[Steve Myers] Well, good to see all of you today. This is Epistles of Paul. We left off at 1 Corinthians 5 last time and we had been discussing this important aspect where Paul was dealing with the issues that Corinth had allowed to continue with this individual who was sexually immoral. We talked about the importance of the meaning of that word, porneia in that that encompassed all kinds of unacceptable sexual acts. And so as Paul describes to them, we recognize the time period of which he wrote this letter during the Days of Unleavened Bread, it seems, and he talks about the fact that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. It's interesting in that phrase, if he just said that, we wouldn't really necessarily connect it to the Holy Days. But as he goes on from there in verse 7, he talks about purging out the old leaven and be a new lump, be a new creation in Christ, a different way to say it. So he uses this metaphor to help us to realize that the implication of the Holy Days tells the picture of God's plan and really how it should impact us.

1 Corinthians 5:7 "Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us."

He says that in verse 7. So our Passover is where it begins. How we can have sin forgiven. It can only happen through the sacrifice of Christ. So the forgiveness of sin, our connection to God begins there with Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. And then, of course, if you look back at verse 7.

1 Corinthians 5:7 He says, "You are truly unleavened."

You're truly unleavened. So during the Days of Unleavened Bread, we've gotten rid of the physical leaven and what does that represent? It's representing sin. It's representing evil. And we've come out of that. Of course, a lot of that will come back to that representation of what happened to Israel all the way back in slavery in Egypt. That's where that first Passover was kept. And recognizing the fact that it pointed forward to the sacrifice of Christ. That we can have forgiveness through that sacrifice.

And then what happened to the Israelites after that very first Passover? They left Egypt. They left Egypt. Egypt was representing sin, was representing this world. They had to come out of this world, get out of that, and then they went out into the wilderness. In fact, Moses told Pharaoh so that they could celebrate a feast, keep a feast to the Lord. And so during the Days of Unleavened Bread, they're out of Egypt. They were truly unleavened in that sense. So we have that interesting connection that I think Paul is intimating here as well. And the Corinthians, likewise, were supposed to be out of sin. They were supposed to have removed the physical things from their house and that was supposed to bring that object lesson to home in their minds that we have to be out of sin spiritually speaking. That's what's most important. So what was the conclusion then? Well, look what he says, verse 8.

1 Corinthians 5:8 "Therefore, let us keep the feast."

Yes, we have an obligation to celebrate the feast. This isn't just a nice little analogy about sin. No, we're showing the representation of what God's doing through His holy days, that we need a Passover, we need a sacrifice. And by that sacrifice and by forgiveness, we come out of sin and we live a life that should be unleavened. That should be what we're about. And so he says, this feast helps us to recognize that very thing. So celebrate the feast or keep the feast. Some translators say observe the festival. So how do you get around not keeping God's holy days when it's specifically ordered, commanded right here in the New Testament. So don't let anybody ever tell you, well, that must be a Jewish day that you guys are keeping. Well, that's all done away. Well, no, it's not. Here we see very clearly, Paul says, "Keep the feast." In fact, it wasn't a question whether you should keep the feast or not. See any question about it? Yeah, no question of whether you should keep the feast. What's the point that he makes? How you keep the feast. Yes, you should keep it, you should celebrate it, you should observe it. How should you observe it? Well, what does he say?

1 Corinthians 5:8 “Not with the leaven of malice and wickedness.” That's the old way of life. That's the Egyptian way of life. That's the life of the way of this world. It's evil. It's sinful. No, not like that. Not an evil way of thinking. That's this idea of malice. And that results in wickedness, the way of life that results from evil thinking. Instead, he says, "If we are truly unleavened, if we've really come out of sin," he says, "we observe the feast, we keep it with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

Sincerity and truth. And so this idea of sincerity is an important one because it points to the fact that we're not, well, here a little, there a little, well, it'd be nice if we were unleavened. No, we're unpolluted, that word can mean. It can also mean to be unmixed. And of course, part of the lesson from the very beginning of the Bible is you don't mix good and evil. Right? What was the mix of good and evil from the start? You had the tree of life and you had the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was a mixture. You can't have a mixture of things. You can't have that kind of syncretism. That isn't going to work when it comes to God's way. And so the apostle Paul emphasizes that fact with the Corinthians that they have come out of sin and they need to stay out of sin. And the truth is going to be something that brings everything to light. And so when we examine things by truth, then you can find, is it pure? Is it faultless? The truth of God's way and His Word certainly reflect that very thing. And so sincerity and truth in contrast to the wickedness and the malice that he talked about. And so unleavened bread brings that object lesson to us.

