In 6:1 Paul asks, “Does any one of you, having a case against another, dare to be judged before the unrighteous and not before the saints?” The unrighteous are the unbelievers, who are unjust before God.
In verse 2 Paul continues, “Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy of the smallest judgments?” In the coming kingdom age the overcoming saints will rule over the nations of the world (Heb. 2:5-6; Rev. 2:26-27). As co-kings with Christ, these overcoming saints will judge the world in the coming age. Since the world will be judged by the saints, they are certainly worthy of the smallest judgments. These judgments are those carried out by a number of saints judging cases among themselves, cases which are trifling compared to the ruling of the world. Here Paul seems to be saying, “If you will be able to judge great things, are you not able to judge the small things today? Why don’t you let the saints judge your cases? Why do you bring your case to unbelievers for judgment?”
Verse 3 says, “Do you not know that we will judge angels, not to mention things of this life?” “Things of this life” indicates that judgment over the angels by the saints will be in the future, not in this age. This probably refers to the judgment over the angels revealed in 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6. The angels mentioned in these verses and those referred to in Ephesians 2:2; 6:12; and Matthew 25:41 must be the evil angels. Thus we, the believers of Christ, will judge not only the human world, but also the angelic world in the future.
In verse 4 Paul says, “If then you have judgments as to things of this life, do you set them to judge who are little esteemed in the church?” This refers to the unbelievers, who are little esteemed in the church. Thus, going to law before unbelievers is condemned.
In verse 5 Paul goes on to say, “I say this to your shame. Thus there is not even one among you, no one who is wise, who will be able to discern between his brothers!” In chapter four Paul said that he was not shaming the saints. But here he says that what he writes is to their shame. He fully disagreed with brother going to law with brother, and that before unbelievers (v. 6).
In verses 7 and 8 Paul says, “Already, therefore, it is altogether a defeat for you that you have lawsuits among yourselves. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? But you wrong and defraud, and this your brothers.” When Paul says that it is already a defeat for believers to have lawsuits among themselves, he means that it is a failure, implying defect, fault, loss, and falling short (in the inheritance of the kingdom of God—v. 9). Willingness to be wronged or defrauded is willingness to suffer loss, to learn the lesson of the cross, to keep the virtue of Christ at some cost. Hence, Paul asks why the believers were not willing to be wronged, why they were not willing to learn the lesson of the cross. Instead of suffering loss, they were actually wronging others and defrauding them. To be sure, Paul’s words here are very strong.
Once again I wish to point out that the dealing here concerns claiming our rights. The claiming of rights issues from the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the flesh results from living in the soul. Thus, when we live in the soul, the lusts will come in, and when the lusts come in, we shall insist on our rights and claim them. No doubt, Paul deliberately dealt with the first three problems in a particular sequence. First he deals with division, which comes from the soulish life. Second, he deals with gross sin, which comes from the lust of the flesh. Third, he deals with the claiming of rights.
Both in the church life and in the family life we have this problem of the claiming of our rights. Two brothers may have a problem with each other, and each may claim his rights in the matter. In 6:1-11 Paul was burdened by this claiming of our personal rights. This is hidden within all of us. We all have the tendency to claim our rights in certain matters. Some may argue that they have never taken anyone to court or never brought anyone to the elders of the church. Although they may not have done such things, within them they have the intention to claim their rights. For instance, they may say to themselves, “Why did this brother treat me like that?” To say this proves that we are claiming our rights. In the sight of God to claim our rights in our heart is the same as taking a brother to the law court. This claiming of rights needs to be uprooted and thoroughly dealt with. This was Paul’s aim in writing these verses.