THE TRIVIAL AND THE ETERNAL
The More Excellent Way, Part 8 — 1 Corinthians 6:1-11
Stonebrook Sunday AM, 3/8/26, Matt Heerema
Please turn with me to 1 Corinthians, chapter 6.
We are in week 8 of our walk-through of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian
church. Throughout this letter, Paul confronts the way the Corinthians are
evaluating their Christian life. It seems they have believed the gospel, but
they are still using the world’s categories—self-focus, power, status, wisdom,
rights, and self-promotion—to decide how to live.
So Paul writes to reorient them. He keeps bringing them back to the same
truth from different angles: that the Christian life is to be shaped not by the
world’s ideas of what is wise, but by Jesus’s teaching and example, and His
self-sacrifice on the cross to pay for sin, and buy God’s people back from
slavery to sin and death.
In other words, as Paul confronts the many problems the Corinthian church
has, he keeps pointing out that the core problem in Corinth is not just bad
behavior that they need to fix; it’s a distorted sense of identity. They are
acting like people who belong to the world instead of people who belong
to Christ. They are acting like Corinthians, not like Christians.
And everything Paul addresses in this letter—division, immorality, lawsuits,
freedom, marriage, worship, spiritual gifts, even the resurrection—flows out
of that deeper issue.
Jesus said that the world will know we are His disciples by our love for one
another. By the way we live together as a family of families, caring for the
whole family and all the individuals in it. We do this by acting toward one
another the way God acts toward us. With care and concern, mercy and
grace, patience and the benefit of the doubt, and also with truth and justice:
calling each other to account when wrong has been done.
In chapters 5 and 6, which we started last week and will continue into next
week, we’re going to see Paul point out three issues in the church he’s had
reported to him: a case of a very messed-up sexually immoral relationship,
petty lawsuits over trivial matters, and the practice of visiting temple
prostitutes (a modern equivalent might be using pornography).
of 1 6He uses these three issues to point out specific ways they are not
understanding their faith.
REVIEW
Last week in Brad’s sermon on chapter five, we learned that the church was
not taking sin seriously. They were aware of, and not just tolerating but
actually proud of, this immoral relationship in their midst when they should
have taken action and removed the unrepentant from the church. If you
didn’t hear the sermon last week, that’s a major oversimplification, so I
recommend you go and listen to it.
OVERVIEW
This leads right into our passage today. Here’s an overview. We saw last
week that they were failing to judge matters of eternal consequence.
And now, ironically, Paul shows the opposite problem. In chapter 6, they are
harshly judging matters of trivial consequence. So Paul redirects them.
He teaches them to judge in light of eternity, and finally to judge in light
of the eternal verdict of the gospel.
Let’s read the passage.
Read: 1 Corinthians 6:1–11 (CSB)
If any of you has a dispute against another, how dare you take it to
court before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Or don’t
you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is
judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the trivial cases? Don’t
you know that we will judge angels—how much more matters of this
life? So if you have such matters, do you appoint as your judges
those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame!
Can it be that there is not one wise person among you who is able to
arbitrate between fellow believers? Instead, brother goes to court
against brother, and that before unbelievers! As it is, to have legal
disputes against one another is already a defeat for you. Why not
rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?
of 2 6Instead, you yourselves do wrong and cheat—and you do this to
brothers and sisters!
Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom?
Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters,
adulterers, or males who have sex with males, no thieves, greedy
people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit
God’s kingdom. And some of you used to be like this.
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.
HARSHLY JUDGING MATTERS OF TRIVIAL
CONSEQUENCE
The circumstances in the church that Paul addresses involve members
taking one another to court over what he calls trivial matters. Most scholars
agree that the context here is civil disputes, likely about money or property.
To understand why Paul reacts so strongly, we need to understand the first-
century Greco-Roman court system. Civil cases were typically heard in
public spaces such as the marketplace, often at the city’s judgment seat. You
can see an example of this very thing in Corinth in Acts 18:12-17. Legal
proceedings could become very public contests, where reputation and
honor were on display as much as the legal outcome. A lawsuit between
believers would therefore publicly shame a fellow Christian in front of
unbelieving spectators.
The point of this passage is not that there is never an occasion to involve
civil authorities among church members. Scripture teaches that civil
authorities exist to restrain evil and punish wrongdoing (Romans 13:3–4).
When crimes are committed, when someone is abused or the victim of
violence, protecting them and involving the proper authorities is not a
violation of this passage; it is part of the Bible’s call to seek justice and
protect the vulnerable.
