You Were Cleansed by the Name-1 Cor 6:1-11

1 Corinthians, New Testament, Sermons

If someone from the church cheats and deceives you and you lose lots of money to them, will you sue them? Why or why not?

  • How does 1 Cor 6:2, 3, 10 share Paul’s common repeated theme so far (1 Cor 1:7; 3:13; 4:5; 5:5)? What should you learn about Paul’s eschatological framework? How would you apply this to your daily life?
  • Why was Paul so horrified (1 Cor 6:1, 6)?
  • Do you–Christian–believe that you will judge the world (Dan 7:18, 22; 1 Cor 6:2; Mt 19:28; Lk 22:30; Rev 3:21; 20:4)? What is the logic of Paul’s argument (1 Cor 6:2-3)? Why does he call their cases “trivial” (1 Cor 6:2)?
  • Who are “the ungodly,” “those whose way of life is scorned in the church” and “unbelievers” (1 Cor 6:1, 4, 6)? Just how bitingly sarcastic is Paul (1 Cor 6:5)? Why is it so terribly wrong, ludicrious and shameful to bring their disputes before public officials (1 Cor 6:1, 5-6)?
  • What do their lawsuits show about them (1 Cor 6:7a, 8)? What should they do instead (1 Cor 6:7b)?
  • What does Paul’s repeated question “Do you not know…” (1 Cor 6:2, 3, 9) show about their ignorance, their disputes, their lawsuits and their eschatology?
  • What were they not to be deceived about (1 Cor 6:9-10)?
  • Do you notice Paul’s emphasis on who they are in Christ [INDICATIVE] (1 Cor 6:11) and not just on what they should or should not do [IMPERATIVE] (6:8-10)?
  • Explain what it means to be washed, sanctified and justified (1 Cor 6:11). What is this so important and fundamental?  Can you articulate the difference between what you were in the past and what you are now in Christ?

Paul is indignant and incensed in 1 Cor 5 and 6. Paul insists and states bluntly with apostolic authority based on Scripture (Dt 17:7; 22:21), “Expel the wicked person [the incestuous man] from among you” (1 Cor 5:13), for the church is to judge those “inside,” not those “outside” (1 Cor 5:12). Next he shames them with a case of litigation among Christians that is brought to the civil magistrates [the ungodly (1 Cor 6:1)].

  • A brother [Man A] defrauded another [Man B].
  • Man B took Man A to court which was publicly located in the heart of the marketplace (Ac 18:12-17).

This is a defeat for the whole church in every way (1 Cor 6:7) as well as for the 2 Christians. Paul is so filled with indignation that he alternates between statements of:

  • horror (1 Cor 6:1, 6),
  • rhetorical questions (1 Cor 5:2-4, 5b, 7b),
  • sarcasm (1 Cor 5:5), and
  • threat (1 Cor 6:8-11).

The whole church community allowed this to happen. Paul’s series of rhetorical questions includes the most biting sarcasm in the letter (1 Cor 6:5). Then he briefly addresses Man B [the plaintiff, claimant] with rhetorical questions (1 Cor 6:7b), challenging him with the ethics of Christ. He also warns Man A and the church as a whole, that those who act as he has are in grave danger of forfeiting their inheritance in the kingdom of God (1 Cor 6:8-10). But as usual in Paul, the threat is followed by a word of assurance (1 Cor 6:11) that is also an invitation to repentance.   The church is an eschatological community. Paul’s view of the church as such is crucial to his whole argument. Living as God’s future people should absolutely determine and dictate our life in the present age. In light of these eschatological realities, matters of everyday life are trivial, and the pagan courts who concern themselves with such trivialities are themselves trivialized. They have no standing at all with the people of God. Their absurd position is that the saints will someday judge the very world before whom they are now appearing and asking for a judgment.

In 6:1-11, Paul seriously addresses them for pursuing legal action against other members of the church. The disputes concern matters of civil law which deals with everyday matters (6:3–4: NRSV catches the right meaning by translating “ordinary matters,” while NIV’s “things of this life” is an unfortunate paraphrase that suggests that Christians should be concerned only about things of the next life; this is far from Paul’s present point). 6:7–8: “defrauded” suggest that the disputes are over economic issues.Why is Paul so disturbed about this report? (Cf. 4:14, he’s now shaming them (1 Cor 6:5) about what they’re doing.) Many today would share Paul’s outrage about this incest (5:1–5). Yet, every law court in the Western world has for centuries seen Christians bringing suit against one another; it seems a normal way of settling disputes and doing business. Thus, Paul’s indignant reaction (6:1–8) may appear to us—as perhaps it did to the Corinthians—to be exaggerated. We may also be surprised that Paul has placed this discussion in between two units that deal primarily with issues of sexual morality (5:1–13 and 6:12–20). How does this section fit into the context of chapters 5 and 6? And why does Paul find their litigious behavior so scandalous?

