dominion of which we are going to reign is expansive. Not only is it going to be the world to come, but it's going to be even divine creatures, angels, who are sinless. Whoa. Have you ever thought about that? And I think that's something really interesting to think about, because there's a sense in which the scriptures expects us to live in that forward-thinking mentality.

This is who we are and going to be, right? Sometimes it is a humble thing for us to have a perspective like, we are lowly sinners. Is that true? Yes. We are marred, we're depraved, we're fallen, we're in the world, we're finite, all this kinda stuff. Is that all true?

Yes. But I don't think it's a humble thing to remain there. Scripture oftentimes expects us to live with a forward, like future reality perspective. And that's what I mean by how is Apostle Paul enlightening their life perspective? Enlightening your life perspective is, from here, you move forward to royalty.

Have you ever thought about that? From here, you move forward to positions of authority. From here, you move forward to God's servants in his kingdom, overseeing, exercising dominion like he expected Adam to do pre-fall. Ever thought about that? That's really, really interesting. Because of that, there's going to be a basis by which Apostle Paul now reasons with the church in saying, so what in the world are you doing going to human courts?

And you kinda see the connection. He's saying, you are people that God has now begun to sanctify to the point in which he's gonna glorify you to positions of authority. And here you are now, deferring judgment to pagans. What is that all about? And so you almost now see his rationale as to why he's so appalled.

But I wanna ask you this question. So in seeing his rationale, from verses two down to verse, let's say about six, what are the negative results? Wow, sorry for the, again, another grammatical awesomeness right there. What negative, oh, actually, that makes sense. What negative things result from Christians taking Christians to secular courts?

Okay, all right. So what negative things result from Christians taking other Christians to secular courts? From your observation of this passage, what things do you see? A bad witness. I think you guys should write that in there. Bad witness. Can we take a look at verse five and six?

He says, I say this to your shame. Shame has the connotation of you looking idiotic before people. Shame has with it idea of reputation. Shame has the idea of evaluation from the community, okay? And what he goes on to say is, is it so that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren?

But brother goes to law with his brother, and that before unbelievers? There's that other aspect, before unbelievers? Think about this for a moment. So you have a bad witness. Essentially, you disgrace the church, okay? You disgrace the believers. If you think about what he's saying there, he is talking about when two people who are believers take it to the world in this fashion, what are they showing the unbelievers about them?

That we're willing to see our own brother either go to jail in that day and age, be punished physically. I'm willing to see my brethren have their lives ruined. Financially, I'm willing to rip whatever is in their hand from them through legal process. They're willing to air their arrogance and carnality and greed in front of people.

That's shameful, is it not? That's disgracing the community of God. And Apostle Paul has this in there. It's like what you show is that in your community, guess what, there's not one single wise person. I wanna share with you an interesting historical fact. Is that historically, the Jews had their own governing system, right?

Ever since the days of Moses, there was a governing system amongst the Jews. And so if you recall the scenario with Jesus Christ, where was Jesus Christ taken first? The Roman courts or the Jewish courts? The Jewish courts. Why? Because they had every legal right and it was their process to do that.

Not only that, but historically, the Jewish community, they found it to be something blasphemous to take their court issues to the secular courts. Why? Because that would be giving authority to who? The God-forsaken Gentiles. Okay? The Jewish community had that attitude. Now the thing about it is, what's really interesting is, the Roman government, the empire of the Roman nation, obviously ruled over the Jews, but they allowed the Jews to maintain that authority.

So the only thing the Jews could not do was execute somebody. They could beat them. They could consider them blasphemous. They can consider them unworthy. They can consider them unclean. They can consider them all these kind of stuff. The only thing they couldn't do is execute, and that is why with Christ, they judged him first on their hearing and then took him to Pilate to execute.

Does that make sense? Okay. Now, I bring that up because then in the eyes of the Romans, for petty issues, money, for backbiting, for trying to sue each other, they bring it to the Roman courts. How do you think the pagans would see that culture? They would look at them and scoff.

Bunch of idiots. You know? You guys call yourself holy people. Chosen, eh? I would imagine that's how the Romans would look at the people. The Romans at the time looked at the Christians the same way they looked at the Jews. They weren't like, oh, these are holy men. They looked down upon them, and they allowed them to operate in their own little circles and for them to come to the Roman courts in order to settle their business.

Like, what the heck is wrong with you guys? Apostle Paul's like, is not one wise person, one godly individual who's sober-minded and can resolve this, that you would take this to the courts? Duh! Right? What else do you guys see? In the verses from verses two to six, what other negative results come when a Christian takes another Christian to court?

- They're not following Jesus' first instruction for the church, first of all. - Okay. - Matthew 18, verse 20. Bringing your brother, going to your brother and bringing him to the church. - Okay. - First instruction. - Good. So, he says, basically, you're not doing the process that Jesus Christ taught in giving authority to the church.