There's also an interesting connection in the entomology of this word for sincerity. It has a connection to being without wax, literally it can have this connection there, and you think, well, what does sincerity have to do with wax or anything like that? Well, it had to do with pottery. And people who would sell pottery in the local market would often try to cover up any mistakes, any cracks, any problems in the pottery by putting wax. You know, if there was a hairline crack or something, they would fill it with wax and then paint over it. And then you as a buyer would be unaware and then you buy this thing and then it doesn't because it was not made properly. And so if you wanted a sincere pot, then you got one that was without wax that was formed properly. And so this idea is that, yeah, you can't cover up sin. That's not what we're talking about. You have to be sin-free. You have to be made right. And of course, we're made right in that sense through the Passover, through what it represents, the sacrifice of Christ. Through His sacrifice, we can have forgiveness and we can be made right. We can be declared righteous. And so it's kind of an interesting connection there with what Paul is writing about.

So that speaks to who we are, who we are. And the Days of Unleavened Bread help us to recognize that is our ultimate goal, to put on the character of Christ and be sincere people who live in truth. Now, to do that, I mean you think the Corinthians had any issues or problems putting that way of life into practice? Yeah, yeah, we've got a lot of that recorded right here. And so Paul comes back to an example right after making this very strong point. Look at the example that he gives us in verse 9.

1 Corinthians 5:9 He tells us, "I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people."

Of course, they had been doing that. At the beginning of the chapter, yeah, they'd allowed this to continue right there in the congregation. And he says, listen, I wrote to you about this. Of course, when did he write to them about it? What epistle is he talking about here? You mean there's an epistle before 1 Corinthians? Evidently there is. So maybe this is actually 2 Corinthians and there was...well, obviously, there were other letters. We don't have any other epistle that Paul wrote that makes that statement in this way.

So what does that tell us? Well, it tells us Paul wrote other letters and they're not a part of the Bible. They haven't been preserved for us today. So even though we don't have the actual letter where Paul states this, the principle still applies. I mean he's basically saying it again, don't keep company with sexually immoral people. That's unacceptable. And so he begins to say, here's a reflection of what sincerity and truth is all about. Sincerity and truth has to do with our behavior, who we hang out with, who do we spend our time with. Should we spend a considerable amount of time with those who have totally different principles than we do? Should we hang out with those whose morality is far different from ours? He's saying don't, saying don't do that, and why not? Why not? Why not hang out with anybody you want? Well, he's making the point here that that could actually bring us down. The influence of that kind of a relationship with someone that has a totally different perspective on morality and behavior would drag us down. It could corrupt us. It could cause us to not stay close to God. And that's the challenge then. And so, now he has to kind of define that a little bit further, which is what he does in the next couple of verses. Notice what he says.

1 Corinthians 5:10 He says, "Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters." Oh, so I guess I can hang out with idolaters or I should hang out with those that are covetous or extortion. No, he's not saying that. But what's the point that he's making here? Well, he says, "Since then you would need to go out of the world."

Yeah, the whole world is made up of these kinds of people. If we tried to do that, well, when would you ever go to work? Because you may work with people that are all of these things, or any of these things, or one of these things. You know, you go shopping, you're going to run into people that are out there that are just doing their thing. Far different morality than ours, far different perspective, they don't understand God's way, they don't know His will. And so he makes this point, if you tried to do that, I guess you'd have to be a hermit. You'd have to go live on some island by yourself because that's the way of the world.