Paul is upset with them because they are failing to act as a community, failing to take responsibility for one another. Just as they have failed to discipline the incestuous man, so they are failing to take responsibility for settling their own disputes; consequently they are taking their legal cases before unbelievers (1 Cor 6:6), “the unrighteous” (1 Cor 6:1). They’re going through the normal channels of the civil courts. Their judges are “unrighteous” (adikoi) in the sense that they do not belong to God’s covenant community. Thus when they take one another to court, they’re declaring primary allegiance to the pagan culture rather than to the community of faith. This action breaks down the boundaries of the church and damages its unity.In 6:1–11, the problem is “a failure of the church to be the church” (Fee, 230)–the fundamental issue of chapters 5 and 6. He summons them to a conversion of the imagination, calling them to understand themselves first and foremost as “the saints” (1 Cor 6:1–2; 1:2)—i.e., the eschatological people of God, called out of their previous social world, like Israel out of Egypt. So they are now bound together as a people in a way that requires them to modify their former ways of life.The courts have a strong systemic bias in favor of higher-status litigants. The majority of civil cases were brought by the wealthy and powerful against people of lesser status and means. The judges were members of the privileged classes and would ordinarily give preference to the testimony of their social peers against the testimony of those of lower rank. Also, those of high standing had the funds to hire professional rhetors and, if necessary, to bribe the judges. In the Satyricon of Petronius a character complains: “Of what avail are laws to be where money rules alone, and the poor suitor can never succeed? … So a lawsuit is nothing more than a public auction, and the knightly juror who sits listening to the case approves, with the record of his vote, something bought.” Corinth, an important commercial and administrative center, was no exception. Chrysostom notes that Corinth, especially around the time of the Isthmian Games, was full of “lawyers innumerable perverting judgment.”

The rich Christians initiating civil proceedings against their poorer fellow Christians–a pattern that emerges elsewhere (11:17–34): the wealthier were “shaming” those in the church who were of lower status and lesser means. This explains Paul’s stern rebuke to the litigators: “When any of you has a grievance against another, do you dare to take it to court before the unrighteous [pagan high-status Corinthian judges, who will be biased in favor of the wealthy] instead of taking it before the saints? … I say this to your shame” (1 Cor 6:1, 5a).In light of the eschatological reality, Paul shows the scandalous absurdity of what they’re doing. In Jewish and early Christian apocalyptic texts, God’s elect will have a part in the judgment of the world and in ruling it in the age to come (Dan 7:18, 22; Wisd Sol 3:8; Mt 19:28; Lk 22:30; Rev 3:21). Paul’s matter-of-fact statement that “we are to judge angels” (1 Cor 6:3) is unprecedented–from his conviction that all things are ultimately to be subjected to Christ (1 Cor 15:24–28), so that those who are “in Christ” will be placed over even the angels. His immediate aim is to highlight the ridiculous contrast between the church’s glorious eschatological destiny and its present failure to exercise jurisdiction over minor property disputes: “And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?” (1 Cor 6:2b).He asks incredulously, “do you appoint as judges those who are despised [NRSV, have no standing] in the church?” (1 Cor 6:4). “…those who have no standing” is too mild: the word means “those who are despised/scorned.” Those who are “despised in the church” are the unrighteous pagan judges; whatever their social standing in the world, in the church their honored position is worth nothing (cf. 1:26–31).Paul’s sly rhetorical question (1 Cor 6:5b) is intended to deflate the puffed-up Corinthians: “Can it be that there is no sophos among you who is able to decide between one brother and another?” The question is the more devastating if—as is likely—those who are pressing legal disputes are precisely the same upper-class members of the community who claim to possess an exalted philosophical wisdom. Paul’s question is, “If you people are so ‘wise,’ why can’t you even settle your differences among yourselves rather than going to outside authorities?” Their recourse to outside arbitration proves the point that they are not what they claim to be.Such litigation pits “brother … against brother” (1 Cor 6:6) is the worst of all. They are shamefully taking family disputes out into the streets, as it were, thereby bringing the whole family into disrepute. Paul insists that this must stop. If necessary, they should appoint for themselves judges [as Israel did, (Dt 1:9–17; 16:18–20)] to settle internal disputes (1 Cor 5:12). This would be in accordance with the normal practice of Jewish communities in the Diaspora, which established their own court systems and sought to avoid the Gentile courts. At least this way of handling disputes would keep problems within the jurisdiction of the community rather than disgracefully playing out their arguments in front of outsiders. Even this would be from Paul’s point of view a concession, for “to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you” (1 Cor 6:7). There are no winners: the whole church loses, and the individuals involved lose, even if they win their cases. Why? Because by fighting it out in the law courts, they become the perpetrators of wrongdoing. “You yourselves wrong and defraud—and brothers at that.” They wrong (adikein) one another and become just like the adikoi, the unrighteous pagans. It’d be far better to suffer economic injustice than to seek legal restitution, better to be wronged than to do wrong (1 Cor 6:7–8).There is a very strong echo here of the well-known teaching of Socrates as reported by Plato: “If it were necessary either to do wrong or to suffer it, I should choose to suffer rather than do it.” This maxim is repeated by philosophers such as Epictetus and Musonius Rufus; the latter actually wrote a treatise arguing that the philosopher should never prosecute anyone for personal injury, not only because it is disgraceful to inflict wrong on another person but also because the Stoic should never concede having been harmed by anyone in the first place. Thus, Paul’s rhetorical move in 6:7–8 implicitly accuses them one more time of failing to act like true sophoi; once again we see him turning their own philosophical categories against them, beating them at their own game. Is Paul merely playing rhetorical games?   Paul’s point is serious: those in the church are called to act righteously and to put behind them the self-asserting, injurious ways of the world. [Legal disputes is one characteristic of life lived under the destructive power of the old age.] He formulates this idea in general terms in 6:9–11: “Wrongdoers [adikoi again] will not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6:9). Again the eschatological perspective frames Paul’s argument. While they jostle each other for economic status and advantage, they wrong and defraud, acting just like the unrighteous outsiders who will ultimately incur the much greater loss of not “inheriting” God’s kingdom. The inheritance metaphor is common in Paul (“the kingdom of God,” 1 Cor 15:50; Gal 5:21; Gal 3:29–4:7; Rom 8:17). Regarding the problem of lawsuits in the church: By grasping material advantage now, they’re jeopardizing their far greater reward in the coming age.

