Tag: Lawsuits

Updated: 4/29/2026

Sermon Prep

The week before I taught this message my Dad flew into town to see my brother and I, which is where this picture comes from up above. It was a good trip and we had a lot of laughs, but like usual there was family tension too. Then again, that’s pretty standard for most people when their family visits. It throws off the typical day-to-day norms for a bit. If I remember right, this tension was partially related to this teaching and the fact that boys will be boys.

As for the prep for the passage of scripture, I did a lot of research given the content and felt like every line of text was a tightrope I needed to tread carefully. One person I borrowed heavily from was Trent Horn, along with Wesley Hill and William Loader. I also leaned on David Guzik who I will intermittently rely on when I want to wrap my head around a particular biblical text.

I was still pursuing a role change at my company and wanted out of my current sales heavy role for a customer success role plus writing my book heavily on the side when I had the time. Like usual, I put a lot of pressure on myself to be the best at everything, which had taken it’s toll a bit in the spring of 2025. I was just so hellbent on getting out of outbound sales roles that have defined the majority of my career where you’re calling dozens to hundreds of people per day selling them something that they usually don’t want. I’m just not built for sales, so as long as I’ve been in sales I’ve tried to get out of it too.

I don’t remember how many weeks I worked on this one, but it was a long time to really make sure I did my due diligence given everyone has an opinion on this text. Quite a controversial text I might add no matter what you believe about it. Anyways here’s the sermon recording and here’s my sermon notes below:

Sermon Notes

Opening Line

• Story about brother bringing girlfriend to family reunion.

Intro

• Today, most people care about the big 3: morality, politics; sexuality. This text has all 3.
• Ch. 6 is the crescendo of Paul’s correction for the Corinthians to be set apart in Christ.

Main Point

• For us, the message is the same: be united in Christ knowing the kingdom of God is here.
• Living holy reflects God’s glory. By becoming like Jesus, we find a better way forward.

Lawsuits | 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 (NRSVue)

“[1] When any of you has a grievance against another, do you dare to take it to court before the unrighteous, instead of taking it before the saints? [2] 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, to say nothing of ordinary matters? [4] If you have ordinary cases, then, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? [5] I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one person wise enough to decide between brothers and sisters? [6] Instead, brothers and sisters go to court against one another, and this before the unbelievers. [7]  In fact, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? [8] But you yourselves wrong and defraud—and brothers and sisters at that.”

• The Corinthians took each other to court over trivial matters (1 Corinthians 6:1).
• Vexatious litigation “is a legal proceeding that starts with malice and without good cause… [that’s] meant to bother, embarrass, or cause legal expenses to the defendant.” – Cornell Law School
  • Roman courts were notoriously corrupt in this shame/honor society, so the powerful could dominate the passive and powerless based on their influence.
  • A court jury was sport and 60yr old men served with 100s of people there.
  • “Why are you trying to find justice before those who are unjust before God?” – David Guzik
• Christians in Jesus’ millennial reign will be appointed as judges (1 Corinthians 6:2-3).
• “[4] His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.” (Revelation 12:4a NRSVue)
  • We’ll be a part of the final judgement for angels that fell away from God.
• Paul sarcastically quips if there’s anyone wise enough to judge (1 Corinthians 6:5).
• Some commentators now see chapter 6 as a dia-tribal (i.e. an argument to persuade an opponent). This is signaled by the phrase “Do you not know” (ouk oidate/οὐκ οἴδατε):
  • EX: “the saints will judge the world?”, “we are to judge angels”, and “wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God” with more throughout Ch. 6.
• Unity matters more than being right and destroying each other (1 Corinthians 6:7).
  • “Christians ought to be possessed of generosity, mercy, and forgiveness.” –  Orthodox Study Bible

Lewdness | 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NRSVue)

“[9] Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, men who engage in illicit sex, [10] thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, swindlers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. [11] And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