The whole process of church discipline, like if there was an issue, you guys should have brought the two brothers together, then brought another Christian individual. If that didn't work, you should have brought the church. Okay? So, right as number two, you undermine the church. You disrespect the church. Okay?

So, if you think about this, look at verse four and what it says in verse four. In verse four, he says, so if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, and he says, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church?

Right? What does that mean? Basically, these secular judges, they have no account. They don't have weight in the church. How are you all of a sudden giving them the authority to judge issues within the church? Right? And so, what you do is you disrespect the church. You undermine the authority of the church.

You didn't even try going to the church. That means your perspective about the church is really, really small. Does that make sense? So, in that way, the negative result of going and taking your Christian brother to the secular courts, you actually, in so doing, indirectly undermine the church already.

And you undermine, as Tito said, the process and authority by which God gave to the church. Does that make sense? Okay, what's another thing? Yes? - You end up being judged by ungodly standards. - Okay. You end up being judged by ungodly standards, good. I'm gonna have us think about that a little bit.

Because the whole idea is, the flip side is, you're supposed to be judged by godly standards, Christ standards. So, place that as number three or whatnot, is you make God's standards incompetent. I like that a lot, and what Mitchell said, is you, in so doing, you are putting on case, like, if God has called us to love, to forgive, and then you completely bypass that to go here now to the secular courts, now you're functioning off of their standards, and in so doing, is what we would typically, in our Christian walk, now find as our everyday battle as a Christian.

Do we operate under God's standards or their standards? And that is actually just a battle of everyday Christian life. And sometimes, when you decide, I'm gonna operate under the definitions of the world, there's when everything goes awry. Everything else goes like haywire, right? And not only that, when you do that, you point to God's standards and say, that was insufficient.

Either it was erroneous because it could never be met, or it was insufficient to cause us to solve this problem. Does that make sense? You see what I'm saying with that, right? If you choose to function under worldly definitions, there is something you indirectly say about God's standard. For a people who claim to have the resources of God, for people who claim to have the truth of God, the wisdom of God, the spirit of God, for us to not operate underneath that, indirectly says those are insufficient.

Insufficient by they're either not worthy, they were not reachable, they were not sufficient to help us. And now I wanna put myself under pagan standards. And the pagans are not going to say, okay, I wanna judge between you guys, what did you do? Okay, then you did right, you did wrong, and then, you know what's really interesting is, back then, it wasn't so far different from today.

They actually had a ruling system where uninvolved third parties would come, kinda like jurors, you know? How many of you guys have been on jury duty? All you guys writing it off like, I'm, you know, I'm just kidding. You know, but you have these third party individuals come in, and in their almost, like, you know, in their way of thinking, they're gonna start deciding, okay, is this man right or is that man wrong?

But what are the standards of God? That's the point. So Apostle Paul, he's pointing this stuff out, you know, when he starts saying like, let's see, you know, verse two and three, when he starts saying stuff like, or do you not know the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not, what, competent to constitute the smallest law courts?

Do you not know you will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? What he's pointing to is, if you are going to have the resources to judge that grand scale future kingdom, you have the means, the competency, to judge matters of this life. It goes back to what?

You have the standards, right? You have the competency and the resource to judge matters of life here. And to tell you truthfully, I think, you know, more Christians should have a level of confidence to determine right and wrong in this world. It's not a humble thing for us to say, well, you know, I could be wrong, I don't know.

I actually think it's a more humble thing to say, I've read the scriptures, and in as much as I have right what the scripture says, this is right, this is wrong. It's more humble to do that. Does that make sense? It's more humble under God. It's more humble under his standards.

For Christians to be kind of like, eh, I know, yeah, well, this side has this side and that side has that side, they all have their good points, and who's to say? That's actually not humble. We have the competency to rule and judge according to God's truth and through his spirit.

And I think more Christians need to have that strength and foundation from evaluating the scriptures, okay? So I wanna ask you guys, by application of just these first six verses, what can we draw out as applications for us? What can we draw out as applications for us? (pages rustling) - Just studying to show yourself approved and to be able to judge rightly.

- Okay, studying so that you can be approved, so they can judge rightly, good. That's almost like a pre-application. To apply this verse, these verses, you need that. We need to all study well and divide the word of God appropriately so that we can actually judge according to God's standards.

But what applications come out from us from these first six verses? Okay, well, think about it. Keep thinking, okay, think about it. I know that one application, obviously, like okay, so don't go to court. But just think about it more than just that, okay? Let's continue and then, okay?