Indicatives always precede imperatives as in 1 Cor 5:7. Yet Paul’s argument is not a threat, nor is it finally based on an appeal to cost-benefit analysis; his point is not merely that they should refrain from litigation because it compromises their own long-term interests. Rather, he insists that such conduct is fundamentally inconsistent with their true identity in Christ. As baptized members of the church, they have been transferred into a new reality and given a new identity under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Conduct such as suing one another is incongruous with this new corporate identity, and it should be stopped. This is an excellent example of a pattern of moral reasoning that we encounter repeatedly in Paul: the indicative (you are in Christ) precedes and grounds the imperative (therefore act accordingly).Paul’s list of “wrongdoers” who will not inherit the kingdom (6:9-10): 6 offenses already set forth in 1 Cor 5:11 as requiring exclusion from the community (fornicators, idolaters, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers) and adds 4 more categories. 2 of these (adulterers and thieves) merely expand or restate the Deuteronomic prescriptions (Dt 22:21–22; 24:7) and are closely related to “fornicators” and “robbers,” respectively. The other two terms—“male prostitutes, sodomites” (NRSV)—introduce a new twist.Much scholarly debate recently over the proper interpretation of these words. The 1st term (malakoi) means literally “soft ones.” It could refer to male prostitutes—young boys as the passive partners in pederastic relationships—but it’s not the ordinary word for such persons, and it could have a broader sense, such as “sissies” or “dandies.” The 2nd word (arsenokoitai) is a general term for men who engage in same-sex intercourse. [This word appears nowhere in Greek literature prior to Paul’s use of it.] But it renders into Greek the standard rabbinic term for “one who lies with a male [as with a woman]” (Lev 18:22; 20:13). (Despite recent challenges to this interpretation, the meaning is confirmed by the evidence of Sibylline Oracles 2.73.) Paul here repeats the standard Jewish condemnation of homosexual conduct (Rom 1:24–27; 1 Tim 1:10). Though this offense does not appear in the community-exclusion texts of Deuteronomy, it is labeled by Lev 20:13 as an “abomination” requiring the penalty of death. Paul links it with the other items in his previous list (1 Cor 5:11), all of which also, per the OT, required the offender to be executed. [Paul—in keeping with Jewish practice of his day—reinterpreted these texts to require banishment from the community rather than literal capital punishment.]Paul’s purpose in 1 Cor 6 is to chastise them for taking each other to court–not to set up new rules for sexual behavior. The list (9–10) are merely illustrations of what they used to be prior to coming into the church. But a life-transforming change has occurred: “you were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:11). In light of this transformation, they ought to stop acting like adikoi by taking their property disputes into courts where the powerful can take advantage of the less influential members of the community. This is the basic aim of Paul’s argument.

