Comments on: 1 Corinthians 6: Stay out of the law courts

By: Beth

Beth — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 13:16:02 +0000

Thank you so much for your response. We are in such turmoil over this. Ty.

By: John

John — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 08:53:03 +0000

Beth, in my view Paul is simply stating a general proposition, not an absolute commandment from God. Petty squabbles between Christians in court reflect poorly on the church. However, in some cases you don’t have a choice about whether or not you end up in court. In the case which you have mentioned, a parent has a duty to protect the interests of the children, and that may involve going to court to get custody.

By: Beth

Beth — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 02:16:48 +0000

What about a divorce. A man beats his wife, can she go through the legal system to get full custody of the children and divorce him?

By: John

John — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 02:34:17 +0000

Good question, Jenn. I think Paul was talking about disputes between Christians who belonged to the same church. There are 3 aspects to what he said: (a) a church member who has a dispute with another church member should make every attempt to resolve the matter within the church; (b) it is embarrassing to the church when two members slug it out with each other in court; and (c) court cases can be very draining and often have unsatisfactory results. I don't think Paul's observations were relevant to criminal cases or to disputes in which one or both of the parties are not Christians. A necessary function of government is to protect law and order and prevent crime, so the way I see it is that a citizen is obliged to assist the government in preventing crime. See Romans 13:1-5

By: Jenn

Jenn — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 23:14:18 +0000

What about criminal matters? Is it better to avoid court if you know someone who is potentially dangerous to other people is ‘at large’ to do what they did again?