That is not the kind of situation Paul is talking about here.
of 3 6What Paul is confronting is something very different: believers dragging
one another into public court over personal disputes—likely financial
matters—that could have been resolved within the family of the church.
And remember from chapter five: if you’re dealing with an unrepentant
swindler, thief, or greedy person, they need to be removed from the church
in the first place, as they’ve proven they are a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Paul says, “The fact that you have a lawsuit in the first place is already a
defeat for you.” Nobody wins. Even if you do win. Why? What have you
gained? A little money? A little worldly reputation? But what have you lost?
Your brother. Over what? Something you could have worked out in-house.
Why not rather lose the money and keep your brother, and in the process
show the world that the thing they think is most valuable is actually trivial in
light of eternity?
JUDGING IN LIGHT OF ETERNITY
Paul uses a rhetorical question three times: “Do you not know?” He’s
reminding them (and us) of eternal truths that should be framing their
whole thinking about this life.
What does Paul mean in verses 2 and 3 that saints, Christians, will judge the
world, even the angels? He is reminding us of what is coming. He’s telling
us, “Think ahead! What does God’s Word say about what is coming for
those who trust Him?” How we will function in the future should affect how
we live now. Then we will see perfectly and share in Christ’s perfect
judgment. Now we see imperfectly, but we do have God’s revealed will and
ways here in the Scripture. The question is, do we know it?
Paul brings this up because it is apparent to him that the way they are
behaving toward each other shows that they do not know, or are not
remembering, God’s commands and promises and will! As he has been
saying so far in the book, they are acting like spiritual infants.
And then Paul reminds them that the most important question is not “who is
right in this lawsuit?” The most important question is “who inherits the
kingdom?”
of 4 6Paul brings back the list from chapter five and adds a few things to it. A few
of the ways people live as if they belong to the world, rather than to Christ.
A few of these relate directly to the issue at hand: thieves, greedy people,
swindlers, and idolaters. An over-concern with material possessions leads to
all manner of sin against other people. Others describe patterns of
destructive behavior: drunkenness, verbal abuse, slander.
Sexual immorality is any sexual activity outside the covenant bonds of
marriage, and a few specifics are also listed. Adultery is a married person
having a sexual relationship with one who is not their spouse. “Males who
have sex with males” is a rendering of two words combined that means
same-sex sexual activity. There are claims today that the Bible never actually
addresses homosexuality, but it is very clear from these words that that is
exactly what is in view.
But I want to point out something important about these “vice lists” that
appear throughout the New Testament.
We are intended to find ourselves in them. “And some of you used to be
like this.”
This is not the righteous people judging the unrighteous. It is a reminder
that apart from Christ, we were the unrighteous. Which brings us to our final
point.
JUDGING IN LIGHT OF THE ETERNAL VERDICT
Finally, while the Corinthians are busy chasing verdicts in earthly courts that
are 2,000 years gone from this earth, Paul ends this section by reminding
them that the verdict that matters has already been rendered.
1 Corinthians 6:11 (CSB)
And some of you used to be like this. 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.
Brothers and sisters, if you are trusting in Christ alone for your salvation, it is
true that you were washed, sanctified, justified, past tense, passive verbs!
This is something that happened to you. That was done for you.
of 5 6You were taken from a place where you were dirty, unholy, and guilty, and
you were washed, made holy, and declared not guilty in the name of Jesus
by the Spirit of God.
The way we are to orient ourselves to the world, and treat each other, flows
from the fact that we were enemies of God, but we were saved and
reconciled by Him, and we now have an eternity to look forward to. This
puts our present world in perspective. Death is not the end. Wealth and
comfort in this life are too shortsighted. We have an eternity of riches ahead
of us, and we have a mission in front of us. Temporary suffering, hardship,
and loss in this life are to be expected and are an acceptable cost for the
advance of the gospel message and God’s glory.
One of the most practical things that has helped me understand the Gospel
message of God’s forgiveness is those people in my life who, themselves
understanding their own forgiveness, extend grace and mercy to me when I
need it. That is the primary moral example that has been shown to me in my
life that led me to Christ’s forgiveness.
Last week’s passage about removing the person who claims to be a
Christian but continues in unrepentant sin shows us a glimpse of God’s
concern for justice. In the same way, Paul reminds us in this week’s passage
that we can show a glimpse of God’s mercy, especially in the way we handle
the trivial cases of possessions.
The Corinthians were dragging one another into court, seeking verdicts that
would last for a few years. But the verdict that matters will last for eternity.
When you know God’s verdict over our life in Christ: clean, holy, forgiven,
you no longer have to spend your life chasing the trivial things of this world.
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