Don't Sue One Another

Well I grew up here in Charlottesville and my grandparents on my dad's side lived here in town and so one of the things I always really enjoyed as a kid was getting to spend the night at their house on special occasions. But of course they tended to live at a slower pace of life, so there were always some hours to kill and I would inevitably spend some time watching TV. Now they only got a few channels, but one show that I do remember watching on whatever channel they got was called Judge Judy. And of course the intrigue of that show was watching people, often members of the same family, duke it out in court. as they aired all sorts of grievances one against the other and all sorts of cringe-worthy family drama came to the surface. And then Judge Judy would of course fiercely cross-examine them, often revealing how ridiculous and petty their arguments were and how shameful their behavior had really been. Now I bring that up because regardless of what you think of Judge Judy herself, one thing's for sure. You never came away from an episode impressed by the virtue or the honor of the families represented on it. You might be shocked at some of the drama, but you never came away thinking, wow, what honor, what virtue. And so how much less would you be keen to listen? to one of those families if they stood up and claimed that they had the very revelation of God, that they were in fact a beacon of spiritual truth and light. And yet friends, as we turn to 1 Corinthians 6 this morning, that is exactly the situation we find in Corinth. Members of this church family, Brothers and sisters in Christ are suing one another over grievances in the public court. Now before we dive into this particular issue, let me remind you where we've been. As Keith mentioned, whenever I've been preaching, I've been working successively through chunks of this letter written by the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth. And this is a church that Paul himself had established some years prior. You can read about that in Acts chapter 18. And by the time of the writing of this letter, Paul is staying in Ephesus. And while in Ephesus, he's received both reports about what's going on in the Corinthian church, and he's also received at least one letter from the Corinthians sort of updating him on the situation. And so in this letter of 1 Corinthians, chapters 1 through 6 are really Paul responding to the reports that he's heard of what's going on in the church. And then chapters 7 through 16 are Paul responding to other issues that were raised by the letter he's received from the Corinthians. And so far as we've worked through the book, we've seen Paul deal with the issue of disunity in chapters 1 through 4. And then the issue of a sexually immoral member of the church in chapter 5. And though in one sense it may seem like Paul is just taking one issue after another, there does seem to be some logic to the order. So we saw that the issue of pride connected chapters one through four with chapter five. And the issue of judging connects chapter five with this first half of chapter six. In chapter five, as we saw last week, the Corinthians were failing to judge one another by holding one another accountable. And here in chapter six, we find that they're still failing to judge one another, but are instead seeking judgment from these public courts outside. Now with that context in mind, let's turn our attention to the first verse, chapter six, verse one. Paul writes, when one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law? That is go to court. before the unrighteous instead of the saints. Now what Paul's saying here, he's laying down a very clear principle and command, don't sue another Christian. He's telling the Corinthian church, don't go to law with one another, don't take one another to court. In fact, how dare you do such a thing? Are you so audacious as to do this? I mean, the notion that one Christian would sue another is just unthinkable to Paul. And if it's not unthinkable to us, we need to pay attention. Now, to be clear, Paul is not here addressing the case of a Christian and an unbeliever. I do think some things Paul says here should make us hesitant about suing anybody, but the principle here is that a Christian should not sue another Christian. When he says, when one of you has a grievance against another, that's referring to two members of the Corinthian church. We should also note that Paul isn't saying that if you're wronged by another Christian, you have no recourse. Again, I think many times we need to let things go, but not necessarily always. What Paul's saying here is don't take the matter before the unrighteous instead of the saints. That is, don't turn to the world, don't turn to a public court which is full of people who aren't Christians, who live and think by a completely different standard. Instead, take it to the saints, that is, the church. Saints are holy ones, that is, every believer in the New Testament is considered a saint. Take the matter before those who've been saved by Christ, who've been endowed with God's spirit, and who will judge based on God's word. Now, by the way, what Paul says here is in perfect alignment with what Jesus himself said in Matthew chapter 18, verses 15 through 17. There Jesus tells us, if your brother, that is your fellow Christian, sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. So step