1 Corinthians 6:1-11
6 When one of you has a dispute with another believer, how dare you file a lawsuit and ask a secular court to decide the matter instead of taking it to other believers!2 Don’t you realize that someday we believers will judge the world? And since you are going to judge the world, can’t you decide even these little things among yourselves? 3 Don’t you realize that we will judge angels? So you should surely be able to resolve ordinary disputes in this life. 4 If you have legal disputes about such matters, why go to outside judges who are not respected by the church? 5 I am saying this to shame you. Isn’t there anyone in all the church who is wise enough to decide these issues? 6 But instead, one believer sues another—right in front of unbelievers!
7 Even to have such lawsuits with one another is a defeat for you. Why not just accept the injustice and leave it at that? Why not let yourselves be cheated?8 Instead, you yourselves are the ones who do wrong and cheat even your fellow believers.
9 Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, 10 or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. 11 Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
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Basically, Paul is calling for the genuine unity of the believers. How else are we different from the world? Paul says we are not to sue each other. Instead, we are to let wise people in the body adjudicate for us. It’s not just for appearance. It fulfills what Jesus prayed for us in John 17–”that we be one.”
Paul then gives a list of those behaviors which aren’t allowed in the Kingdom–a very contemporary list! His statement that “some of you were like that” give sanyone hope. And the process is to call upon, to depend on Jesus, and to depend on the Spirit of our God.
God’s goal for us is that we are cleansed, made holy, and made right with God.