第88章

To the Corinthian believers who had lost sight of this plain counsel, Paul wrote in no uncertain terms of admonition and rebuke."Dare any of you," he asked, "having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?

and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.I speak to your shame.Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another.Why do ye not rather take wrong?...Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?"Satan is constantly seeking to introduce distrust, alienation, and malice among God's people.We shall often be tempted to feel that our rights are invaded, even when there is no real cause for such feelings.Those whose love for self is stronger than their love for Christ and His cause will place their own interests first and will resort to almost any expedient to guard and maintain them.Even many who appear to be conscientious Christians are hindered by pride and self-esteem from going privately to those whom they think in error, that they may talk with them in the spirit of Christ and pray together for one another.When they think themselves injured by their brethren, some will even go to law instead of following the Saviour's rule.

Christians should not appeal to civil tribunals to settle differences that may arise among church members.Such differences should be settled among themselves, or by the church, in harmony with Christ's instruction.Even though injustice may have been done, the follower of the meek and lowly Jesus will suffer himself "to be defrauded" rather than open before the world the sins of his brethren in the church.

Lawsuits between brethren are a reproach to the cause of truth.Christians who go to law with one another expose the church to the ridicule of her enemies and cause the powers of darkness to triumph.They are wounding Christ afresh and putting Him to open shame.By ignoring the authority of the church, they show contempt for God, who gave to the church its authority.

In this letter to the Corinthians Paul endeavored to show them Christ's power to keep them from evil.He knew that if they would comply with the conditions laid down, they would be strong in the strength of the Mighty One.As a means of helping them to break away from the thralldom of sin and to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord, Paul urged upon them the claims of Him to whom they had dedicated their lives at the time of their conversion."Ye are Christ's," he declared."Ye are not your own....Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."The apostle plainly outlined the result of turning from a life of purity and holiness to the corrupt practices of heathenism."Be not deceived," he wrote; "neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,...nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." He begged them to control the lower passions and appetites."Know ye not," he asked, "that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God?"While Paul possessed high intellectual endowments, his life revealed the power of a rarer wisdom, which gave him quickness of insight and sympathy of heart, and brought him into close touch with others, enabling him to arouse their better nature and inspire them to strive for a higher life.His heart was filled with an earnest love for the Corinthian believers.He longed to see them revealing an inward piety that would fortify them against temptation.He knew that at every step in the Christian pathway they would be opposed by the synagogue of Satan and that they would have to engage in conflicts daily.They would have to guard against the stealthy approach of the enemy, forcing back old habits and natural inclinations, and ever watching unto prayer.Paul knew that the higher Christian attainments can be reached only through much prayer and constant watchfulness, and this he tried to instill into their minds.But he knew also that in Christ crucified they were offered power sufficient to convert the soul and divinely adapted to enable them to resist all temptations to evil.With faith in God as their armor, and with His word as their weapon of warfare, they would be supplied with an inner power that would enable them to turn aside the attacks of the enemy.

The Corinthian believers needed a deeper experience in the things of God.

They did not know fully what it meant to behold His glory and to be changed from character to character.They had seen but the first rays of the early dawn of that glory.Paul's desire for them was that they might be filled with all the fullness of God, following on to know Him whose going forth is prepared as the morning, and continuing to learn of Him until they should come into the full noontide of a perfect gospel faith.