1 Corinthians 6:7

7 To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. ¹Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?

1 Corinthians 6:7 Meaning and Commentary

1 Corinthians 6:7

Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you
Or a "defect": a want of brotherly love, or there would be no occasion to go to law at all; a want of wisdom and conduct, or proper persons would be pitched upon, and chosen out from among themselves to be arbitrators and judge between them; and a want of care among their leaders, who else would have pointed out to them such a method of accommodation, and not have suffered them to go the lengths they did:

because ye go to law one with another;
which would never be, was there not a declension among you, a decay of your first love, and of the power of religion and true godliness:

why do ye not rather take wrong why do ye not rather suffer
yourselves to be defrauded?
than to go to law, especially before unjust persons and unbelievers, taking the advice of Christ, ( Matthew 5:40 ) It is more advisable to a believer to suffer wrong than to go to law with any man, and especially with a brother. It is a petition in the Jewish liturgy ^F7,

``let it please thee, O Lord God, and the God of my fathers, to deliver me this day, and every day---from hard judgment, and a severe adversary, (tyrb Nb wnyav Nybw tyrb) (Nb awhv Nyb) , "whether he be a Son of the covenant, or whether he be not a son of the covenant".''

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FOOTNOTES:

F7 Seder Tephillot, fol. 3. 2. Ed. Basil. fol. 5. 2. Ed. Amst.

1 Corinthians 6:7 In-Context

5 I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers,

6 but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?

7 To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?

8 But you yourselves wrong and defraud--even your own brothers!

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,

Cross References

• 1. [Matthew 5:39, 40]