1 Corinthians 6:8

Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren. YE - emphatic. Ye, whom your Lord commanded to return good for evil, on the contrary, "do wrong (by taking) and defraud" (by retaining what is intrusted to you). Contrast the Church's first love ()....

8._But ye do injury. _Hence we see for what reason he has inveighed against them with so much bitterness — because there prevailed among them such a base desire of gain, that they did not even refrain from _injuring _one another. He premised a little before, with the view of exposing the magnitude of the evil, that those are not Christians who know not to endure injuries. There is, then, an amplification here, founded on a comparison: for if it is wrong not to _bear _injuries patiently, how much worse is it to _inflict _them? _And that your brethren _Here is another aggravation of the evil; for if those are doubly culpable who defraud strangers, it is monstrous for _brother _to be cheated or despoiled by _brother _Now all of us are brethren that call upon _one Father in heaven _(Matthew 23:9.) At the same time, if any one acts an unprincipled p

1-8 Christians should not contend with one another, for they are brethren. This, if duly attended to, would prevent many law-suits, and end many quarrels and disputes. In matters of great damage to ourselves or families, we may use lawful means to right ourselves, but Christians should be of a forgiving temper. Refer the matters in dispute, rather than go to law about them. They are trifles, and may easily be settled, if you first conquer your own spirits. Bear and forbear, and the men of least skill among you may end your quarrels. It is a shame that little quarrels should grow to such a head among Christians, that they cannot be determined by the brethren. The peace of a man's own mind, and the calm of his neighbourhood, are worth more than victory. Lawsuits could not take place among brethren, unless there were faults among them....

Verse 1 Corinthians 6:8. _NAY, YE DO WRONG_] Far from suffering, ye are the aggressors; and defraud your pious, long-suffering brethren, who submit to this wrong rather than take those methods of redressing their grievances which the spirit of Christianity forbids. Probably the apostle refers to him who had taken his father's wife....

NAY, YE DO WRONG ... - Instead of enduring wrong patiently and cheerfully. they were themselves guilty oi injustice and fraud. AND THAT YOUR BRETHREN - Your fellow Christians. As if they had injured those of their own family - those to whom they ought to be attached by most tender ties. The offence in such cases is aggravated, not because it is in itself any worse to injure a Christian than another man, but because it shows a deeper depravity, when a man overcomes all the ties of kindness and love, and injures those who are near to him, than it does where no such ties exist. It is for this reason that parricide, infanticide, etc. are regarded everywhere as crimes of special atrocity, because a child or a parent must have severed all the tenderest cords of virtue before it could be done....

EXPOSITION 1 CORINTHIANS 6:1 _Litigation before heathen courts forbidden._ 1 CORINTHIANS 6:1 DARE ANY OF YOU? rather, _Dare any one of you? _It is in St. Paul's view an _audacious _defiance of Christian duties to seek from the heathen the justice due from brother to brother. A MATTER; some ground of civil dispute. AGAINST ANOTHER; _i.e. _against another Christian. When one of the litigants was a heathen, Christians were allowed to go before heathen law courts, because no other remedy was possible. GO TO LAW BEFORE THE UNJUST. The "unjust" is here used for "Gentiles," because it at once suggests a reason against the dereliction

NAY, YOU DO WRONG AND DEFRAUD,.... So far were they from taking and acting up to the advice given, that instead of taking wrong, they did wrong; and instead of suffering themselves to be defrauded, they defrauded others: AND THAT YOUR BRETHREN; that were of the same faith, of the same religion, and in the same church and family: in short, neither party, not the plaintiff, nor the defendant, sought anything more or less than to wrong, trick, and defraud each other; such a sad corruption and degeneracy prevailed among them: hence the apostle thought to deal plainly and closely with them, as in the following verses....

1. _Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?_ In those days, the courts of law were utterly unjust. It was all a matter of who could bribe the most, for he would gain the suit. I think that we cannot say that it is quite like this at the present time in our law courts, neither can this verse be strictly a rule for the guidance of men in these days, except that, in the spirit of Paul's words, all lawsuits among Christians should be avoided if possible. 1 Corinthians 6:2. _Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels?_ Sitting with Christ, at the last great day of judgment, we shall give our «Amen» to the condemnation of the fallen spiri

CHAPTER 6 __ 1. Concerning Disputes before Heathen Courts. (1 Corinthians 6:1). 2. The Holiness of Believers; Their Bodies the Temples of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:8). Instead of settling their disputes amongst themselves, as it becomes the Saints of God, they brought their difficulties before a heathen court. In doing this they had lost sight of the dignity of their calling. The Saints of God are to reign with Christ and share His glory; they shall judge the world and angels in that day. Going to a heathen court to have these matters settled by one who was not a child of God, but unrighteous, was unworthy of them; they were making known their own shame before the world. If they had remembered that coming day of glory, when as Saints they were to par

THE SCANDAL OF CHRISTIANS SUING EACH OTHER BEFORE HEATHEN TRIBUNALS. Paul has prepared for his next rebuke by his reference to the function of the church to judge its own members. But alas, Christians are to be found who will go so far as shamelessly to carry their disputes with each other before a tribunal of the unrighteous (what a paradox to appeal for justice to the unjust!) instead of submitting them to their fellow-Christians. They cannot be so ill-instructed as to be unaware that Christians are to judge the world; if so, they cannot be unfit to settle such trumpery squabbles. Yes, if even the angels, the world's loftiest order, are to stand at their bar, how much more are they competent to judge matters of everyday need! When they have such cases, they actually set heathens to decide them, who as such are of no account in the estimation of the church. The statement of the fact sho...