I really didn’t intend to blog about this subject anymore but today I got quite sad thinking about it.

It seems to me that the Apostle Paul certainly understood that Christians would disagree, argue and fight. And it also seems to me that there is a great danger in I Corinthians 6:1 of losing your shirt. After all some Christians are going to take that verse to mean they can treat you any way they want to treat you and you can’t do a thing about it nanny-nanny-boo-boo.

How many times have you regretted giving a contract to a Christian brother?

How many times have you met people with Jesus in their hearts and dollar signs in their eyes?

But after all that is the point, isn’t it? Shouldn’t being defrauded make us happy sort of like:
Matthew 10:11 (ESV)

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Eventually when dealing with fights among children a mother will not be able to get to the bottom of an issue. She can then beat all involved or appeal to her children to let themselves be wronged and misunderstood. I have found, for the most part, in family squabbles, the best way out for all parties in confusing situations is just to let it go, to let someone treat you unfairly and not hold a grudge. I think that is what living in a family is all about. Living in a family is not about getting my way. It is about learning to live among each other deferring and preferring and forgiving.

I Corinthians 6:1-11

(ESV)
6:1 When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! 4 So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? 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 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, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”