Lawsuits Among Believers

1When any of you have a dispute against another, do yoʋ dare to go to court before the unrighteous and not before the saints?

2³⁶Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?

3Do you not know that we will judge angels, not to mention matters of this life?

4If then you have disputes about such matters, do you seat as judges those who have no standing in the church?

5I say this to your shame. Is there ³⁷not a wise man among you, not even one, who would be able to decide between a man and his brother,

6but one brother goes to court against another, and they do so before unbelievers?

7As it is, to have lawsuits with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?

8But you yourselves wrong, and you yourselves defraud, and you do ³⁸these things to your own brothers!

9Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,

10nor ³⁹the greedy, nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

11And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of ⁴⁰the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

Flee Fornication

12“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be mastered by anything.

13Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food, but God will do away with them both. The body is not meant for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

14Now God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.

15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Certainly not!

16⁴¹Do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one with her in body? For it says, “The two will become one flesh.”

17But he who is joined to the Lord is one with him in spirit.

18Flee fornication. Every other sin that a person commits is outside the body, but he who commits fornication sins against his own body.

19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own,

20for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God with your ⁴²body and with your spirit, which belong to God.