And so he's making a couple of points here. There's a difference, there's a separation between sincerity and truth and wickedness and malice, right, unleavened bread and leavened bread, right, sinful behavior and righteous behavior. There's a difference there. There's a difference between people you're going to run across in the world, those in the world, those in the church. Yeah, there's a difference. And so he's saying, yes, we have to separate ourselves from sin, from evil attitudes, evil thinking, and we have to separate ourselves from this kind of behavior where it might impact us. Now, he does make the point, we can't be hermits that go off and live in a cave or on an island. We can't separate ourselves from all sinners. Yeah, that's not going to happen because we have to live in the world. That's not going to happen. But when it comes to who we spend time with, then we have a choice, that becomes very important. Who do we spend most of our time with? Well, he says very clearly here.

1 Corinthians 5:11 "I've written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother."

So there's a difference then between those who are in the world and those who are brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, if you hold your place here a moment, interesting what Christ said, and we should just make a note of this. Just before the crucifixion, Christ was praying. And in John 17, we have that prayer recorded for us and it connects with what Paul is saying here in 1 Corinthians 5. Take a look at verse 15 of John 17. So here's Christ praying and He's praying for us. He prays for us, which is really interesting as He prays for those that will be impacted by the word of the disciples, His immediate disciples, and that would certainly be us. And notice what He says in verse 15.

John 17:15-17 "I do not pray that you should take them out of the world." Yeah, that would be the hermit thing, go live off in a cave. "No, I'm not praying that, God, but that you should keep them from the evil one." So here's that delineation between striving to do what's right and being impacted by evil. He says they, which would include us, "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world." And then interestingly, he says, "Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth."

So we live in this world, but we are not of this world. We don't take on this world's perspective. We don't take on their attitudes. We don't take on their sinful approach to life. We don't take on their morality. That's the world. That's the ways of the world. So we live in the world. Yeah, we're not hermits. We're not isolated. We do live in the world, but we're not of the world. It's interesting, he says we're offset by the same things Paul said, by the same things that have that symbolism in the Days of Unleavened Bread, sincerity and truth. So we're sanctified, we're set apart by truth. And then he defines, well, what is truth? God's Word. God's Word is truth. And so we have that interesting connection. So Paul is mirroring what Christ taught. And, in fact, what was on his mind just before the crucifixion, boy, the most important things were probably the things he was praying about and thinking about at that time. And it was that very thing that we can't go out of the world, but we don't want to be of the world. And so that's so critical. So if we flip back to 1 Corinthians 5, we see the application of that. If we're going to be set apart, if we're going to live in sincerity and truth.

1 Corinthians 5:11 He says, "Do not keep company with anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner." So he lists these behaviors that are worldly behaviors. They're not the kind of behaviors that go along with being unleavened. This is leavened behavior, this is sinful behavior. He says, "Don't keep company with those or," he says, "a drunkard, or an extortioner, not even to eat with such a person."

Ah, it's getting pretty serious. You don't hang out with them, you don't spend time with them, you don't eat with them, a brother or a sister. This would be a fellow member of the church. He says, no, don't, don't do that. And you have to wonder, well, aren't they my brother? How could I exclude them? Why would I want to do that? I mean, Paul doesn't just say this once and then, oh well, let's get off that subject and go to something else. No, he keeps coming back to this idea. If you hold your place here, if you go over to Chapter 15, Chapter 15 in 1 Corinthians, he's going to remind them of this again as he gets toward the end of his letter. So toward the end of his letter, he's going to remind them again in verse 33 of Chapter 15.

1 Corinthians 15:33 He says, "Do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good habits."

Evil company. Well, that's what he's saying. You're keeping company. You're spending time. It's not like you never talk to them. It's not like there's never a...but you're not going to spend time with them. You're not going to hang out with them. These aren't going to be your best buds, you know, your BFFs. This isn't them. No, you're not going to spend that kind of time. In fact, you might remember when we were going through Thessalonians, if you turn over to 2 Thessalonians 3:6 makes the same point. Paul said the same similar thing to the Thessalonians about this aspect of our relationships and who should we have as our close relationships. 2 Thessalonians, notice verse 6 of 2 Thessalonians, verse 3.

