I Corinthians 6:7 – The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? (NIV)

What does it mean to be a Christian? Certainly, the most meaningful part of being a Christian is our relationship with Jesus. Our brother Jesus removed our sins and earned salvation for us. This overabundant love motivates us to show love for him. What a wonderful relationship this is!

Yet, this is not the only relationship that is important to Christians. God has also blessed us with very meaningful relationships with other Christians. We are motivated to love them by this same love that Christ shows to us.

Paul addresses these relationships that one Christian has with another. Here Paul must deal with a situation in Corinth where a relationship among Christians is modeled not after Christ, but after selfish pursuits. These two members at Corinth had two problems. The first was that one member had wronged another. The second was that the person who was wronged was taking the matter to a secular court without considering the consequences for himself and his brother in Christ.

We face this same issue today. Law courts are used to solve disputes everyday. While God did provide courts as a means to distribute justice and keep peace in the world, too often the motivation for using these courts can be simply reduced to revenge. How horrible when two Christians feel the need to resort to secular courts to solve disputes. Even if we look outside of the law courts, we frequently do not consider a dispute settled until revenge is had. Sinful instinct tells us to get even and make sure our wrongdoer comes to justice. We must have the final word, even when the dispute is with a fellow Christian!

What does Paul say about this attitude? He says that if revenge is our attitude, we have already lost! It does not matter how the lawsuit turns out in court. It does not matter if our vengeful actions do indeed settle the score with our fellow Christian. Why not? Because our attitude in acting this way does not have love at its core.

Paul gives a rather unexpected remedy for solving disputes with fellow Christians that does have love at its core. “Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?” This goes directly against our vengeful instinct, but this passive act of love serves several purposes toward advancing God’s kingdom. It allows us to maintain fellowship with Christians, even when they sin against us, because love motivated by Christ rules the day instead of revenge and justice. Also, interacting with other Christians in this way displays our faith and love in action to the rest of the world. Such passive acts of love show the world that Christians who so often talk the talk of Christian love also walk the walk of Christian love. What a powerful message of Christ’s love this is!

Finally, letting ourselves be wronged without seeking revenge is a wonderful way to imitate the love of Jesus, who never sought to return evil with evil but to overcome evil with good. Even if this means personal defeat and humility, the act of love that Paul describes is not a loss for the Christian. It is ultimate victory because walking in the steps of Christ’s humility in this world means that we will also one day walk in his steps of glory in heaven. Praise be to God for giving us the strength to walk the walk of Christian love in our relationship with our brother Jesus and in our relationships with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ!

Prayer: Lord Jesus, May the love that you have shown to us always be a model of the love that we show to others. Give us hearts of forgiveness and compassion instead of vengeance and contempt. In our Savior’s name, Amen.

Brett Krause is a SPaM Senior

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