Why Not Rather Be Cheated? 1 Corinthians 6:1-11 (October 13, 2013)

Transcription

1 1 Why Not Rather Be Cheated? 1 Corinthians 6:1-11 (October 13, 2013) When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? 2 Or 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? 3 Do 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, 6 but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? 7 To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 But you yourselves wrong and defraud even your own brothers! 9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. 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. PRAY We are working our way through 1 Corinthians on Sunday morning. And because we ve had a lot going on this morning I m going to jump right in. The big picture here is that Paul is addressing how Christians should handle it when they find they ve been wronged. First, we should note that in this world we will be wronged. Second, how we should react to being wronged. Third, the power for it. First, we will be wronged. In this world, when we find ourselves being wronged by someone else, we should not be surprised by it; we shouldn t be shocked. We should expect to be wronged because we are all sinners living in a fallen world. In the church at Corinth, as we see this morning and as we ve seen throughout chapters one through five, this was happening a lot. The church at Corinth fought like cats and dogs. The disciples, in the presence of Jesus, fought with one another. We read in the gospel accounts that the twelve fought with each other over who was going to be the greatest among them when Jesus came to power in his kingdom in fact, Luke says they had two different fights about it. And I m sure some of them were in the wrong. And Jesus himself says, Don t be surprised, certainly don t be shocked, when this happens. Everything Jesus said was utterly practical and realistic, certainly Luke 17:1: And he said to his disciples, Temptations to sin are sure to come It s going to happen don t be surprised that it does.

2 2 One of the most helpful things I ever read about marriage was that the mark of a healthy marriage is not a marriage without sin, without somebody getting offended, because that doesn t exist. Over the years as a pastor I ve heard one maybe two older widows in my churches say something like this about their deceased husband: We never fought. He never hurt me; he never offended me. And when they ve said that to me I ve tried really hard not to say something like this to them: malarkey. Laugh at them and say, That s a bunch of nonsense. Now in fairness maybe what she meant was he never yelled at me or he never abused me or he always got his way and I never contradicted him I ve certainly seen that in a few marriages. But every marriage has fights, because every marriage has two sinners, and you can t expect two sinners to share a bedroom, bathroom, or bank account and one of them not walk away from time to time suffering wrongs. So the mark of a healthy marriage is not that it has no problems so don t, please, feel like a failure if your marriage has them. Instead, a healthy marriage, and the mark of any healthy relationship is where the hurts and the wounds are identified and talked about and repented for and forgiven one at a time. Second, how we should react to being wronged. In the church at Corinth, there was some kind of conflict between two of the members of the church. We don t know what it was about. But the way at least one of those two people reacted to conflict was by going to into the Roman civil law system against the other person. They would have hired advocates, what we would call attorneys, and those advocates would have represented them in court. And Paul criticizes that decision. In fact, he says, How dare you! When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? 1 Corinthians 6:1. Then, verse 5: I say this to your shame. All the commentators note how angry Paul s tone is. Why is Paul so angry? Is Paul saying, It s always wrong to appeal to the legal system for redress of grievances? Is he saying, Lawyers are from the devil have nothing to do with them? No, he s not sorry to disappoint some of you. I can just imagine some of you looking up what I was going to preach on today and getting excited because you thought, Ah-ha! J.D. s going to stick it to those bottom-feeding lawyers on Sunday! Can t wait to hear that. No not at all. Paul is not demeaning the legal system or lawyers. There is nothing inherently unseemly about Christians being a part of the legal system either serving as an attorney, or as a judge, or as a juror, or as a litigant, or even as a plaintiff in a case. Christians may from time to time find themselves plaintiffs in cases, particularly when matters of justice, of right and wrong effecting many people, are at stake. In 1951 thirteen African-American parents in Topeka, Kansas sued the Board of Education in Topeka because their children were relegated to African-American only elementary