Huh? - He mentions it's better for you to be wrong than to take a dispute. But that's in the next part, but. - Okay, right, right, right, good. So he's talking, we're gonna start talking about the applications that he gives in the next verses. And so let's take a look at the next verses here.

Verse seven through eight. Actually then, it is already a defeat for you that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? On the contrary, you yourself wrong and defraud. You do this even to your own brethren, okay? Let's begin with verse seven and take a look at it more closely.

He says, actually, okay? He's been kind of laying it on them thick, saying, you know, look what you're doing to the church, look what you're doing to your reputation, look what you're doing against the standards of God and the resources we have in the Lord. But he says, well, actually, you already lose, okay?

When you got there, before your case was even decided, before they gave a verdict about, okay, who wins and who gets the money or who gets the property, you lost. I wanna ask you a question. How is it that the Christian already loses when he takes another Christian to court?

What does he mean by verse seven, part A? Okay, good, good. That is exactly what they're doing and it contributes to just, I'm gonna kind of, you know, push that. So we're talking about winning and losing because we're talking about legal cases, right? And he uses this term like you're already defeated in the context of them taking each other to court and Grace, you're right.

They are, what do you say, defaming God, right? Is that what you said? Okay. So you're defaming God and so forth. So in what way are they already losing, right? Yes? Right. Yeah, yeah. And so I think what I'm, these are all contributing to the broader scope of what I wanna like really talk about today is because in answering the question of what's wrong with this church, it's not just obviously that they're taking people to court.

There is a failure of how they're perceiving their lives, right, and Apostle Paul is defining for them this is how you lose. Now, in this specific passage, he starts talking more specifically and says, actually then it is already a defeat to you that you take these people to lawsuits.

Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded, right? So there is a sense in which two part. You guys are talking about they lose in the sight of God. Okay, so you can jot that down. They lose in terms of succeeding to which God has purposed. Okay, they fail, right?

But what I find really interesting is he says, it is already a defeat for you, as in you lose because why? When you do this, you lose your character. So there's two parts to that. There's a sense in which you lose because in terms of really succeeding, what have you actually succeeded, but on the opposite end of that, you lose because you are losing your character.

And I want you to notice that starting from verse seven all the way down to verse 11, he starts talking about personal character quite a bit. What defines you, what identifies you, what traits you have, what habits you have and whatnot. And he's talking about that a lot. 'Cause if I think about the scenario, I think about these lawsuits again.

And in these lawsuits, this is what you have, okay? First and foremost, I mentioned to you this idea that in the culture, the Christians had a right to judge for themselves, just like the Jews did, okay? So was it necessary to go to the court? No. If, let's say for example, Chris and I had a bet on who won a game, and I promised him a thousand bucks, and after promising him a thousand bucks, I failed to pay up.

Seems like a pretty slam-dunk case, right? We made a bet, I didn't pay, I need to pay. Now, here's the interesting thing though, okay? How come we couldn't just resolve that in the capacity that already existed in their immediate community, their church? (audience member coughs) It leads me to believe that they're doing more than just trying to set things straight.

Notice how he starts talking about defrauding a brother. Notice how it talks about, you know, going above and beyond simple retribution, but wronging each other, okay? Wronging each other. So I bet you, part of the reason why an individual couldn't just take this to a Christian court, a Jewish court, a religious court, is because whatever they're doing was probably unethical.

Does that make sense? For example, for example, if in the US right now, you were wronged or you experienced some kind of injustice, you could sue, and typically you sue for a lot more than perhaps what the infraction was, right? Now, if you were to, in clear conscience, like, "No, I just wanna get what's due to me," then you could just go to the court that's already established, but if you want more, I can't go there, can I?

You see what I'm saying? So there's a sense in which I think they were probably trying to take financial advantage of each other. I think in their public litigation, it evidenced probably a deep-seated desire, a fleshly desire, to win more than what was due, okay? They were trying to take advantage of each other.

Take advantage of the situation. If I'm gonna win, I'm gonna win big, and I will never lose to you. Perhaps that was the mentality. And so in Apostle Paul's mind, just the fact that you are here in the pagan court, you already lose, not because you lose the court case, but because you lose your dignity, you lose your character.

It's just like, I think I used this analogy before, but I actually wrestled in high school in my ninth grade, and when I wrestled in high school, there weren't enough girls to actually have tournaments with just girls. So if there was a girl who played, she was typically the only one.

And there was this moment when our B team was wrestling another school's B team, and there was a girl on that team. I wrestled at 115, which is really light. So thankfully, I didn't have to wrestle a girl, 'cause typically girls are at 105, okay? Well, one of our buddies, he had to wrestle a girl.

And obviously, he knew automatically, like, I'm gonna win, you know? But he just so decided, there's this move, you just shoot for both legs. Shooting is you just go for the heels of both legs, and you put your noggin right in the person's stomach, or your shoulder in the person's stomach.

