Internal Affairs

1 Corinthians 6.1-11

In this passage Paul lists 10 vices that Christians should avoid. Included in that list are greed and swindling. Of the two, greed is the bigger category. It can lead to swindling. But greed can also lead to other things like cheating, stealing, extorting, lying, hoarding, etc. Greed is a big issue in materialistic cultures like ours.

Greed had caused a dispute to break out in the Corinthian church. We're not sure what the dispute was, but it involved property. It might have been a loan that wasn't paid back, or a chariot accident with at-fault issues, or a tree planted on the wrong side of a property line, or something like this. The people involved got angry, let a small thing fester and grow, and ultimately one Corinthians was suing the other Corinthian in a public court.

Paul says this is acting like greedy, swindling pagans, and that they were looking like knuckleheads in front of the whole world.

There are three lessons we can learn from this passage:

1. We should deal with conflict when it is still small.
2. We should be aware that money can make us crazy
3. We should remember that our behavior is being onserved by the world we are trying to reach.

Additional scriptures: Galatians 5.19-21, Colossians 3.5-10, 1 Timothy 1.9-10, 2 Timothy 3.1-9.