Why do you allow a brother to go to court against a fellow brother? After addressing the moral (sexual) decay that was budding in the Corinthian community, Paul turns his attention to another issue that also threatened to tear the community apart: the filing of lawsuits against fellow brothers/sisters. To make matters worse, the lawsuits were filed in civil courts! Paul is definitely against filing lawsuits against fellow members, but he says that granted such an action is the last resort, why file the lawsuits in a civil court? Why not bring the accusation in front of fellow members, men and women who shared in and understood their particular way of life? It was a behavior that is unbecoming of members of a Christian community, men and women who had professed dying in Christ for one another.
Paul sees the filing of lawsuits against one another as a failure: “Why not put up with injustice for the sake of the community?” According to Paul, whereas dealing unjustly with one’s brothers and sisters is itself a characteristic of not belonging to the kingdom (cf. 6:9-10), putting up with injustice of a greater good (in this case for the unity of the Christian community) is a preferable option. In baptism, one is called to die with Christ in order to rise to new life, a life that is lived, not for the self, but for Christ (cf. II Cor 5:15) and his members. He/she who lives for Christ basically has no “rights.” Any “rights” upon which a baptized individual could lay claim was relinquished the moment he/she stepped into the baptismal font. It is this foregoing of rights that makes it a “lesser evil” to bear injustice and all kinds of abuse from others. As a matter of fact, he/she who was baptized in the name of Christ should find it easy to put up with injustices (rather than filing lawsuits) because he/she has been justified in Christ (cf. 6:11). With Christ, one has already been vindicated and is a winner.