• Corinthians believed everything would be destroyed and had a low view of their bodies. 
• Paul reiterates the vice list from Ch. 5, but adds adulterers, men with men, and thieves.
  • We too have been justified, are being sanctified, and will be glorified.
• There is a ton of debate about the terms that Paul uses here in 1 Corinthians 6:9.
  • The Mark 16 ending debate.
• μαλακοὶ (Greek: malakoi) and ἀρσενοκοῖται (Greek: arsenokoitai)
  • Malakoi isn’t exclusively for homosexual, but a derogatory term meaning softies.
    • Could be male prostitutes or passive partners in same-sex relationships.
  • Arsenokoitai is a compound word and literally means “male-bedders.”
    • Also used in 1 Timothy 1:10-11 right after a reference to slave traders.
    • Paul invented this term as a way to clarify who he’s referring to, not to complicate or confuse his intended audience (i.e. Tuesday-Dummies).
      • Wesley Hill notes that arsenokoites has a “strong verbal connection to the Septuagint renderings of both Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, where both halves of the compound are used.”
• The ancient world was not like our world and lines fall in very different places. Jews, Greeks, and Romans had different views of male same-sex relations.
  • “Roman law treated same-sex relations between citizens as a criminal offence, but tolerated it between a Roman citizen and someone inferior, like a slave or a foreigner. Romans sometimes deplored same-sex relations as a Greek disease and typically self-indulgent, to which Greeks responded by deploring the fact that Romans usually did not expect such relations to cease when a young man turned thirty… For Jews, including those who formed the Christian movement, same-sex relations were indications of the depravity of non-Jewish society. [Greeks approved of same-sex male relations under 30. They were seen to strengthen bonds between males and could be part of a mentoring relationship.]” – William Loader
• 5 Views of Same-Sex Relations in the Bible
  • 1) Scripture does condemn same-sex relations.
  • 2) There was a ban on some same-sex relations, but it doesn’t apply now.
  • 3) Those who think there is an unqualified ban, but it’s archaic to apply that now.
  • 4) Scripture bans abusive same-sex relations, but not monogamous relations.
  • 5) Scripture doesn’t condemn same-sex relations.
• Now this isn’t just a theology issue, but more so an interpretation issue when transmitting the original languages into English and understanding ANE cultures more.
  • Daniel B. Wallace has often said that “translation is a matter of interpretation.”

English Translation	μαλακοὶ (malakoi)	ἀρσενοκοῖται (arsenokoitai)	Translation Approach	View on Sam-Sex Relations
Berean Study Bible (BSB)	men who submit to or perform homosexual acts	men who submit to or perform homosexual acts	Formal	1
English Standard Version (ESV)	nor men who practice homosexuality	nor men who practice homosexuality	Formal	1
The Message (MSG)	use and abuse sex	use and abuse sex	Functional	4 and 5
New American Standard Bible (NASB)	homosexuals	homosexuals	Formal	1
New English Translation (NET)	passive homosexual partners	practicing homosexuals	Optimal	1 and 3
New International Version (NIV)	men who have sex with men	men who have sex with men	Functional	1
New King James Version (NKJV)	homosexuals	sodomites	Formal	1
New Living Translation (NLT)	male prostitutes	practice homosexuality	Functional	2 and 3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVue)	male prostitutes	men who engage in illicit sex	Optimal	2, 3, and 4
Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition (RSVCE)	homosexuals	homosexuals	Formal	1

Why It Matters

• Who decides what the Bible means?
  • Apostolic tradition, the Pope and the Magisterium, scholarship, or you?
• What did Jesus think about lawsuits and lewdness if he was just a man?
  • Now what if he was God too? How does that change our previous answer?
• Read Matthew 5:39-42 aloud (lawsuits).

“[39] But I say to you: Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also, [40] and if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, give your coat as well, [41] and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. [42] Give to the one who asks of you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.”

• Read Matthew 19:4-6 aloud (lewdness).

“[3] Some Pharisees… asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?” [4] He answered, “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ [5] and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? [6] So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.””

• Argument from silence to understand Jesus’ view on sexuality (i.e. John 21:25).
  • Agrapha: floating passages credited to Jesus by oral tradition (i.e. Acts 20:35).
• We’re called to be Christ-like in body and soul.

Power Text

• Do as Jesus did and live with eternity in mind, instead of just the earthly.
• Integrity in your reputation and sexuality is one of the primary responses to God’s grace.

Outro

• As the Holy Spirit’s temple, how we live directly impacts how others see God.
  • To be Christ-like means to become like him and live as he lived.
  • This is the way. Now go walk by faith.

Final Thoughts

Looking back at this one, I think there was great research here and yet it was a bad sermon. Not to say I did a bad job or anything in the delivery, but the main aim of preaching or teaching is clearly communicating a common theme. In this message, I got carried away with trying to do too much and the main point of the passage got lost in the sauce. By trying to teach so much in one sitting, our congregation was quite confused and that’s on me for failing to deliver. If people don’t know what to takeaway from a homily or sermon, then you’ve failed on the whole as a communicator. I should’ve broken this message into two 30 minute messages and taken my time with the text at hand.

In the end, by leaning into nuance showing all sides the message was too nuanced and didn’t clarify what we as the church believe. All of the extra detail confused several people and I had to send a private message clarifying to our leadership what we believed about this text. It also didn’t help that a family who did eventually leave our church entirely did so partially because of this message being so nuanced. It was just another straw on the camels back that eventually broke for them in the summer. That loss of members still makes me sad to this day.

For me, I took the criticism and decided from this point forward to only teach sermons around the 30 minute mark. Anything beyond that point I now see as getting stuck down rabbit holes and not keeping the main thing the main thing. With that said, Godspeed and Jesus bless.