And that's what he did. And when you do that, you just lift up, her body just goes up in the air, and then he slammed her with his head. And he got up and went, "Oh!" like that, and all of us were like. (audience laughing) He didn't win that day, okay?

Because by doing that, by arrogantly going, "Er," like he won, nobody was gonna be like, "Good job." Why, because he completely lost the respect of all the guys, and he lost the respect of the girl, too. You just don't do that, right? You don't do that. In the same way, there are things you can win, but you're not gonna win, because you're gonna lose spiritually, integrity, morally, ethically, right?

You just don't do it because you win the match, but so what? You just didn't win at all, not on the side of the entire team, not on the side of the other team, like nobody, okay? That's like here, Apostle Paul is saying, "I think you guys have the absolute wrong definition "of success here.

"Your definition of success is, "I'm never gonna be taken advantage of. "No one's gonna get the best of me. "I'm gonna take this guy to the house, "and I'm gonna wipe him clean." That's the worldly definition of success. You didn't win nothing. As a matter of fact, actually, you lost, okay?

That's the point that Apostle Paul is making. And for us, there's a point of conviction there, because to tell you honestly, sometimes I have that kind of heart sometimes. I don't know if you guys have ever experienced that come out of you. Sometimes people do stuff, and you're like, "That's okay, I didn't even care.

"Just actually here and take some more," or whatever. And then for some odd reason, somebody does something, you're like, "No." You're gonna know you did wrong, and you're gonna pay, you know? And it comes out of you, and you just realize, like, wow, that's kind of scary. And on our off days when we're not sober, doesn't it come out like that sometimes?

No, you're just not gonna get the best of me. And sometimes we buy into it. Sometimes we just, maybe it's because we're competitive, and we don't want people to get away with wrong. Sometimes we're prideful, and we're like, "I ain't no pushover. "I'm not a pushover, and you can't do this to me." And so you retaliate, or you just kind of avenge yourself.

You know? And that is actually the heart of which Apostle Paul is getting at, isn't it? As to why these problems exist. So, Apostle Paul asks this question, why not rather be wronged? Why not be defrauded? And I ask this question, what is the principle that Apostle Paul is advocating here?

Okay, what is the principle that Apostle Paul is advocating? Well, I think, you know, I'm gonna ask you guys for the principle after we look at some of these cross-references, but you guys know the principles that are taught in scripture. I just thought it would be spiritually really good for us to remind ourselves of some of these principles.

Turn your Bibles to Matthew. Matthew chapter five, verse 38 through 48. (pages rustling) So Matthew five. Okay, and this is what Jesus says. He says, "You have heard that it was said, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." This is known as a lex talionis.

This is, you know, this principle. You lose a goat, you're gonna have to give a goat, or you deserve a goat. It's eye for an eye, tooth for tooth. In verse 39, he says, "But I say to you, "do not resist an evil person, "but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, "turn the other to him also.

"If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, "let him have your coat also. "Whoever forces you to go one mile, "go with him too. "Give to him who asks of you, "and do not turn away from him "who wants to borrow from you. "You have heard that it was said, "you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, "but I say to you, love your enemies "and pray for those who persecute you, "so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

"For he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good "and sends his reign on the righteous and the unrighteous. "For if you love those who love you, "what reward do you have? "Do not even the tax collectors do the same. "If you greet only your brothers, "what more are you doing than others?

"Do not even the Gentiles do the same. "Therefore, you are to be perfect "as your heavenly Father is perfect." There's so much to be said just from that short excerpt from our Lord Jesus, right? I don't believe this idea of if someone slaps you, turn to the other one applies in every single circumstance.

If you're a governor, if you're a ruler, if you're responsible for our family, you don't, that guy took one child, I'll give him my other child. Like, that doesn't work that way. But if you're a Christian, proclaiming to be a son of God, this is supposed to be something unique about you that makes you primarily a son of God.

To be able to love beyond measure, to be able to love beyond what's expected, right? To be able to absorb that slap in the face and not retaliate, that's something unique to what God has done. He says, "To emulate your Father in heaven, "that's why you do this." Okay?

Another passage, 1 Peter 3, verse eight through nine. He says, "To sum up, all of you be harmonious, "sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit, "not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, "but giving a blessing instead. "For you were called for the very purpose "that you might inherit a blessing." Okay?

Another passage I want us to turn to, Romans 12, 17 through 21. Romans 12, 17 through 21. Okay? And this is what, again, the word of God says. He says, "Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. "Respect what is right in the sight of all men. "If possible, so far as it depends on you, "be at peace with all men.