Paul alludes here to their baptism (“you were washed”), as their transference into the sphere of Christ’s lordship. They’re cleansed from their past sinful behavior and set apart for God’s service [“sanctified,” (1 Cor 1:2)] as members of God’s covenant people (“justified”). The 3 verbs (1 Cor 6:11) don’t point to 3 sequential experiences in a pilgrimage of faith, but are 3 descriptions of the 1 fundamental transformation that occurs for those who now belong to Christ. The climactic verb “justified” rounds out the whole unit with a deft wordplay that’s lost in most English translations: “You used to be unjust (adikoi); … but you were justified (edikaiIothete).” Since they have been justified—made members of God’s family—they must stop wronging [adikeite (1 Cor 6:8)] one another by going to court before the adikoi (1 Cor 6:1).REFLECTIONS: 6:9–11 has provided the launching pad for countless moralistic sermons that decry the types of sinners listed. But zeroing in on Paul’s vice list places the homiletical accent emphatically in the wrong spot. The concern of the passage as a whole is threefold: 1) call them to act as a community, 2) condemn litigation as an instrument of injustice, and 3) assert the transformed identity of the baptized.

  1. Act as an (eschatological) community. Their legal disputes betray and jeopardize the solidarity of the community in Christ: that is the fundamental reason for Paul’s indignation. More important than any private property is the unity of the church. Paul calls again for a conversion of the imagination. They’re to stop seeing themselves as those in the “normal” social and economic structures of their city and to imagine themselves instead as members of the eschatological people of God, acting corporately in a way that prefigures and proclaims the kingdom of God. Decisions about economic affairs must be made by the church acting together, remembering that they’re the saints who’ll be called to participate in God’s righteous judgment of the world. Paul asks a great deal of them. He is seeking to resocialize them into a new way of doing business, a new community consciousness.
  2. We today participate in conventional legal and economic structures that are foreign to Paul’s gospel-centered community vision. Are we Christians deferring to outside authorities to shape our business and legal affairs? Are we asserting private economic rights that may ignore or fracture the larger interests of the community of faith? The impact on the church is potentially devastating. In a culture shaped profoundly by the values of individualistic materialism, Paul’s scolding of the Corinthians shold challenge us to examine ourselves. Are we conducting our affairs in a way that shows clearly—to ourselves and to others—that our primary loyalty is to the family of God’s people? Some churches have begun to sponsor programs for the mediation of disputes outside the legal system. Such conflict resolution programs seek to achieve not only out-of-court settlements but also reconciliation between the quarreling parties. This creative initiative is deeply consonant with the call of 6:1–11 to the church.
  3. Condemn injustice. Paul is concerned not only about their unity but also about the potential for the abuse of the poor by the privileged. This is not made very explicit, for Paul doesn’t give any details about them. The Corinthians would have known perfectly well what he was talking about. The telltale indicator appears in 1 Cor 6:8: “But you yourselves wrong and defraud—and believers at that.” Some of the Corinthians are using the civil courts as an instrument of injustice, unfairly taking advantage of those who are not able to defend themselves.    Today, money still talks. The wealthy can still hire high-powered lawyers to argue their cases and exert disproportionate influence on the legal process. Our cities are riddled with “lawyers innumerable perverting judgment.” If Christians are complicit in this process, Paul’s words are, “I say this to your shame.”    The problem of Christians taking Christians to court is often done primarily to condemn one of the other classes of sinners in Paul’s vice list (such as “fornicators” or “homosexuals”). It’s a strange perversion of Paul’s message. As a community are we harboring and even tacitly approving “the greedy”? The question is so uncomfortable that this passage is conveniently omitted from our lectionaries.
  4. The transformed identity of the baptized. The right way to handle 6:9–11 is to place the emphasis where Paul does: on the fact that God has already transformed the identity of those who are in Christ. Possibly, 1 Cor 6:11 echoes the actual language of the baptismal ceremony (note the implicit trinitarian structure of the formula: “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spint of our God”). Paul emphasizes that those who are baptized into the community of faith have been transferred out of one mode of existence into another. The believer is to leave behind the behaviors characteristic of that old mode just as the butterfly leaves behind the cocoon and the habits of caterpillar life. Now—washed, sanctified, justified—baptized Christians are set into a new reality, not by some act of will or commitment but by the gracious action of a loving God. Reflect upon your baptismal identity (Rom 6):
  • “Washed” suggests that we are cleansed and forgiven for what is past.
  • “Sanctified” is to be set apart for God’s service (1 Cor 1:2, 30; 3:17).
  • “Justified” (1 Cor 1:30) is to be placed in right relation to God within the community of God’s people.

