Judging Problems Among Christians

6 When you have ·something against [a legal dispute with; a grievance against] another Christian, how can you ·bring yourself [dare] to go before ·judges who are not right with God [or the pagan courts; ^Lthe unrighteous] instead of before ·God’s people [^Tthe saints]? ² ·Surely [^LDon’t…?] you know that ·God’s people [^Tthe saints] will judge the world. So if you are to judge the world, are you not able to judge ·small [trivial; the smallest of] cases as well? ³ ·You [^LDon’t you…?] know that we will judge angels, so surely we can judge the ·ordinary things of [or matters pertaining to] this life. ⁴ If you have ·ordinary cases [cases/legal disputes of this life] that must be judged, ·are you going to appoint people as judges who mean nothing to the church? [will you appoint judges with no standing in/whose lifestyle is rejected by the church?; or go ahead and appoint the least members of the church to judge them! ^Cin the latter interpretation, Paul speaks sarcastically.] ⁵ I say this to shame you. ·Surely there is someone [^LIs there no one…?] among you wise enough to judge a ·complaint [dispute; conflict] between ·believers [^La brother]. ⁶ But now one ·believer [brother] goes to court against another ·believer [^Lbrother]—and you do this in front of unbelievers!

⁷ The fact that you have lawsuits against each other shows that you are already defeated. Why not ·let yourselves be wronged [suffer the injustice]? Why not let yourselves be cheated? ⁸ But you yourselves ·do wrong [act unjustly] and cheat, and you do this to ·other believers [^Lbrothers]!