3 3 schools and could not attend school with white children. Oliver Brown, the named plaintiff, was a part-time associate pastor in his church. That case became Brown v. Board of Education, and in 1954 the United States Supreme Court overturned the doctrine of separate but equal and declared that segregating schoolchildren by race was unconstitutional. There s nothing in 1 Corinthians or anywhere else in the New Testament to indicate that Paul would have had any problem with that kind of use of the civil legal system. We know from the book of Acts that Paul used the Roman legal system himself whenever he was arrested, we know at one point he appealed for Caesar himself to hear Paul s case. But of course, there s no grand question of justice at issue in 1 Corinthians 6 it s some private dispute over property or a broken contract of some type that s at stake. So why is Paul so angry? Verse 6: [B]ut brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? What s that about? All through the New Testament, there is this constant drumbeat: the church must be united. Over and over again we see this as of paramount importance. 1 Corinthians 1:10: I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony [or unity] with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:5-6. We are to be united because it s good, it s right, it s pleasing to God, it s enjoyable for us as the church. But Jesus is the one who gives us the reason for unity that helps us understand Paul s anger. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13: The way the world will know we follow him, that we are His, Jesus says, is by how lovingly united we are. And when one Christian drags another Christian into court, it serves to destroy that witness. We are lying to the world about who we are and who Christ is when we are that contentious. A couple of questions I m sure some of you have at this point: first, some of you may be thinking, How in the world is this relevant to me? I ve never sued anyone, I don t plan to sue anyone what does this have to do with me? This is relevant to you, because what Paul tells us here applies to all situations where somebody is wronged. Not just the stuff that winds up in litigation, but between spouses,

4 4 between friends, at work, between neighbors, roommates. In any relationship sooner or later you will feel wronged by the other person, and you need to know how to react to that as a Christian. Second, others may be thinking, This is relevant to me I am in the middle of some kind of contentious dispute with someone else who at least claims to be a Christian. I don t think they re acting very much like a Christian right now, but they say they are, and this person has wronged me. Is there nothing I can do? If we re not supposed to go to court and we can t agree, then does that mean they get away with it? No, not necessarily. Jesus talks about this in Matthew 18:15-17 (we looked at this two weeks ago when we studied the topic of church discipline): 15 If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. If you are really wronged by someone in the church, there is a way to handle it inside the church so that the other person doesn t just get away with it. But, as you might imagine, it doesn t always work out that way. Maybe you re in a church where, for whatever reason, Matthew 18 isn t an option. Say you take step one you go to your brother and show him his fault but he says, I don t see it that way. And the church leadership is in such disarray that they just can t handle that kind of issue. Or maybe they re intimidated by the wrongdoer. That kind of stuff does happen. Paul says don t go to court, and because of the church you re in you can t find a remedy there, either. What then? Paul tells us in verse 7; in fact, he assumes that will happen because he deliberately skips over the possibility of church discipline in chapter six and jumps right to the heart of the reaction a Christian ought to have when face with being wronged To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded [cheated NIV]? Friends, Paul s says our first reaction to being wronged by someone else should be our willingness to suffer the loss, to take the hit, to be cheated. Jesus says this: 38 You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. Matthew 5:38-42.

5 5 That s a very famous passage what do we take away from it? It s this if you re going to follow Jesus you have to be ready to put up with just about anything. We simply cannot afford as Christians to get into a blood feud with anyone who crosses us instead, we must be willing to put up with an awful lot in order to follow Jesus. Romans 12:18, in the old King James version says this: If it is possible, as much as it lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. We must be ready to do whatever we can absorbing all kinds of slights, inconveniences, all kinds of hurtful words, all kinds of wrongs, ready to be cheated in order to protect and preserve the peace and the unity and the witness of the church. That s not what we want to hear, is it? No, because when we ve been wronged we want one of three things (or maybe all three): value, vindication, and vengeance. If we feel like we were cheated out of money in some way, our first instinct is to get it back. We want our value returned, we want our money back. And certainly when we feel wronged by anyone, we want vindication. I remember once a conflict between two members of a church I was a part of once. One of the members angrily blew up on the other one, and for a few weeks before the church could act on it everything was in limbo the person in the wrong kept coming to church. And every time the recipient of that outburst saw that person, she said that in her heart she could feel herself saying, Injustice! This is not fair! This is not right! And in a real way it wasn t she wanted to be vindicated, and in that circumstance I couldn t blame her. I wanted it for her too. Or maybe we just want vengeance he hurt me, so I ll hurt him. When we are wronged, we don t think the whole notion of public flogging was such a bad idea maybe we should bring that back and strip the shirts off a few people and beat them on the courthouse lawn, maybe that s not such a bad idea. \ Turnabout is fair play. In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock demands a pound of flesh from Antonio to take revenge for all the ways he d been wrong by the Christians in Venice. We want our pound of flesh from those who ve wronged us. But the Bible says not to seek value, vindication, or vengeance. Instead, why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? How can this be? How does this work? Third, the power for it. 9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. 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. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.

