Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Corinthians 6

Dare any of you.—Having rebuked the Corinthian Christians for any attempt to judge those who are outside the Church—i.e., the heathen—St. Paul now insists, on the other hand, on the importance of their not submitting their affairs for decision to the heathen tribunals. Jewish converts would have more easily understood that they should settle disputes among themselves, as the Roman power had, as we learn from Gallio’s remarks (Acts 18:14–15), given this liberty to the Jews.

The Gentile converts, however, would have been naturally inclined to continue to bring disputes before the tribunals with which they had been so familiar in a proverbially litigious condition of society before their conversion.

We can well imagine how detrimental to the best interests of Christianity it would be for the Christian communion, founded as it was on principles of unity and love, to be perpetually, through the hasty temper and weakness of individual members, held up to the scorn of the heathen, as a scene of intestine strife.

Repeated lawsuits before heathen judges would have had the further evil effect of practically obliterating the broad line of demarcation which then really existed between the principles of Roman jurisprudence, and the loftier Christian conceptions of self-sacrifice and charity by which the followers of Jesus Christ should, in accordance with His teaching, control their life.

These considerations rendered necessary the warnings which the Apostle here commences with the emphatic word “Dare,” of which it has been well said (Bengel), “Treason against Christians is denoted by this high-sounding word.”

Unjust . . . . saints.—These words convey here no essentially moral ideas. They merely signify respectively “heathen” and “members of the Christian Church.” These phrases remind us that the state of things when St. Paul wrote this was entirely different from what exists in any Christian country now. The teaching has nothing whatever to do with the adjudication of the courts of a Christian country.

The cases to which St. Paul’s injunctions would be applicable in the present day would be possible only in a heathen country. If, for example, in India there existed heathen tribunals, it would certainly be wrong, and a source of grave scandal, for native Christians to submit questions between themselves for decision to such courts, instead of bringing them before the legal tribunals established by Christian England.

It is not probable that at so early a period there were any regular and recognised tribunals amongst the Christians, and certainly their decisions could scarcely have had any legal force. There is, however, historical evidence of the existence of such in the middle of the second century. The principles here laid down would naturally have led to their establishment. (See 1 Corinthians 5:4.)

Do you not know . . . ?—The knowledge that they possessed of the great future that was in store for the Church of Christ was the strongest argument against the humiliating degradation to which their conduct was subjecting it.

The saints shall judge the world.—The Apostle here claims for all Christians the glorious prerogative that Christ had Himself promised to His immediate personal followers (Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:30).

Bearing in mind the deep conviction of the early Church that the second personal advent of Christ was near at hand, we may take these words as referring primarily to the conquest of the world by Christianity. This conquest has since been accomplished, though by slower and more spiritual processes than were then anticipated.

These words also refer indirectly to that final triumph of Christ and His body, the Church, of which every success here on earth is at once the type and the pledge.

To judge the smallest matters.—Better, to pronounce the most trivial judgments, as compared with the great judgments that you will pronounce hereafter. The nature of the things that form the subject of those judgments is explained in the following verse.

We shall judge angels.—Many conjectures have been made as to the exact significance of the word “angels” here. Some suggest that it must signify bad angels; but this would be an unusual use of the word without any qualifying adjective.

It is better, perhaps, to regard the passage as a climax arising out of the Apostle’s intense realisation of the unity of Christ and His Church triumphant—a point which seems ever present to the mind of St. Paul when he speaks of the dignity of Christianity. In this sense, redeemed humanity will be superior to, and judges of, the spiritual world.

That the words have some such large significance, and are not the expression of a hard and literal fact regarding some members of the angelic host, is, I think, borne out by the subsequent words, where the contrast to “angels” is not “men,” but “things” relating to this life.

If then you have judgments...—Better, If, however, you choose to have judgments to be given on matters of this life. The last words show that the questions alluded to are purely worldly and not spiritual matters. The Apostle subsequently urges that such disputes should not arise at all among Christians, and that if they do, they should be settled by the interposition of some mutual friend. Here he says, with something of sarcasm, “The very lowliest of those who are to be exalted above angels, and to be judges of spiritual beings, is of sufficient authority to settle such matters as you are bringing before legal tribunals.”

I speak to your shame.—Better, I say this to cause you to feel ashamed. From the latent irony of the previous words, the Apostle turns to ask solemnly whether it is true that in the whole Christian community at Corinth, which boasted of its superior wisdom, not even one man is to be found sufficiently esteemed for his wisdom to be trusted by the brothers to settle their disputes.

Shall be able to judge. . . .—Better, shall be able to arbitrate, in contrast to the “going to law” of the next verse, as the words for these two expressions are different in the original.