⁶ Instead, brothers and sisters go to court against one another, and this before the unbelievers.^(A)

Love One Another

¹¹ For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.^{(A) 12} We must not be like Cain, who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. ¹³ Do not be astonished, brothers and sisters, that the world hates you.^{(B) 14} We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brothers and sisters. Whoever does not love abides in death.^{(C) 15} All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them.^(D)

⁹ Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness.^{(A) 10} Whoever loves a brother or sister abides in the light, and in such a person^[a] there is no cause for stumbling. ¹¹ But whoever hates a brother or sister is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.^(B)

¹⁴ Do all things without murmuring and arguing,^{(A) 15} so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world,^(B)

The Temple of the Living God

¹⁴ Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and lawlessness have in common? Or what partnership is there between light and darkness?^(A)

⁷ In fact, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?^(A)

Lawsuits among Believers

6 When any of you has a grievance against another, do you dare to take it to court before the unrighteous, instead of taking it before the saints?

²⁶ The next day he came to some of them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong each other?’

⁸ and said to them, “As far as we were able, we have bought back our Jewish kindred who had been sold to other nations, but now you are selling your own kin, who must then be bought back by us!” They were silent and could not find a word to say.^{(A) 9} So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God, to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?^(B)

²⁴ Then he sent his brothers on their way, and as they were leaving he said to them, “Do not quarrel^[a] along the way.”