one, you try to work it out between them in private. If he listens to you, you've gained your brother. The goal is to bring about restoration of the relationship, to work it out. But if he does not listen, Jesus says, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. So now you bring others, a small group, and you sit down and you try to work it out. Now if the others agree with you that, yes, this person has clearly sinned against you, they've wronged you, and yet that person still won't listen to them, then Jesus says, if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. He doesn't say, sue them. He says, take it before the church. Take it before the body of believers. And then Jesus says, and if he refuses to listen even to the church, Let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector, that is, as an unbeliever. So the church is to be the final arbiter of conflict between Christians, not a public court. And ultimately, if there's someone who is unwilling to listen even to the church, well then Jesus says the church has the authority and the responsibility to put that member out of the church. And at that point, if it's really something that needs to be resolved, say it's a child custody situation or something like that, well then it's no longer you taking another Christian to court because the church has already formally labeled this person an unbeliever. So, don't sue another Christian. Don't take them to court. That's the point of the sermon, that's the title of the sermon, and it's right there in verse one. However, I'm guessing I know what many of you are thinking right now, because it's what I was thinking, which is, but what about, and then fill in the blank with some other scenario? For me, one of the first things that came to my mind was, well, what about sexual abuse allegations? I mean, is this in any way suggesting that we should not report such matters, but try to handle them in-house? You know, what if some sort of crime is committed? I mean, should the church try to handle criminal proceedings? Well, I think the answer to both of those is no, for a couple of reasons. First, we should consider what kind of situation Paul actually has in mind here. And if you look ahead to verse 8, you see how Paul speaks of wronging and defrauding one another. So this sounds like a monetary type situation. In fact, I think Paul's probably heard a report from Chloe's people have come and talked to him about what's going on. And probably this report is about how there are certain members of the church, probably some of the few wealthy property holders in the Corinthian congregation, who've been having conflict. There's some accusations of fraud and so forth, and this has escalated to the point of going to public court. So I think Paul has in mind something akin to like a civil suit rather than criminal proceedings. Second, we should note that elsewhere in the New Testament, Paul clearly affirms the legitimacy of non-Christian governing authorities. In Romans chapter 13, beginning in verse one, Paul is very clear that there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist have been appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. And so Paul tells Christians, you must be subject to governing authorities. They have been given a sword by God for good. He says, that's why you pay taxes. And so Paul is not in any way disparaging the legitimacy of public courts. In fact, Paul himself appeals to Caesar in Acts chapter 25. And the Apostle Paul spends considerable time in court himself, often being accused by his own people, the Jews. So Paul's not saying that there's never a time for a Christian to appear in court, nor is he saying that churches should consider themselves above the law or refuse to report things that governing authorities insist we report. In fact, I think failing to report sexual abuse allegations is a horrible witness to the church. Makes it look like we try to cover or conceal sin. Paul's also not saying that Christians are unaccountable to the laws of the state. In fact, if a Christian commits a crime, I think that part of repentance is confessing that crime and accepting whatever consequences there may be from the state. I also don't think that Paul's saying here that if you're the one being sued by another Christian, you're wrong to go to court. I think if you're legally summoned, you go. I don't think this is an issue where obeying God demands civil disobedience. But what Paul is saying is that you as a Christian should not voluntarily sue another Christian. You should not be the one taking another Christian to court to try to resolve some personal conflict or grievance. And Paul's further demanding that the whole church should not tolerate such behavior either. Christians must not sue one another. And why not? Well, as we work through the rest of our passage, we're gonna see four reasons why. And the first is this, don't sue one another because you're qualified to judge for yourselves. Look at verses two and three. Paul continues, or 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? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life?" Now, your initial response might be, no, Paul, I did not know we were to judge angels. I did not know we were to judge the world. In fact, Paul, didn't you just tell us in chapter 5 verse 13 that God judges those outside and we're just supposed to judge those inside the church? Well, I think here Paul has in mind the eschatological reality, that is, the last days or the end reality that the saints will reign with Christ. We believe Jesus is king, that after his death and resurrection, God raised him up and gave him all power and authority. And we believe that one day Jesus will return and he will come and he will make this whole world new and he will reign forever. But the amazing thing is that the Bible says that we who have trusted in him will reign with him, that in some way we under his authority will share in his rule and reign. And this actually makes sense in light of creation. Remember that when God made man and woman in the very beginning, he gave us dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over all creation. So in the new creation we will exercise that dominion that God created us for. That's why Paul says in 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 11 and following this saying is trustworthy for if we have died with him we will also live with him. If we endure we will also reign with him. We will reign with Christ and of course part of reigning is judging. Part of to judge is a function of what it means to rule. And so perhaps in some way, we will participate in the final judgment, but definitely we will judge in the sense of administering, even over angels in the new creation. And so Paul's argument here is, if you're one day going to reign with Christ and judge the world and even angels, these matters of grand cosmic significance, Can you not even judge these comparatively small, these comparatively trivial matters in the church? I mean, if that's your destiny, can you not even figure out what to do when Sister Sue feels defrauded by Brother Bob? I mean, isn't this a bit like a Supreme Court judge calling up the school guidance counselor because he can't figure out how to resolve a conflict between his own elementary-aged children? And Paul's saying here, do you realize who you are in Christ? Do you realize your destiny? Because that should affect the way you live in the here and now. And so what about us? If another Christian wrongs you, how will you go about resolving that grievance? Let's say brother Joey sells you a car and then the transmission dies a week later. And you think he should have told you that it had been riding rough, but he swears he didn't know and he refuses to pay you anything. Well, who are you gonna turn to? I mean, do you look at the church as fundamentally incompetent to handle a situation like that? But then look at attorneys and lawyers as competent for administering justice. But you know, justice is the goal. I mean, who should be most acquainted with God and his standards? I mean, who is it that's actually better equipped to handle a dispute between Christians? You know, the church or the world? And you know, I think an underlying question that this presses is this. Do you believe that the Bible is actually sufficient for handling the practical problems of life? Not just sufficient for spiritual matters like how to go to heaven, but sufficient for everyday stuff like what to do when Joey sells you a lemon of a car. Now the Bible is obviously not a reference book. You can't look up the chapter and verse that tells you in this situation what do I do. But the Bible is sufficient to tell us as God's people how to view the world, how to discern justice, how to know what would please the Lord. That's why the Bible itself says that all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be complete or competent, fully equipped for every good work. And friends, what Paul is saying here is that includes being able to judge between one another when there are grievances. So don't sue one another. Now a second reason, don't sue one another because it undermines your witness to the world. Look with me at verses four through six. Paul continues, so if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? Now in these verses, Paul continues to stress that the Corinthians should be fully capable of settling these matters themselves, and therefore have no need to take them to public courts. But now he also begins to highlight the shame of doing so, and the fact that this is a terrible witness before the unbelieving world. Now think about it. I mean, Paul has just established that the Corinthians are those who will one day judge the world. And yet here they are turning to the world and asking the world to come and judge them. You're turning to those who have no standing in the church, those who they would not even allow to be a member of their church. And they take it to that unbelieving judge and say, please judge between us and the Corinthians. Those who are called to proclaim the eternal gospel of reconciliation. A gospel that is about how we as sinful people can be reconciled to a holy God. And in being reconciled to God, we can be reconciled to one another. That is what the gospel is all about. And yet these very same Corinthians are going to the world because they can't even reconcile their own conflict and they're asking the world to come and help them reconcile. Friends, why on earth would the world want to listen to them when they are behaving like this? It is a terrible witness. And this is why Paul says, I say this to your shame. In chapter four, verse 14, Paul had said, I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. But here, Paul wants them to feel shame. He wants