2 Thessalonians 6:3 He says, "We command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us."

So there it is again, stated a little bit different way. And so what he's really getting down to is this fact of an individual who says they're a Christian may be a part of the church. They claim to be converted, they claim to be a Christian, and yet what shows that there are really some questions about that? Well, what are they doing? Are they immoral? Are they covetous? Are they an idolater? Are they a drunkard? Are they...? So their actions are showing something different than what their words are saying.

And so here Paul is...If you want to head back to 1 Corinthians 5, here he's saying there are those who profess to be Christians, but they're living in a different way. Their actions are showing something different. Now, that's not saying, well, I just messed up and I sinned and I went before God and I repented and changed. No, we all do that. So it's not talking about, oh, somebody that made a mistake and they sinned, they stepped over the line, and then they've asked for forgiveness and repented, and God's forgiven. No, it's not talking about that sin that happens in that way. This is an individual who's continuing to live this way. This is more of a habitual lifestyle. They're living this way. It's not like, oh, I slipped up once and I made a mistake. No, no, this is kind of going back to where the chapter began. That individual was choosing a lifestyle of sexual immorality. They're choosing a lifestyle of being a drunkard. They're choosing a lifestyle of misbehaving. Yeah, that's the one that he's talking about.

And interesting that he includes, at the end of that sentence there, not even to eat with such a person. So you wonder, well, why wouldn't I have a meal with them? Of course, when you think about having a meal and you're breaking bread, you're spending time together, you're fellowshipping together. Oftentimes throughout the New Testament, breaking bread has connections to fellowship and spending time together, having a relationship in that way. And so here he's saying, no, you don't do that. Eating together involves spending time. And that level of fellowship with someone who's chosen to habitually live a wrong lifestyle, that's not acceptable. That's not acceptable. And so he gets right down to specific examples in that way. And so, obviously, some of the Corinthians were having issues with this. Paul had already written to them about this. Now he's reminding them once again. Of course, will do it at the end of the letter and he's done it to other congregations, reminding them of the same thing.

And so he's really showing us, how do we behave? How should unleavened bread impact us as we are coming out of sin? We're coming out of wrong behavior. Well, then you don't hang around wrong behavior if you're trying to put that behind, like Israel was putting Egypt behind as they left. You get rid of sin and you keep it out. So you come out of sin and you keep it out. And so that's what he's emphasizing here. And so to make that point, he delineates this difference between those in the world, those who aren't converted, those who aren't called by God, those that are just living their life on the outside, and then what it means in the church. So if you go back to verse 12 then, in verse 12.

1 Corinthians 5:12 He says, "For what have I to do with judging those who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside?"

He's saying those on the outside, they're the world. They're in the world. They don't know any better. They don't know any better. So who ultimately judges them? Well, God does. God judges. Now, that doesn't mean I don't discern that behavior is wrong, what they're doing is unacceptable, that I'm not condemning them because they don't know any better. But boy, do I stand up against that evil, I stand up against that sin that's being committed. I can't accept that. That is uncalled for. I don't give them a pass because they don't know any better. No, that's not the case because God doesn't give them a pass. God's going to hold them accountable at some point and say, no, you've got to change. You've got to change. So we stand up against the world, but as individuals, we've got to let God judge that. God's going to take care of that. So in that sense, we condemn the sin and recognize the sinners are blinded by the world, they're blinded by Satan.

Now, in the church then, do we have a responsibility to judge? Yes, we do. Yes, we do. Now, there's a difference between judging and condemning. Judging and condemning is different. This word used here is the word krino for judge. Krino is the word here, to judge. And it is one of those terms that would be used in a court, that a judge has to make an opinion over what is right, what is wrong. Krino points to that as well, actually has quite a few different flavors of meaning. But it really doesn't have this connotation of condemnation. You judge a situation like a judge will have a court appearance and he judges right and wrong. It's always interesting, even in the system in America today, you know, you have a court case, a judge judges right and wrong. What happens after that? Then there's a sentencing. And the sentencing in a sense is separate from the judging. The sentencing would be the condemnation. And so here we see this aspect of, yes, we condemn sin. We recognize and we discern right and wrong. We judge that and in the church, yes, we have to judge. We have to discern right and wrong. But we're told it has to be a different kind of judgment than a condemnation, than just a straightforward condemnation.

