Big Idea: The church must be vigilant in protecting its identity as a Christ-empowered community and recognize that it is more Christlike to accept being wronged than to pursue retaliation through means that contradict Christ’s teaching. In the community of Christ, no interpersonal differences should be irreconcilable.

Understanding the Text

In a second practical example of the troubles arising from the behavior and wrongheaded allegiances discussed in chapters 1–4, Paul confronts a situation where one member of the Christ community has brought another member of the Christ community before a court in the community of the unbelievers. Apparently, church “insiders” drew “not only their assumptions about ‘wisdom’ and ‘rhetoric’ (1:10–4:21), but also their standards of self-gratification, mo…