"Never take your own revenge, beloved, "but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "'Vengeance is mine, I will repay,' says the Lord. "But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. "But if he is thirsty, give him a drink, "for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." I think there was a sense in which a lot of this was going on in the Corinthians church. Some guy, yeah, it could easily happen. It's like, "Dude, let me borrow this, you know? "Please, please, please, I'll pay you back." Two months later, "Sorry, I can't pay you back.

"But you're a Christian, so let it go, right?" And the guy's like, "What? "You promised!" And then they go back and forth, and you can imagine those finances getting in the midst of brothers and whatnot. And you can imagine, in a church, we can have fights, we can have conflict, right?

Well, one of the questions I wanna ask you first before going to application is, how would you summarize this principle, put it in a way you can remember and has as a life principle for yourself? When Apostle Paul says, "Why not rather be wrong? "Why not rather be defrauded?" When you hear the words of Jesus, what's a good way to summarize this principle we're supposed to live by?

(silence) How would you put it, you know, in a brief, concise, your own words kind of way? Jonas? (laughs) What do you think, man? (silence) (silence) How would you summarize the principle that Apostle Paul is wanting the church to live by when he asks the question, "Why not rather be wrong?

"Why not rather be defrauded?" Be peacemakers, okay? Good, be peacemakers. How else would you guys say it? Yes? - Showing grace as you've been showing grace yourself. - Okay, good, showing grace as you've been showing grace yourself. What else? Leave judgment to God, good. Okay, good. So now, let's talk about practically applying this, okay?

How would you make some practical applications from what we've been learning so far? How would we apply this to ourselves? I know I have like first half sentences underneath that stuff, but we don't have to go just according to what I wrote as applications I drew. I want you guys to think about how do we apply this?

Aside from just like, okay, again, the simple way to do Bible study is like, okay, he says, you guys are idiots for going to court with each other. I'll never do that. Even if I'm mad, I'll never take someone to court. Good, I'm done. But we just realize he's digging deeper than just that.

You know, he's talking about certain attitudes. How do we apply some of these things? Yes. - Think highly of the church and seek out wisdom. - Yeah, that's really good. Think highly of the church and seek out wisdom, you know? There's been a lot of times for me personally when someone has come to me for counsel, but it was so late in the game.

They've already tried to reconcile their own way. They've already had negative responses. They've built, built, built, built, built, and now they're like, they haven't talked to each other for months, and then they're like, can you help me? I'm like, oh, I wish you would've talked to me like six months ago, you know?

Or even, this doesn't have to be pastor, but there are many people in the church that have been Christians walking faithfully for many, many years, and they have wisdom to share. And we as members of the church need to seek counsel from each other and be open to abide by the counsel we receive, okay?

What else? Any others? Yes. - It's better to be faithfully than selfishly. - That's really good. It's better to lose gracefully than win selfishly, okay? It's better to lose gracefully than win selfishly. I think that's something that you can apply. Sometimes, as a man, I make my decisions on like, stuff like risk analysis, cost benefit, or just getting the thing done, you know?

But sometimes, you have to consider this fact, like, you know, in this decision that I'm making, my goal is not just to win, or my goal just isn't to get the result that I was wanting. I'd rather be more gracious and have Christian character in this. So if it's gonna look like I'm just being selfish, then even though it makes sense financially, practically, risk, and all that stuff, I'll rather lose gracefully.

That's really good. Any others? Yes. - I think that there's this balance between judging the Christ's benefits, but like, how to know Jesus for your sake, because like, you know, there's a great Christ, and yet, you're supposed to hold your life accountable and like, have-- - Yes, right. Okay, so you're right.

There is a balance of holding each other accountable where if someone brought an issue to the church, then they're going to exercise wisdom and justice in order to set things right. But between the two parties, there's always room and actually need for grace and mercy, right? And I think that's something that, for me, I was super challenged by.

Because in order to practice what he's saying, you do have to be able to, and so point two for me, you know how it says, as a Christian, we can, and I left it blank? For me, as a practical application, for me, I wrote, I can absorb cost, right?

For Jesus Christ, our Savior, he was able to absorb what? Pain, suffering, penalty, that's cost. Cost of sin. And one of the things that we do then, uniquely as Christians that perhaps the world is not willing to do is absorb the cost, okay? I want you to go in your Bibles to Matthew 18 about that story of forgiveness, and I want you to realize that there is an element of cost in the idea of forgiveness.

So go to Matthew 18, okay? Matthew 18, verse 21 and on. And this is what Jesus says as he's teaching Peter. Then Peter came and said to him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me "and I forgive him? "Up to seven times?" And Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you "up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven." And as you guys have probably heard in many sermons and in your own Bible studies, 70 times seven is not just a number, but it's an idiomatic phrase saying completely.