In fact, we're told in John 7...let's go back to the example of Christ. If we go back to Christ's example, He makes a strong point of this in the Gospel of John. So if you head over, hold your place here, head over to the Gospel of John, John 7. Let's see, where should we go to? Verse 24. And so here in verse 24, He kind of condemns some of the individuals who were just looking at things from a visual perspective.

John 7:24 He says, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."

With righteous judgment. Okay. That puts the perspective on what we need to do. Yeah, in the church, as converted individuals, that's the kind of judgment we're supposed to have. When it comes to discerning right and wrong, we have to do it by what standard? By a righteous standard, by the standard of Jesus Christ. That's the standard we have to judge by. And so within the church, what Paul is getting at, when we judge those inside, when we're looking at, well, how do I discern...? Go back to 1 Corinthians 5, we go back there. Well, how do I discern covetous? How do I discern sexually immoral? How do I...? Boy, I better judge that. I better discern that and I better do it with righteous judgment. Now, it's not my place to condemn that individual. God's the one that's going to do the sentencing. But I better be able to judge that action. I can look at that behavior and say, no, that is not acceptable and I'm not going to spend time with that individual. And so we need to have that kind of righteous judgment. And so in a sense, what we see here then back in verse 12 of 1 Corinthians 5 is Paul states this...he puts it in the form of question.

1 Corinthians 5:12 He states this question, "Do you not judge those who are inside?"

He's not saying, well, do you judge those who are inside? No. The way that he's saying this, it's almost demanding, yeah, we do. It's demanding a positive response, isn't it? I think it is because then in contrasting that.

1 Corinthians 5:13 He says, "But those who are outside, God judges."

Yeah, that is certainly going to happen. God will ultimately determine their ultimate fate. And when we recognize that, then we say, yes, we do have to judge right and wrong, good and evil, wherever we run across it, but especially when we recognize we are a part of the body of Christ. And as the body of Christ, he says at the end of verse 13, "Therefore, put away from yourselves the evil person." Put away from yourselves the evil person.

And so here it's kind of an interesting conclusion as he kind of wraps up this thought in verse 13. It brings us all the way back to some of the admonitions and commands that were given to ancient Israel as they went into the promised land. These are sentiments expressed in the book of Deuteronomy, similar types of things. "Put away from yourselves the evil person," actually, a quote from Deuteronomy 17:7. In fact, it says it a number of times. I think 19:19 says the same thing back in Deuteronomy. You have to check me on that. I went off the top of my head on that one. But that...it is there? Okay, great, it is there. And so that idea is expressed over and over and over again. And that's a lesson for the Days of Unleavened Bread. Put away physical crackers and cookies and bagels and leavened things, put away the leaven, but really put away the evil, put away the sin, stay away from evil people, those that misbehave. Don't hang out with them, don't spend time with them, withdraw from them, Paul says.

And so maybe one of the mistakes we make, it almost sounds kind of funny if I say it this way, but unleavened bread is not simply referring to putting away sin. You know, does unleavened bread represent putting away sin? Yeah, in a sense, but there's a bigger picture. There's a bigger picture in that. What we're actually putting away is evil, right? We're putting away evil and the evil has the power to corrupt us and take it. So it's not, I guess you could say it's not just sin we're putting away but we're putting away evil. And so he states it in that way here, "Put away yourselves from the evil person." The evil person. And so yeah, that's that one that doesn't want to repent, the one that doesn't want to change. And of course, even you think back to what Christ taught, Christ taught the disciples, He taught us this model prayer. What does it say in the model prayer? "Keep us from evil," or, "Keep us from the evil one." Yeah, we're to separate ourselves from evil and unleavened bread is certainly a reminder of that very fact. That's the choice we make. We make that choice, put away, put it away. And so it really gets to the heart of that spiritual symbolism that's found in the Days of Unleavened Bread.