them to realize how terribly they are misrepresenting Jesus to the world. And if that's not bad enough, look again at verse 6. He says, but brother goes to law against brother and that before unbelievers. Now, as I pointed out at the beginning on Judge Judy, often the plaintiff and the defendant were members of the same family. And it is a sorry state of affairs when a family is so dysfunctional that they're suing one another in court. But friends, the church is a family too. In fact, we are the family of God and we are to represent him to the world. And so how much worse is it when we, as God's family, sue one another? I mean, so far from being ready to take one another to court to ensure that we get our own, we're called to love one another. I mean, we should be ready to give to one another. Just like if your sister or your brother or your mother or father had a need, you would see, well, my money is their money and their money is my money and I'm called to help them, to sacrifice for their good. Friends, that's how we're called, to care for one another as God's family, as Jesus' people. As Jesus himself said, by this, all will know that you are my disciples. This will be your witness to the world by the way you love one another. Now, like any family, there will be times that we wrong one another, that grievances arise, that we leave someone feeling defrauded. You know, you hire Brother Bill to come paint your house, right? But a week later, the paint's peeling. And you call him up like, hey, you know, you must not have done something right. Surely you're going to come back and fix it, right? And he says, well, I mean, you chose the paint. I follow the directions. I mean, I'm sorry, but, you know, that's your problem. You know, things like that happen all the time. And friends, in that kind of situation, we need to ask ourselves some questions. Do I care more about money or protecting the witness of the church? Do I care more about my rights or about God's glory? Do I care more about personal vindication or about the spiritual good of others, especially unbelievers coming to faith in Christ. Brothers and sisters, in everything we do, we are a witness to Christ because we are his church. The only question is what kind of witness we will be. So don't sue one another because it will tarnish our witness to the world. Now, a third reason. Don't sue one another because it violates the spirit of the gospel. Don't sue one another because it violates the spirit of the gospel. Look at verse 7. Paul continues, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? Now here Paul changes gears a bit. Up to this point he's been emphasizing that one should seek justice through the church rather than through the public courts. But now Paul further suggests that perhaps one should not be so determined to seek justice at all. He says, why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? Now part of what he's saying is that you should sooner accept fraud than bring shame on the church by engaging in a public lawsuit. That's why he says to have lawsuits at all is already a defeat for you, right? Even if you win the lawsuit, you've really lost. It's a lose-lose scenario when you take your own brother to court because it's shameful either way. But I think there's another truth that really undergirds this counsel, and it's the spirit of the gospel itself. Now think for a moment about the king we serve. I mean, Jesus tells us in Matthew 5, verses 38 and following. He said, you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you to take away your tunic, Let him have your cloak as well. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him to give to him who asks you and from him who wants to borrow from you. Do not turn away. So far from standing up for our rights and defending ourselves or suing somebody to get what's ours. Jesus tells us to show incredible mercy and kindness. to respond to evil by doing them even more good, to respond to someone who wants to sue you to take your stuff, say, well, oh yeah, you can have my coat as well. He's saying, overcome evil with good. And why would Jesus command us to live that way? Well, it's because in doing that, we follow him. Jesus is the King of glory, who reigned in heaven, who had no need of anything, And yet rather than clinging to his position, he comes to earth. And he comes to earth not to demand his rights, not to cling to what is his, but he comes to earth to serve and in love to give his very life for sinners like us. I mean, Jesus hangs on a cross being mocked. Jesus was spit upon and beaten. He was stripped naked and put to shame. And through it all, he had every right to call down legions of angels from heaven. He had every right to defend himself. And yet Jesus willingly suffers wrong. Jesus willingly allows himself not just to be defrauded, but to be executed, to be murdered. And he does it because in love he was bearing our sins in his own body on the tree. He does it for our sake so that we could be saved, so that we could be forgiven. And it's in light of that reality that Paul asks us, why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? I mean, are your rights really all that significant in light of the grace you've received from Christ? Should we be people who adamantly demand recompense and repayment when the fact is we all owe a debt that we can't pay? Should we be people who insist on