There's no end, just keep forgiving him. As long as he is repenting and coming to you, keep forgiving him. But look at the story he gives. He says, "For this reason the kingdom of heaven "may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts "with the slaves. "When he began to settle them, "one who owed him 10,000 talents was brought to him.

"But since he did not have the means to repay, "his lord commanded him to be sold "along with his wife and children and all that he had "so that repayment may be made. "So the slave fell to the ground "and prostrated himself before him saying, "Have patience with me, I will repay you everything.

"And the lord of that slave felt compassion "and released him and forgave him the debt. "But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves "who owed him 100 denarii and he seized him "and began to choke him saying, "Pay back what you owe. "So his fellow slave fell to the ground "and began to plead with him saying, "Have patience with me that I will repay you.

"But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison "until he should pay back what was owed. "So when his fellow slave saw what had happened, "they were deeply grieved and came to report to the lord "all that had happened. "Then summoning him, his lord said to him, "You wicked slave, I forgave you all the debt "because you pleaded with me.

"Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave "in the same way that I had mercy on you? "And his lord removed with anger, "removed his, say, and his lord removed with anger, "sorry, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers "until he should repay all that was owed.

"My heavenly father will also do the same to you. "If each of you does not forgive his brother "from your heart." Okay. In that story, something that I kinda, not kinda, but really caught my attention and I kept focusing on was this, is the idea of absorbing cost. I feel like perhaps sometimes when we wanna forgive somebody, there is a sense in which I wanna be able to forgive somebody still without bearing cost.

I might forgive you because I might have felt offended and I'm not gonna be offended at you anymore. I might not be angry at you anymore. But there's a sense in which we kinda lose this idea of the cost. Because in order for the king, in order for the ruler to forgive his slave, and in order for the slave to forgive his friend, what do they have to do?

They have to absorb great cost. Right? Well, in order for there to be a kind of, I am willing to be wronged, I am willing to bear the injustice of my brother, what do you have to do? You have to be willing to absorb that cost. If you're still sitting there demanding, I'm gonna forgive you but you're gonna have to repay everything.

I'm gonna have to forgive you but I want you to make it up. I wanna forgive you but you're gonna have to do me a favor because I'm doing you a favor. Is that the kind of biblical forgiveness, mercy, and willingness God is expecting of us? I don't think so.

Yes. - So, (mumbles) Does that include, (mumbles) Does like, precautions to kind of protect yourself, you know that it's gonna happen again? - Mm-hmm. - Does that go against his idea? - Let me see if I understand your question correctly. He said, in the giving of forgiveness, there's somebody who repeats their sin.

Oh, I see what you're saying. Somebody who repeats their sin and then you take precautions to protect yourself against that individual. Does that now negate my forgiveness of him? (mumbles) No, I don't think so. 'Cause I can think of many situations where, let's say, yeah, let's say, you know, I ask somebody to watch my child and that person flipped the lid and somehow abused my kid.

But that guy came to me and said, I am, will you please forgive me? I lost my temper. I did something so wrong. Will you forgive me? Right? What I'm saying is, if I said, sure, I forgive you, and then I turn around, I'm like, I'm gonna report this guy to police.

And like, you know, I think there is a disconnect between my forgiveness of him and what I'm telling him, because I'm holding it against him and expecting him to pay. But if I tell him the next time, I'm like, hey guys, I need somebody to watch my kid, and he's like, oh, I'll watch your kid.

And I tell him, you know what? This might sound a little offensive, but I'm gonna find somebody else. Is that not forgiving? Not necessarily. Do you see the difference? Yeah. Now, the thing about it is, for example, if I lend somebody money and they say, please forgive me, I can't repay you.

I'm sorry that I asked you to lend me money, but to tell you truthfully, I knew I couldn't pay you back. I just needed the money in the moment, but there was no way I was gonna pay you back. Like, I don't have the money for that. Will you forgive me?

I can tell him, yeah, I forgive you. The next time he asks me money, and he says, ooh, can I borrow a thousand bucks? I'm gonna look at him and say, show me what you got to pay me back. And he says, oh, you know, you just gotta trust me.

Didn't you forgive me? And I'm like, I forgave you. That's why we're still friends. Show me how you're gonna pay me back. That's not going against my forgiveness of the individual. Does that make sense? Yeah. What's really interesting is, the Book of Proverbs actually has a lot to say about that.

Both on the level of, when you're lending to people or when you're entrusting to people, guard yourself. So, the Book of Proverbs will actually say, if you're gonna lend somebody money, don't expect it back. Lend with an idea of, I'm gonna give this to this person. Right? And in that way, you're guarding your own heart, and you're guarding yourself.

And the Book of Proverbs actually teaches you a lot about, don't shake hands, as in, permissory notes. I'm gonna promise you, I'm gonna go into this loan with you as a guarantor of your loan, all that kind of stuff. Why? Because it's protecting yourself. But, nonetheless, that protection of yourself has nothing to do with, in my relationship with you, we have no animosity.

