When the Smart Thing Isn't the Right Thing

1 Corinthians 6:1-8, ESV
“When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!”

This letter from the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians is one of the most practical and candid in the New Testament, addressing real world struggles of a young, diverse church. One of the great themes of the letter is the “upside-down” wisdom of God that shames worldly understanding and pride. It remains strikingly relevant today dealing with timeless issues and showing how the Gospel, as opposed to human knowledge and individual rights, shapes true community and behavior in the Family of Christians.

In the quoted passage, Paul addresses a problem that shocks him. The believers were unduly influenced by their city’s litigious culture, a place where civil lawsuits were commonplace, (sound familiar to anyone?). Brothers and Sisters in the Family of God were taking grievances over property, business, and money before Roman civil courts presided over by pagan judges. Paul, appalled by this practice, called it shameful, giving specific instructions for an acceptable procedure in these matters. His reasoning for admonishing believers in conflict to be judged by wise and discerning members of the Christian community is clear. Believers are destined to be entrusted with such cosmic responsibilities as actually judging angels in the final judgement of creation.[1] We should therefore be fit to oversee trivial matters like conflicts over money and business now.

A Reasonable Consideration
Well, all right. This sounds like a reasonable course of action, does it not? Bringing civil disagreements between brothers and sisters in the faith before true elders of the church [2] would certainly be a tremendous improvement over the current accepted and justifiable actions of taking them before the duly elected and/or appointed justices of our secular court systems, or worse, before Judge Judy and her ilk on national television, radio, and social media outlets.

But then, in verse six, Paul decries the necessity of employing the mandate he just gave them. As soon as he authorizes an avenue for determining equitable settlements between battling believers, he indicts them for their need of his direction to them at all. His words indict these disputes all together as they reveal a deeper spiritual failure of heart. This verse on its face is highly impractical in our modern world where lawsuits represent thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars to the injured parties. However, the two questions asked are there to illicit the most Christ-like responses from us.

“Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?”

How Can These Work in Our World?
My Uncle Ray was born and raised on a 180-acre dirt farm in south central Missouri adjacent to the northernmost part of the Ozarks during the Great Depression. Here he learned vital lessons from the living examples and teachings of my gentle, Godly grandparents: the value of hard work, the importance of community, the inestimable price of a man’s reputation and his word, and the priority of his Bible. Emphasized over all else were the seriousness of honesty, integrity, and doing the right thing regardless of the situation.

After serving honorably alongside of his older brother during World War II, Uncle Ray married his sweetheart, left the farm and Missouri, and set up housekeeping with his new bride in North Central Texas. He met James, the man who would soon become his best friend and closest compatriot for decades, where they were employed together in the early 1950’s. Uncle Ray and his friend James attended the same Southern Baptist church. They raised their families simultaneously, often travelling and vacationing together as a single group. Fast relationships were formed between their wives and their children.

Uncle Ray and James ushered together and were elected deacons in the church, serving in tandem for many happy years. They played, worked, prayed, wept, and rejoiced as brothers through the best and worst of times of family living in those days. Around 1965, Uncle Ray and James became business partners in a wholesale HVAC company supplying air conditioning and heating units, ducting, and related components and tools to contractors and builders throughout the region. The housing market was mostly stable during these years, and, with diligent work and conscientious investment, the fledgling endeavor was born and grew slowly and consistently.

A sharp decrease in housing starts occurred in 1973 because of rampant inflation and oil shocks causing astronomical escalation in mortgage rates dramatically reducing the affordability of family homes. HVAC wholesalers like Uncle Ray and his partner James were forced by these economic drivers to do anything they could to cut inventories as sales plummeted. Most even cancelled purchase orders and contracts with the factories who supplied them with their wares and would accept no new deliveries of previously committed products. Factory inventories were frozen as a result, machines were shut down, workers were sent home.

But Uncle Ray and James took a different approach, determined to honor their word given by contracts and purchase orders. They and their families sacrificed for their honor, tightening their belts for a few years while they watched unsold stock glut their warehouse, paid taxes on these goods, and prayed for strength and the wherewithal to carry out their commitments regardless of the cost.

A Shocking Discovery
At the deepest point in the crisis, Uncle Ray poured over the company’s financial records to find a way to somehow negotiate this formidable valley. In his process, he discovered an obstacle that would place an enormous demand on his faith and his fortitude should he choose to continue down the path of integrity he had been taught as a young man. His brother in Christ, James, who he considered “My equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel together within God’s house as we walked together in the throng.”[3] James was embezzling large sums of precious cash from their struggling partnership.

I can only imagine Uncle Ray’s initial feelings and thoughts, but he had every right to call for the civil authorities, to sue James for everything he had left, and to disgrace him before the church and the world. Had he done so, not a soul would have found an ounce of fault in him for it. I do not know that the text we read today had direct influence on his decision, but I am confident that a life of following Jesus in humility, gentleness, and honesty most certainly did.

Uncle Ray obtained an appraisal of their company from a reputable accounting firm. He mortgaged everything he owned, including the family home. Then he sat with James in their offices and confronted him with his crimes. It is likely that James was overcome with dread at the consequences he would surely face now. But Uncle Ray simply presented him with the fair value statement from the accountant asking if he agreed with its conclusions. Receiving a positive response, he then gave James a check for one-half of the total worth of their company along with an agreement dissolving their partnership. They both signed the document, then James picked up the check, left the building, and closed the door on their business and their relationship forever.

Answering Hard Questions
Remember the two questions Paul posed to the Corinthians and to us earlier? Uncle Ray’s answer meant that he had to suffer the wrong done him and suffer he did. Only by grace did he recover from the betrayal and only by grace over time could he find forgiveness for James in his heart. Then he was forced to confront the economic fallout of fraud. For a time, it all seemed bleak to impossible, but our faithful God eventually rewarded Uncle Ray’s virtue with prosperity.

A building boom began around 1976. Contractors and builders rapidly depleted the meager inventories of their regular suppliers. Then they discovered the overflowing warehouses belonging to my uncle. As his stock promptly diminished, he was assured by the factories that, because he honored his contracts, his company was at the top of the list to receive newly manufactured goods and that laden trucks were in route. The little company became an extraordinarily successful enterprise.

It Comes Down to This
Let us face it, brothers and sisters, we have an obvious choice each day to live “By every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD,”[4] or not. We will never be privy to the unrealized outcomes of our decisions in this life, but we are repeatedly assured of the eternal ones. It always comes down to daily surrender of our passions and desires, to daily death of our so-called individual rights, and to daily walking the narrow road with our Savior and Lord…even when it is not the “smart” thing to do.

[1] Verses 2-3; Daniel 7:22; Matthew 19:28 [2] 1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9; 1 Peter 5:1-4 [3] Psalm 55:13-14 [4] Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4