6 6 Obviously, verses 9-10 homosexuality and sexual immorality they are hot topics in our culture. And they are in the Bible, we re not going to gloss over them, but we will address them next week. Come back next week and see what there is to learn from those verses. But for today just focus on what Paul says in verse 11: But you were washed What does he mean by that? There are lots of ways to describe what it s like to become a Christian. One way is to go from being blind to being able to see. That s a powerful one I can t believe I didn t see this about myself, about God now it s so clear to me! How could I have been so blind? Another way to describe it is to say I once was lost, but now I m found. I was completely lost, had no clue what I was doing with my life or why, but now I feel like someone has pulled me out of the wilderness and I m found I know who I am and what I m supposed to do and where I m supposed to go. But Paul uses a different metaphor here. He says, But you were washed Every Christian knows or should know what it feels like go from being dirty, stained, blemished, filthy, to being clean. We had in our sins done so much wrong to so many people around us that we were dirty. You know, that s the first step to being a Christian to acknowledge that you re a sinner, that you re not a good person, and that your sins have made you dirty. You can t become a Christian without first recognizing that. But the beautiful thing about the gospel is that if we do recognize our guilt, our dirt, our uncleanness, God will make us clean. But how does he make us clean? What does he wash us with? Christians I hope you know. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel s veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains. On the cross Jesus Christ had to shed his blood for our souls; he had to die in our place (because that s what we deserve for our sins) so that we can be clean. And when you see how precious, how valuable, the blood of Jesus Christ is, and how he gave it to you for free, then you ll be able to be cheated. Because no matter how much someone cheats you, they won t cheat you out of the most precious commodity in the universe the blood of Christ. It can t be done. It would be like wanting to kill someone for stealing ten dollars from you when you have a billion in the bank. Is it wrong for someone to steal ten dollars from you? Absolutely. Would a billionaire be nuts to get furious over it? Absolutely. It would be nuts he has all this money safe, ten dollars is nothing to him. Why is he so angry? It makes no sense but don t you see? That s the Christian s position, too. We have the most precious commodity in the universe therefore, why not be cheated? What does it matter?

7 7 And then when you see what Jesus had to go through in order to give you his blood, then you can really be okay with being wronged you won t be desperate for vindication. Yes, in order to follow Jesus, you ll have to turn the other cheek, you ll have to do whatever you can to live at peace with others, you ll have to suffer wrong. But you won t suffer wrongs like Jesus suffered! Jesus Christ is God and God doesn t deserve to suffer anything. He s God he could have lived if he had so chosen in absolute immunity to suffering. But he took on flesh, he became a man, and he lived in poverty and obscurity for the first thirty years of his life, and then his last three years everyone it seemed tried to kill him, and then during the last 18 hours of his life they got to him. The religious leaders of his day gave him an illegal show trial (and they beat him during the trial) and they rendered an illegal verdict. If any situation puts you in a position where you cry out for vindication, it s when you have been convicted of a crime you didn t commit. Can you imagine if that happened to you? If Parchment was staring you in the face for a crime you didn t commit, how you would cry out for vindication? What did Jesus say when the cross was staring at him? Nothing he wouldn t even answer his accusers. He wouldn t say a word to them. But when they got Jesus on the cross, he did speak. Remember what he said to his killers? He said, Just you wait until I come back to earth then I will get my revenge on you! It s going to be bad. No, what did he say? He said, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. Friends, when you see how Jesus suffered wrong for you, how he was cheated for you and didn t seek vindication or value or vengeance, but instead like a lamb led to the slaughter he died willingly in your place for your sins, when the reality of that hits you that Jesus Christ is your vindication then you can gladly suffer wrong, you can gladly be cheated, because your Jesus has already done that for you. I was going to end the sermon there but last night I was talking to Mimi about the sermon, about how I was going to tell everyone that they should rather be wronged, and she, very wisely, said, But J.D., when people are wronged, everyone rightfully in their heart cries out for justice. She s right we do, and God wants justice for those of his people who are wronged, too. So what about that? Look back at the beginning of chapter six Paul tells the Corinthians how dare you go to law! And he follows it with these verses (1 Corinthians 6:2-3): 2 Or 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? 3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! What does that mean? I don t know no one knows. Somehow, in some way, those who are in Christ at the end of the age will help God judge the world, but no one has any clue really how that will work.