I hold this not against you. I'm not gonna hold it against you in the future. You know what I mean? I'm not gonna expect you to pay this back. I've incurred the cost and forgave you. I think that's very different from saying, in wisdom, I'm just guarding so that none of this kind of stuff happens again.

I'm not sure if, am I answering your question? I'm not sure if, I'm getting, okay. 'Cause your facial expression kinda looks like, like, mm, I don't know. What do you think? We can talk about it more after. But hopefully that kinda addresses, yeah. - It's just what it normally looks like.

(laughing) - Okay. I'm not gonna repeat what you said. All right, any other applications, any other applications that you see from this thing? I mean, let me just give out some more, I mean, like, someone mentioned repaying evil, not being overcome with evil. I also think that there's this temptation, there is this temptation to escalate, okay?

I think about the litigation and you realize, like, there's a buildup, right? How many guys have ever gone into a fight and it escalated from, like, you know, I don't know, some guy did something and he turned into, oh my gosh, like, he's, like, you know, like, I'm thinking in Korean right now, but.

(laughing) What is nunchi eopseo in, like, well, anyway, you start judging the guy's character, you know, the guy does something, like, he forgets the birthday or he gets something and the next thing you know, you start judging his character, he doesn't care, like, he's so slob, he's lazy, he's irresponsible, it's like, he just forgot, you know, like, you just start escalating things and especially if you're fighting, man, like, I've had occasions when you're just fighting or you're just disagreeing and all of a sudden you're disagreeing and it escalates to the next thing and it's like, oh my goodness, you do this and then you say something, it's like, oh my gosh, you can't say this and the next thing you know, it's like, oh, you're having an all-out war.

Doesn't it escalate? And I think about getting to the point of lawsuit, I'm pretty sure it started from something and it just kept on escalating, you know? So, if you, oh yeah, so like, as an example, from our own passage in verse eight, he, I think there's an escalation that you can see just from the nature of looking at verse eight and seeing, okay, there's this disagreement, there's, you know, all this kind of stuff, but then it gets to a point where it says, on the contrary, you yourself is wrong in the fraud, so now you've escalated to the point where you yourself, all of a sudden, are doing the wrong.

And I find that happening sometimes, okay? I'm not gonna belabor the point, but for us, more typically, it's verbally, okay? Someone hurts you, and what sometimes we're tempted to do is escalate it by hitting them back, whoa, hitting them back verbally, okay? There's been times when, you know, I get into an argument, and, you know, in the beginning, everyone's cordial, and you wanna try to, like, figure it out, and you're talking and stuff like that, and after a while, all of a sudden, you start saying mean things to each other, and it has no other purpose than, you know what, you did something silly, you did something to hurt me, here it is, you slap me, I slap you back, and then, with words, you end up fighting, okay?

So my point is, we have to resist the temptation to escalate the matter, okay? There are a lot of other things that perhaps we can take a look at, I just wanna wrap up with the next section. Let's go to verse nine through 11. He says, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous "will not inherit the kingdom of God?

"Do not be deceived, neither fornicators," fornicators are those who are single. Was it this Bible study? Oh, sorry, it was the other one. "For fornification in this day and age is so rampant, "we even call it now people being just romantic, "single individuals who are not married, "coming together, and breaking all kinds "of physical boundaries.

"It happens a lot, I know that it's difficult "to fight against, but in the end, "what is that but fornification? "Idolaters, people who idolize various things "in their lives, whether it's man-made, "whether it's cultic, they idolize. "Drunkards, revilers," oh, shoot, sorry, I totally missed the line. "Adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, "covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers "will inherit the kingdom of God." Okay, my question to you guys is, what is Paul's purpose in listing these categories of people who will not go to heaven?

What do you think is his purpose in his reasoning and arguing with the church? Why he would sit and list this list of categories of people who are sinful? So that they won't what? Okay. Excellent, yeah. I think there's a reason why he's sitting there and then all of a sudden he just paints this big brush and says, "This is like the types of sin that exists." (imitates explosion) And we know these are the pagans who won't enter the kingdom of God, you know this.

And then he goes in verse 11, "And these were pretty much you guys." So think about that. The emphasis of this whole segment comes in verse 11 because there exists a profound and emphatic contrast. Notice how verse 11 reads, "But you were washed, "but you were sanctified, but you were justified." Those little contrasting words, connecting words, but.

In the Greek, there's actually multiple ways of saying that. There's actually about six different ways to contrast. This word happens to be the strongest contrasting word. Okay? You guys know, you guys have probably heard in the Greek, there's multiple ways of saying no. There's like just no. On the contrary, but it's like no, indeed no.