an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and justice from those who wrong us? While we are simultaneously people who fall down at the feet of God begging for his mercy and grace? I mean, do you see how suing one another violates the very spirit of the gospel by which we're saved? My friends, I'm not saying that we are to be pushovers. I'm not saying that there's never a time to seek earthly justice. But friends, we of all people should be known for mercy and grace and forgiveness and kindness and forbearance. That's what the spirit of the gospel demands. So don't sue one another because we're qualified to judge for ourselves, don't sue one another because it undermines our witness in the world, and don't sue one another because it violates the spirit of the gospel. And now fourthly and finally, don't sue one another because the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Verses eight through 11. Don't sue one another because the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Paul continues in verse 8, but you yourselves wrong and defraud even your own brothers. So, so far from accepting wrong, so far from accepting being defrauded. Some of the Corinthians were actually perpetrating it. And Paul says, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? So if you're the one wronging people, if you're the one defrauding them, I mean, if you're the one doing something that would provoke people to want to sue you, or if you're someone who is so greedy for money, who is so concerned about your own personal vindication, more so than you care about God's glory. And so you're the one that's taking people to court in this unrighteous way. Paul says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. At some point, your very salvation is called into question by that kind of unrighteous behavior. Paul says, do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality. And by the way, there's a Greek phrase there that has two main words, malakoi and arsenikoi. So the ESV translate this, men who practice homosexuality. The New American Standard Bible, for example, translates it, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals. And probably these two words are meant to refer to both the passive and the active partners in a homosexual union, respectively. And then it says, nor thieves, nor the greedy. nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Now what Paul is doing here is he's just cutting through all the theological sophistication, or really obfuscation, which tries to find some way to excuse unrighteous behavior. And Paul's just saying in very plain, simple terms, unrighteous people will not go to heaven. Don't be deceived about it. Now I can think of two ways in particular that we might deceive ourselves about this. First, I think we're prone to excusing our sin by comparing ourselves to others. So for example, maybe in the context of this sermon, your conscience has convicted you that greed is really ruling in your heart. Maybe you even want to sue someone because there is this greed. But instead of repenting, you relieve your conscience by thinking, well, at least I'm not sexually immoral like the person we read about in chapter five who was sleeping with his stepmother. And so what you do is you wind up using the unrighteousness of others as a basis for justifying yourself. And implicitly you're assuming, well, God must grade on a curve. But notice that Paul gives us no such escape. I mean, there's one list and he lumps all of these things together as unrighteousness. So whether you're sexually immoral or an idolater or an adulterer or a homosexual or a thief or greedy or a drunkard or a reviler or a swindler, it's all the same category. It's all unrighteousness and the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. And that's because at the end of the day, there's really only one kind of unrighteousness, the unrighteousness of rejecting God's standards and replacing them with our own. And Paul is saying, do not be deceived. Sin is sin and the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God because God's kingdom is only for those who are submitted to God's authority. And friends, this is why we all need grace. The fact of the matter is, every single one of us has unrighteously transgressed God's commands, and we are all guilty. I mean, can you imagine standing before a judge, charged with armed robbery, and your defense is, well, look at that murderer over there? I mean, it doesn't matter what other people do. The only question is, what have we done in relation to the law of God? And the good news of the gospel is not if you can clean up your life and you can be good enough, then you will go to heaven. The good news of the gospel is that in spite of the fact that we have all fallen short of God's glory and we are hopelessly lost and condemned in sin, yet God gave his son to come as a substitute and to die on the cross bearing the punishment and the penalty that we deserve so that when we repent of sin and trust in him, we can be freely forgiven and reconciled to God. That's the good news of the gospel. And if you're here today and you're not a Christian, that is the gospel for you. You, this very day, can repent and trust in Christ and find forgiveness. But that brings us to the second excuse for unrighteousness. And that is the excuse that says, well, because I'm saved by grace, I don't have to live righteously. I mean, you can