1 Corinthians 6:1 (ESV Strong's)
When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?
Subject: Church - How the Body functions
We have all heard the adage, "don't hang out your dirty laundry for all to see." The thought behind that wit is to make sure the secret things of our own world are not exposed to everyone around you. The instruction is to keep the dirt home. In one sense, this is what Paul is telling the Church at Corinth. Apparently they had some grievances between each other. Instead of one person working it out with the other person, with the use of the church body, these two combatants took their dispute to be Judge Judy of their world. They took a conflict that could have been settled with the help of the body. But, instead of asking for the body to do what it does (keep the body pure and clean) they went before the unsaved world, before "unrighteous" judges, rather than the church body. Paul even asked them, "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?" The key here is that Paul wants them to know the value of the Body of Christ. We are on this earth to move the Body of Christ forward. When we take our grievances to others, we fail to recognize the value of how God put the Body together. We need to have strong Church families that this can happen. If not, we will air our laundry (and we have dirty laundry) in front of the unsaved world. That is the shameful act Paul is trying to avoid with this teaching.
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