8 8 But here s the point have you been wronged and you want justice? Does something deep within your spirit cry out for a vindication you haven t yet seen? Take heart it s coming. At the end of the age every single sin, every single wrong, will be accounted for nothing will be hidden, even the wrongs done in secret will be shouted from the rooftops and God will let nothing slide. And every sin will be paid for either by Jesus Christ on the cross, or by those who reject God forever in hell. But you can t add anything to it now. Instead, right now, in this age, in this life, why not rather suffer loss in light of all Christ has done for you and in light of what will be done for you? You re never more like Jesus than when you do that. Amen, let s pray. Father, we know that sin and temptation to sin must come, we know that wrongs must come. Prepare us for them prepare us to respond to them like Jesus, ready to suffer any kind of wrong for the good of our brothers and sisters and for the glory of your name. In Christ s name we pray. Amen. Friends, for all who have trusted Christ, I invite you to take the Lord s Supper. All Christians, whether members of this church or not, whether baptized in a particular way or not all believers in Jesus Christ welcome to come to the Lord s Table. The biblical teaching on the nature of the Lord s Supper is as follows: the bread and the cup we ll take this morning are "visible words" (Augustine). In them we see with our eyes the promise of God. In fact, with them we see, smell, touch and taste the word. In the public reading and preaching of Scripture, God addresses our mind and conscience through the hearing. In the Lord s Supper, He uniquely addresses our mind and conscience through the other senses. In, through and to the senses, God's promise is made tangible. 1 Corinthians 11:23: 23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed [the night before he went to the cross], took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me. [So, Jesus body was broken on the cross in our place where our body should have been broken for our sins, and we re called to remember that] 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me. [So through his blood shed on the cross, Jesus cleanses us from the guilt of our sins, and every time we take this cup, we re called to remember that] 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord s death until he comes. If you re here today and not a Christian, we welcome you. Thank you for coming. But please don t take the Lord s Supper, because the Bible says that if you do and you don t believe the gospel then you are eating and drinking condemnation on yourself. We are trying to protect you. But I d ask you to think about this: how do I handle being wronged? Do I blow up in anger? Do I find myself desperate to vindicate my name or even seeking vengeance?

9 9 Could I ever possibly allow myself to happily suffer wrong for some kind of greater good? I think that d be a profitable way to spend your time. For believers, if you ve been wronged, take heart one day you will be perfectly vindicated by God, and you can be sure that you will because Jesus Christ was vindicated by his resurrection from the dead. Take heart but if you re here this morning, and you believe the gospel, but you ve wronged someone and you know it I pray the Holy Spirit is bringing it to your mind right now if you ve wronged someone and you haven t gone to them and asked for forgiveness, then don t take the Lord s Supper. Don t take it unworthily instead, pass the bread and the cup and they come by and don t take any, and go and be reconciled to your brother, to your sister. That s what Matthew 5 says. Then come back and take the Lord s Supper with joy because you have done precisely what Christ has commanded you to do. Ushers will pass out bread, then come back and pass out the cups, then we ll take. Please just place your cups on the floor when finished. Father, I ask that you would bless the bread and the cup this morning, to be instruments of the grace you have toward sinners, in Jesus name. Amen.