The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already.
Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? (NIV)
If ever there is a scripture passage that has been neutered it is this one concerning lawsuits among believers.
One of our entities is being sued by a former state executive. There are several prominent cases where bloggers have been sued. My own church was recently surprised to be served with a lawsuit. Seems that a volunteer with the food distribution ministry, a monthy food giveaway, claimed to have tripped over a box and was injured. Our insurance carrier handled it, and later refused to renew our policy.
There are nuances and considerations in interpreting this passage. Perhaps some of you have arrived at a simple, clear, biblically honest way of handling this text and applying it in our modern sociey. I’m still a bit flummoxed by it.
I can see a lawsuit against a church in some circumstances, possibly as a corrective measure for an egregious harm. Since no church acts without individual church members acting, the argument that lawsuits between corporations or entities isn’t what the passage is covering seems to be a weak argument to me. I recall that my favorite seminary professor, a theologian, was asked about this passage one day in the course of an intensive on 1 Corinthians. He mumbled something about insurance companies, dismissed the question, and we moved on in our study.
I doubt I could bring myself to sue my church if I tripped over a crack in the sidewalk on church property and hit my head and was injured such that I could no longer write scintillating, witty, and insightful blog articles. Before I sued an individual for libel or harm to my reputation I’d have to wrestle with the passage above, “Why not rather be wronged?” Not sure if I could convince myself that being wronged should be ignored in favor of suing the brother or sister. If it involved bodily injury and I couldn’t settle with the insurance company, would I then proceed against the church? Not sure about that one.
How do you handle this?