It's like no, not ever. There's degrees of these contrasting words. Likewise, in this place, this contrasting word is the most emphatic. But instead, you know. And he says, "These were what you were, "but instead, this is what God did. "He washed you, he sanctified you, he justified you." Right?

I think this is a great way to encourage the church that's practicing this kind of, "I'm not gonna lose, I'm gonna fight, "I'm gonna have my revenge, and I'm gonna set it right." The challenge is to practice godly character. You need to forgive. You need to reconcile. You need to be willing to absorb cost.

You need to be willing to keep the peace in the church. Right? And in many ways throughout scripture, Apostle Paul has used the basic foundation of the gospel to tell them, "This is who you need to be." All right? Okay. Any questions about this passage? Yes. (audience member speaking faintly) (audience member speaking faintly) You know what, I didn't even look into that in terms of comparing that verse, but you're saying the NIV does not have the word effeminate, whereas the NASB does?

Huh, that's interesting. I'll give that to you as homework, okay? (laughs) You're gonna look that up for us, and then you're gonna give us your finding after. (laughs) All right, we'll talk later. Any other questions? Yes. (audience member speaking faintly) Yeah, oh, that's a good question. So he was talking about, does this apply to Christian to Christian only, or does it also apply broadly to Christian to non-Christian?

Right? I'm gonna tell you truthfully that the boundary is not clear-cut, but there exists a boundary. Because, for example, when you have two Christian individuals, they're all submitted under, or theoretically, they're all submitted under the Spirit of God and the Word of God. And so the church can come in and reason with both, through the Spirit and through the Word, right?

But you have a party that's non-Christian, that doesn't have the Spirit. How can the church come in and do that? So actually, now it behooves the Christian individual to exercise a great amount of wisdom. There's a sense in which, there's two philosophies about that, too. So I actually just read an article where, in one philosophical thought, they want to push the agenda of justice in order to share the gospel.

Meaning, if a non-Christian does injustice to you, they think you should actually cause that individual to see in you a commitment to justice, to righteousness, so that you can share the gospel. To say, you know what? You're not upholding even what we believe in our, like, you know, community and culture, to be righteous, and that's because you're a sinner.

And so they can have a platform for the gospel. Obviously, there's another group of people that says, no, you exercise Christian love to even the non-Christians, so that the kindness of God will convict them to the gospel. And I kinda read this article and thought, that's really interesting. To tell you honestly, I think it behooves the Christian individual to decide, what do I do here to glorify the name of the Lord?

Right? And that's gonna be really dependent upon, like, the context, how the other individual is responding, and what is gonna be the best platform to share the gospel. Yeah. But, to repeat, there is a difference between how Christian Christian should relate to each other, as opposed to a Christian non-Christian.

Yeah. Yes. - So, effeminate is there in the Greek. It depicts somebody that's, the Greek word is defined, soft, uncertain affinity. And even, male prostitute. The Greek word is, it even defines soft linen, soft clothing. - Right. - It's a girly, effeminate. - Yeah. Yeah, to say effeminate, like, basically, anything where, you know how there's a lot of, so, transgender, transvestite, anybody who's cross-dressed, or you can call them drag queens, or whatever you may be, you know, dressing and behaving like another gender than God has created you, that would be under the category of effeminate.

Yeah. So, thanks. Any other questions? Then let's wrap up. I hope you guys have a good time of discussion. Part of it, I wanted you guys to have an opportunity to just share personal stories, moments in which, when you had to absorb wrong done to you, how did you deal with it?

I think that's an important question. But also, any applications that you can draw from the study today would be good, okay? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your grace. God, as we think about this topic of Christians, taking their brother to the courts, and just wringing them dry, and I pray, Lord, that we will be convicted, Lord.

You know, truly, how dare we, if we claim the name of Lord Jesus, who emptied himself for us, who sacrificed, who absorbed such great pain, suffering, and the penalty we deserve, how can we who call upon the name of the Lord do that to those who also call upon the name of the Lord?

I pray, Father God, that if there is any hint of this, I guess, angry sin, this bitter sin in us, I pray, Lord, that you would do the work of thorough sanctification, that we would confess it, we would repent of it, and desire to truly adopt into our own hearts a heart of mercy, a heart of desire to do that which is best in your eyes.

God, we might lose in the eyes of the world, we might lose in the definition of what the world esteems as success, but I pray, Father God, that we would always seek to please you, and God, that we would always function underneath what is deemed right and holy underneath our Lord.

Father, I wanna thank you for our study. I do pray that each one of us would continue diving deep into your word. God, that our lives would be truly in line with your will, that every decision we make would be made and surrender to your holy purposes. We thank you in Christ's name, amen.