Should Christians file lawsuits against other Christians?

There seems to be many stories that are now available through newspapers, the Internet, and on television that have chronicled cases of Christians filing lawsuits against other Christians. And these stories raise a fundamental question: should Christians sue other Christians? Should followers of Jesus file lawsuits against one another? Is it ever O.K. for one Christian to take legal action against another Christian? And does anyone actually win when one Christian sues another Christian?

In a section of a letter to a church that we have been looking at recently, we see that the issue of Christians suing Christians is not a new problem- it is a human problem that has existed for thousands of years. A man named Paul had a lot to say about this issue of Christians suing Christians, which we see beginning in 1 Corinthians 6:1:

Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?

Paul begins this section of his letter to the church at Corinth by asking a rhetorical question: Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? Paul’s question to the church is designed to expose the reality that Christians who had a matter of legal contention against one another were bringing their legal cases to court before those who were nonchristians instead of Christians.

It is important to understand that these legal cases were not criminal cases that involved Christians committing acts of violence or property offense that violated the laws of the land. In another letter in our Bibles, located in Romans 13, Paul addresses the issue of criminal offenses by explaining that as members of a community we as Christians have a responsibility to participate in the protection of the community by following and assisting the government in the enforcement of the laws of our community. What was occurring in Corinth, however, was that members of the church at Corinth were filing civil lawsuits against one another that were being heard and judged by nonchristians.

Paul, having heard what was happening in Corinth, responds by revealing for us a timeless truth that can occur when Christians act unchristian. And that timeless truth is that Christians act unchristian when we take one another to court before nonchristians. In 1 Corinthians 6:1-11, Paul explains to the members of the church at Corinth, and to us today, that when Christians take other Christians to court by filing civil lawsuits that appear before nonchristians, we reveal four things about our day to day lives as Christians.

First, when we take one another to court before nonchristians, we reveal a faulty focus. We see this reality in 1 Corinthians 6:2:

Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts?

Paul introduces the well known and generally accepted fact that the members of the church at Corinth should be aware of in the form of a rhetorical question. And that well known fact is that Christians will judge the world. At the end of God’s story here on earth, when Jesus Christ returns, followers of Jesus will be divinely commissioned by God to sit on a tribunal that will judge those things in the world that are hostile to God and set themselves up in opposition to God and His kingdom.

Paul then asks the members of the church of Corinth that, in light of the reality that they would be given this incredible large responsibility by God, are they not able to conduct a court that can handle the civil lawsuits that they were experiencing that are relatively insignificant and trivial by comparison. The members of the church at Corinth had become focused and engaged in legal fights that were over the temporal and temporary that they should have been mature enough and equipped enough to handle in light of the role and responsibilities that they were to have in eternity.

And in the same way today, Christians who act unchristian by suing one another civilly often find themselves focused and engaged in issues that are insignificant and trivial compared to the kingdom mission that we have been called to be engaged in and that we should be mature and equipped enough to handle.

So, as a follower of Jesus, where is your focus when it comes to conflict with one another that can lead to civil court? Are you allowing a conflict to get out of control, instead of bringing in others who are able to help before it gets to court?