So that takes us through Chapter 5. Now, remember Paul is addressing different issues as he's answering some of the questions that they had, answering a letter that they wrote, dealing with the behavior that he heard about from Chloe's household, all of those types of things. And so when we have this chapter break, it's kind of a break to the next topic that he wants to deal with. So we get to Chapter 6, take a look at the next topic that he's going to deal with.

1 Corinthians 6:1 He says, "Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints."

So what's the topic here? Taking a brother to court. Taking a brother to court. Now, it kind of follows because he talked about the world and their morality and their perspective and their lack of any spiritual understanding as opposed to the church who should judge with what kind of judgment? Righteous judgment. So it follows. Well, let's talk about judgment. Let's talk about righteous judgment for a minute. So there's not a total disconnect between subjects here. He just moves to another aspect of, okay, what is righteous judgment? Should you take your brother or your sister to a court of this world to render a verdict? Is that what we should be doing? Interesting, he starts off by saying, dare any of you in the sense, the other translation, some of you have dared to take your brother to court. Wow, that's an affront to God. Why would you do this? Why would you do that? Now, it is interesting to think about the court system of the day. We go back to the 1st century, in the Roman system, Rome oftentimes let different cities, different areas have some of their own laws. So if you went to Palestine, you went to Judea, Rome let the Jews judge their own cases. And when we talk about cases, really what we're talking about is civil cases. Rome always handled the criminal cases. If you murdered someone, those types of things, the system, Rome handled those types of things.

So what are we talking about here? Well, those kinds of cases the state is going to handle. But when we talk about civil cases, those are things that the church should be able to handle. Rome certainly treated the Christians kind of like the Jews in that sense. You handle your property cases, you handle these civil disagreements between people. We'll take care of the criminal things. And, you know, in a sense, that's kind of the way it is today. You know, if you go rob a bank, you know, the state's going to take you to court and you're going to go to jail. They're going to take care of those kinds of things. But when it comes between disagreements between us, you know, you borrowed my lawnmower and you broke it and you better pay me for it. It's like, no, your lawnmower was a piece of junk and I can't help that it broke. Now we have this problem. How are we going to fix it? Well, I'm going to take you to small claims court and you're going to pay. Is that what we should do? No, no, not at all. And so Paul's getting to this point. Evidently, some of the Corinthians were doing just that.

1 Corinthians 6:2 And so, Paul says, "Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?"

The smallest matters. And so, interesting, that's our future. In fact, hold your place here, let's just remind ourselves in Revelation 20, yeah, it makes that very point. We get to that time when Christ returns and establishes the kingdom of God on earth, millennial rule, this thousand-year reign and rule of Jesus Christ. What are we going to be doing?

Revelation 20:4 It says, "I saw thrones and they sat on them and judgment was committed to them." Who is the them that they're talking about? Well, that them is us, those converted Christians who have now been changed to spirit beings. It says, "I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the Word of God, those who had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their forehead. They lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years."

Those are converted individuals who are now spirit beings who were resurrected or changed at the return of Christ. And what are they doing? They have been given judgment. Judgment has been committed to them. And so we'll have that opportunity when the kingdom of God is established. So that's the point that Paul makes here. He says, don't you know you will judge the world? You will judge the world. And so we'll have that opportunity. So the implication is, don't you think you ought to be doing righteous judgment now? Don't you think that's it? I mean, how is God ever going to entrust us with judging, in this sense, on His behalf, right? Because that's what we'll be doing. We'll be judging the world on His behalf during that time. How can we be trusted to do what's right if we can't even handle the conflicts among us now? That's the point. You can't do this now, how are you ever going to do it in the kingdom? How is that ever going to be possible? And so he's really making this very strong point. He even says, I mean, look, it even gets stronger.

1 Corinthians 6:3 "Don't you know that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life?"

Now, that's that same word again, krino. Krino, render a judgment, give an opinion like a judge would give an opinion in a court case. Yeah, we have to do that. How will we judge angels? It's an interesting thought when you consider that, that you will judge angels. It could be that there's some judgment that may take place between as we're taking our responsibilities that God gives us and maybe fallen angels, will we have some sense of judgment on them? Possibly. I mean, it's possible. Not really sure. Will we judge the fact that faithful angels have been faithful? I think so. I mean, when you're rendering an opinion on something, yeah, we're going to be able to tell those that are demons and those that are faithful angels. Yeah, we'll be able to do that. Interesting that that idea of passing judgment could be part of what it's talking about.