imagine this going on in the Corinthian church. I mean, here you have Corinthians who are defrauding somebody else, and you can imagine challenging them. Look, you're defrauding your brother, and instead of repenting, what do they say? I'm saved by grace. Praise God, Jesus died, and I'm forgiven. Now, it's true that even a genuine Christian will continue to struggle with sin throughout this life. But when a genuine Christian sins, the Spirit of God will bring conviction and he or she will repent. He won't be able to just go on living in flagrant unrighteousness like he did before. And that is why Paul is warning the Corinthians so clearly that if these sins, if these behaviors characterize your life, if unrighteousness rules your life, don't be deceived. You will not inherit the kingdom of God. And it's not because we earn our salvation by being good, it's because the grace by which we're saved is also a grace that transforms. Look at verse 11, and this is such a good verse to memorize. Paul sums this up by saying, and such were some of you. Some of you Corinthians were idolaters. You were adulterers. You were homosexuals. You were thieves. You were greedy. You were revilers and swindlers and all the rest. That used to be who you were. That's who some of us were. But you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Oh friends, it does not matter what you've done. It doesn't matter who you were or what you had become. In Christ, that's not who you are anymore. The gospel is for every kind of sinner. You have been washed, you have been sanctified, you have been justified. Paul reminds the believers in Corinth. As John Newton put it, I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be in another world. But still, I am not what I used to be. And by the grace of God, I am what I am. Oh, friends, it is by the grace of God that we are what we are. We've seen who we were, but in Christ, we are new. We've been transformed. We've been changed. Everything about us is different. We have a new identity in Christ. Look at these words here, you've been washed, you've been sanctified, you've been justified. When Paul says washed, I think he especially has in mind the washing of our souls that brings about transformation in our hearts. Paul speaks in Titus chapter three of the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. And I think this recalls Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 25 and 26 where God promised all those years before, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove your heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. God is going to change our heart. When you become a Christian, God gives you a new heart. Sometimes we call this being born again, or regenerated, or being made new. Your very affections in your heart are transformed because God has washed you. Secondly, Paul says you were sanctified. Now often, theologically, we speak of sanctification as this ongoing process of growing in holiness. But notice that here Paul uses sanctified past tense. He's speaking of something that already happened. And so I don't think he's talking here about progressive sanctification, but about positional sanctification. What it means to be sanctified is to be set apart as holy. And the moment you become a believer, God sets you apart as holy. Your identity changes, your status changes, you are transferred from being fundamentally identified as a sinner in rebellion against God and as a child of the devil to being a saint or a holy one, one who belongs to the Lord, one who is in fact a child of the living God. Paul is saying you were set aside as holy unto the Lord, that's who you are. You were washed, you were sanctified, and then thirdly, he says, and you were justified. Now to be justified means to be declared righteous. It's a legal or a forensic term. It means that you who once were condemned before God by your sin, the moment you placed your faith in Christ, you were declared righteous before him. Not because you yourself had done good, but because Jesus lived a perfect life and then Jesus died on the cross and so your sin was imputed or counted to him and paid for by him on the cross and his righteousness was imputed or counted to you. And on the basis of his righteousness, you are now just in the sight of God, justified and accepted in the beloved. And so Paul is saying, you have been washed or regenerated. You have been sanctified. You have been justified. This is who you are in Christ. And so the grace of the gospel, which does all of this, not because of anything we've done, not in response to our works or our effort, but sheerly out of the goodness and the kindness of God, this grace of the gospel, which transforms us and makes us new, therefore demands that we live differently because we are different. It demands that we live differently because now we can live differently because God has changed us. And so brothers and sisters, how then will you live? Will we live so focused on our rights, on money, on personal vindication, that we would go so far as to sue one another? Or will we, as Paul tells us, put on then as God's chosen ones, Holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint or a grievance against another, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. Oh friends, there is nothing better I could say, and no better way to close than that. May God give us grace to do so. Amen, and let's pray.