These affirmations remain true of them even though some of their present actions seem to contradict the new identity that God has given them in Christ. We Christians must receive and act upon this God–given identity. The art of living faithfully as Christians is to live imaginatively and practically on the basis of these truths about ourselves. This new identity in Christ entails a break not only with our individual past sinful behaviors but also with our community’s past cultural patterns and assumptions. Having explained this point, consider 2 headings: “We used to be …” and “But now we are …” Brainstorm about how to complete these sentences in ways that extend the range of examples given by Paul. (For eg., “We used be trained by the media to think of ourselves as ‘consumers,’ but now we are sharers of the good things that God gives us.” Or, “We used to be racists, but now we are part of God’s family, made up of all races and tongues.”) If taken seriously, this is a dangerous exercise, for it will call the class or congregation to act upon the transformations that we identify. To be baptized into Christ is to enter a reality in which the factors that used to give us status, security, and identity no longer counts (Phil 3:4b-16) and we find our identity in Christ alone. Once we understand that, we may have to give up not only lawsuits but many other things as well.

Reference:

  1. Richard B. Hays. First Corinthians. Interpretation. A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. 1997.
  2. Gordon D. Fee. First Corinthians. The New International Commentary on the NT. 1987.
  3. Richard B. Hays. The Moral Vision of the N.T. A Contemporary Introduction to N.T. Ethics. 1996.

Sermon Divisions:

  1. 7/12/20: Always Thank God (1:1-9) [1 Cor 1:4].  Cosmic Epic Calling [1 Cor 1:2].
  2. 7/19/20: The Devil Divides, God Unites (1:10-17) [1 Cor 1:10]. All Agree. No Divisions. Perfect Unity.
  3. 7/26/20: The Cross—God‘s Way—is Dumb (1:18-25) [1 Cor 1:18]. The Cross Stumbles. The Cross is like a Cop Out. Foolish Cross.
  4. 8/2/20: What You Were, Who Christ Is (1:26-31) [1 Cor 1:26, 30]. The Necessity of Lack. No Boasting  [1 Cor 1:31].
  5. 8/9/20: Nothing but Jesus (2:1-5) [1 Cor 2:2].
  6. 8/16/20: Wise vs. Stupid (2:6-16) [1 Cor 2:6]. True Wisdom is Only for the Mature. The Mind of Christ [1 Cor 2:16].
  7. 8/23/20: You‘re NOT Spiritual (3:1-4) [1 Cor 3:1].  Spiritual, Yet Not Spiritual.
  8. 8/30/20: Merely Servants (3:5-9) [1 Cor 3:5]. Field Laborers.
  9. 9/6/20: Build with Care or Be Destroyed (3:10-15, 16-17) [1 Cor 3:10-11]. God’s Temple.
  10. 9/13/20: Deceived by Wisdom (3:18-23). All Belongs to Christ and God. Wisdom doesn’t boast.
  11. 9/20/20: When You Are Judged (4:1-5) [1 Cor 4:4]. Go Ahead…Judge Me!  Judged Only by God; Accountable Only to God.  Judging Others Blinds You.
  12. 9/27/20: When You Are Scum (4:6-13) [1 Cor 4:13]. Become Scum. Puffed up Corinthians and Suffering Apostle amid Others’ Boasting.
  13. 10/4/20: Imitate Me (4:14-21) [1 Cor 4:19]. Fatherly Admonition. Final Warning to Boasters. Fatherly Admonition to Paul’s Corinthian Children.
  14. 10/11/20: Expel the Wicked Man (5:1-13) [1 Cor 5:13]. Drive out the wicked person from among you.
  15. 10/18/20: You Were Cleansed (6:1-11) [1 Cor 6:11]. You Will Judge the World [1 Cor 6:2]. I Say this to shame you [1 Cor 6:5]. Legal Disputes Should Be Handled within the Community.
  16. 10/25/20: Your Body is for the Lord (6:12-20) [1 Cor 6:13]. Glorify God with Your Body.
  17. 11/1/20; 11/8/20; 11/15/20: Women and Wives.
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