Now, on the other hand, the word judge in this sense is krino word. Remember we said it had a lot of different facets? One of the facets of judging also has to do with ruling or governing. Of course, in the Kingdom, what are we going to be doing? I mean, judgment will be part of our duties and responsibilities, but we'll be kings and priests. We'll be ruling and reigning with Christ. And so could this also then mean that we are ruling over angels? Absolutely. I mean, for a little while right now, we're lower than the angels, but the time's coming that we will be in the family of God. We will be divine-born children in God's family and we'll be above the angels in that sense. So it's possible that this could also refer to that idea that we'll rule or we'll govern angels in the kingdom could also be a part of what it's pointing to.

And of course, you just consider that fact, does that bring home that point that, wow, you ought to be able to do this now then? If this is the goal, if this is the ultimate future that is in store for us that God has in mind, you think we ought to be able to put these things into practice now with the broken lawnmowers and he didn't return my rake, or I think he built his house a little over on my property, or...Should we be able to handle those things or not? Paul said, yes, absolutely. Take a look then back at 6:4.

1 Corinthians 6:4 "If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life," that's all of those personal problems and issues we might have with someone that we'd consider taking them to small claims court over, he says, "if that's the case, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge?"

You're going to take these things to court instead of settling them yourself? And so, you know, what's the point that he's making here? I think you could look at it maybe three sides of this point. He says, "You appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge." Okay, think of it this way. You go to court, does the judge...go down to Claremont County Court, does that judge know and understand God's ways? You think they're going to know their Bible? Do you think they would be best to determine God's perspective, righteous judgment? Not that their judgment would be horrible or bad, but do they know God's way? No, no, they don't. And so would that be the best choice to deal with issues between brothers and sisters in the church? Yeah, it's not. So in a sense, I think Paul is also saying here, okay, so that's not a good choice. In fact, if you turn that around, wouldn't the least qualified person in the church be a better choice than someone who's unconverted? And hopefully, the answer would be yes. Hopefully, that's the answer. If we're trying to judge with righteous judgment, that would be the case.

So the least qualified person that...you know, we might look at things from a human perspective, the least qualified person in the church, at least they're converted and they have an understanding of God's way. Wouldn't they be better than going to somebody that just doesn't understand God's way? Yeah. And so when you consider this proper judgment, Paul is saying, why choose someone that's totally unqualified in that way? Why would you choose the judges of this world who are not qualified to rule according to God's standards? And that's really the point that he's getting, those who are least esteemed by the church, that's really what he's getting at, they're not going to judge according to God's standards. And so we should keep this between brothers and sisters. We should be able to work things out. God hates division. So work it out. Work it out among yourselves. And so some in Corinth were not doing that. And Paul says then in verse 5.

1 Corinthians 6:5 "I say this to your shame, is it so that there's not a wise man among you, not even one who will be able to judge between his brother?"

And so he makes this point as well. We should be able to do that. But what's the result if you actually take your brother to a worldly court? You might get an opinion, you might be forced to do something or other once they render their decision. Yeah. But what does that say about the church? Oh, you guys are supposed to be Christians and you come to me? You can't figure this out yourself? You're supposed to, you know, be this epitome of what's good and what's right, of sincerity and truth, and you can't figure this out?

You see, Paul's saying that brings shame on the church. It's shameful behavior to go to a physical worldly court and not be able to work out our issues ourselves. And so he says, you better rethink this. You better think about this. This is a shameful thing to take these kinds of civil things before a worldly court. And so he's really making this very clear to them. In fact, we'll stop there for this session and we'll pick it up there because he's going to continue to talk about this to really show how important this is as a reflection of who we are as God's people. And so we'll pick it up there in verse 6 of 1 Corinthians 6 next time.