CHRISTIAN ARBITRATION 2

1 Corinthians 6:3-5 (NET)

Do you not know that we will judge angels? Why not ordinary matters!

So if you have ordinary lawsuits, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church?

I say this to your shame! Is there no one among you wise enough to settle disputes between fellow Christians?

A certain influential Christian brother started keeping a mistress. With time, his wife found out and challenged him about it. But he was not sorry; he had become very proud because of his phenomenal success in business.

Instead of taking the matter to court to file for a divorce, his wife took the matter to the leadership of their church. They summoned him, but he had become too busy to respond to the summons of the church. After this brother had shown that he no longer had regard for the authority of the church, they decided to break fellowship with him and treat him like an unbeliever (see Matthew 18:16-17).

Three years later, all his very successful businesses had crashed and he was now in great debt.  He was also in serious police trouble and now needed the help of his wife. His life was full of reproach and it was clear to everyone that his troubles were a result of the Church’s judgment.

One reason Christians are tempted take each other to court [before unbelievers] is because they know that the judgment of a civil court would be enforced by the government of the land. But they fail to realize that when judgment is made by a living Church, it would be enforced by the most powerful government in the universe—Heaven enforces the judgments of the church, for whatever the church binds on earth is bound in heaven(see Matthew 18:18).

Go into today remembering that no government on the earth has as much authority as the church of Christ.