1 Corinthians 6

1. When one of you has a dispute with another believer, how dare you file a lawsuit and ask the world's court to judge the problem instead of taking it to other believers!

Paul is not saying that Christians cannot go to court. He is talking about a problem inside the church. Problems in the church should be taking care of by the church. Paul had a problem that was outside the church, and he appealed to a higher court. Acts 25:11

2 – 3

Do you not know that someday we believers will judge the world? And since you are going to judge the world, can you not decide even these little things among yourselves? Do you not know that we will judge angels? So you should surely be able to resolve ordinary disputes in this life.

In the same way that men will answer to God on Judgment Day angels will also be judged. In the same way that God gave us the Holy Spirit and the Bible to make decisions about the problems of life, we will be involved in judging angels.

4. If you argue about such things, why go to outside judges who are not respected by the church?

Many Christians say that this does not apply to them. They are saying, “I do not care what anybody says I have my rights.” The weakest Christian would be better than a worldly judge. What if it was a spiritual question that they were arguing about? How is an unsaved judge going to solve that problem?

5 – 6

I am saying this to shame you. Isn’t there anyone in all the church who is wise enough to decide these issues? Instead, one believer sues another right in front of unbelievers!

Paul says, "I hope you are embarrassed.” The world says, “I knew they were no different than us.”

7 – 8

Even to have such lawsuits with one another is a defeat for you. Why not just accept what someone has done to you and leave it at that? Why not let yourselves be cheated? Instead, you are the ones who do wrong and cheat your fellow believers.

If things are so bad that you have to go to court, then it destroys the fellowship of the church. It makes people take sides and split the church. It would be better to lose the case. Would you really want to win a court case if it destroyed your brother?

If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, also. Matthew 5:40

9 – 10

Do you not know that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Stop fooling yourselves. Those who live in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.

We have the ability to do these things but we do not have the desire. Revelation 21:8

11. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Church problems start as personal problems because people are not willing to admit their sin and do something about it.

12. You say, “I am allowed to do anything” but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything.

Here is a test: does it help you or does it make a slave of you? Anything that hurts someone else does not belong in the Christian life.

13. You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you cannot say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies.

People say, “God made me this way and I have these desires.” He gave you natural desires to be used in marriage.

14. And God will raise us from the dead by His power, just as He raised our Lord from the dead.

Remember our life is dead and hidden behind Christ. When we are trapped in a sin by our body the only escape is to say with our mouth that we are taking back the territory we gave to the devil and we are giving our body back to the Lord.

15 – 17

Do you not know that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never!

Do you not know that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Book of Genesis says, “The two are made into one.” But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

There is a connection between two people when there is sexual contact or even imaginations of contact. This kind of connection is called a soul-tie. You will know when you have a soul-tie if you have repeating thoughts or dreams about this person. Unless you are married to this person such thoughts are not healthy.

The devil can add to a soul-tie and make it to become a stronghold. A stronghold is a place in your life that has been given to Satan. He will defend this stronghold until he is forced to leave. There is freedom if you ask God to break every evil soul-tie and you say that you are taking back the territory that you gave to the devil. Ephesians 4:27, Proverbs 5:22, Genesis 2:24

18. Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.

Joseph ran away from this temptation (Genesis 39:12). We see that Samson gave in to this and it affected his body. Samson did not even know that God's Spirit had left him (Judges 16:20). Sexual diseases show that this sin works against your body.

19. Don’t you realize that your body is the Holy of Holies of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,

God used to have a temple in Jerusalem, now He has His people for a temple.

20. God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

God wants to show Himself through your body. In Paul's day, a slave could save his money and then go to his master and the master would take him to the temple and give money to the priest. The priests would say that he now belongs to the idol in the temple or to that so-called god. Jesus paid for us with His life. We belong only to Him, not ourselves or to anything else.