On Lawsuits Against Believers

For a few months now a very small but very vocal group of people at Bellevue Baptist Church have decided to wage an all-out campaign against the church's new pastor, Dr. Steve Gaines, who so happens not to be Dr. Adrian Rogers. I have not made Savingbellevue.com an issue on this blog yet, because quite frankly I have found much on the website and its affiliated forum to be pure gossip, spread by people with critical attitudes. My concerns are fourfold:

First, people on the forum continue to bring up things which Dr. Gaines has already apologized for (such as talking about the controversies at Bellevue while speaking at another church), and even refuse to accept apologies for things such as Dr. Gaines' handling of the music minister leaving. Second, much of the disputes on the forums seem ridiculous to me. So what if Dr. Gaines sends his children to a Calvinist school, and so what if one of the minister's sisters was seen drinking alcohol? Third, some people on the forums have even expressed their desire that Dr. Gaines make more mistakes so that pressure will build for him to resign, which I find completely against the Bible's instruction that we ought to pray for our leaders and not hope that they stumble. And finally, certain people on the forum were becoming frustrated with the media's inattention to the matters at Bellevue, and began writing to the media in hopes that they would air their grievances. This goes squarely against Savingbellevue's mission statement ("It is regrettable that non-members will also have access to the issues as they are brought before the church, but with almost 30,000 members of record, any other means of bringing the issue before them was impractical.") It certainly doesn't seem like they regret nonbelievers having access to the website anymore.

Now I don't mean to be overly negative, as certain people on the forum have indeed tried to participate in a godly manner. But I can't ignore something which has recently surfaced on savingbellevue.com - and that is, a suggestion that it might be time to file a lawsuit against certain ministers at Bellevue.

1 Corinthians 6 says, "When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? ... 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?"

This passage has long been considered a prohibition of believers filing lawsuits against other believers for a couple of reasons. First, they are bringing their case before unbelievers. This point is very important, and is something that really should not be missed. As Dr. Richard L. Pratt (formerly of Reformed Theological Seminary, now of Third Millenium Ministries) says in his commentary of the passage, "Because Christians should see things in light of the kingdom of God, and have true, spiritual wisdom (1:24,30; 2:6-8; 3:19), any Christian should have greater wisdom and be a better judge than even the wisest unbeliever... Unbelieving human law simply does not reflect true wisdom, true godliness, or true justice. Regarding public courts it might be said that justice is blind, not because it treats all men equally, but because it can’t see the truth." Dr. John McArthur also notes in his Study Bible, "When Christians have earthly quarrels and disputes among themselves, it is inconceivable that they would turn to those least qualified (unbelievers) to resolve the matter."

But not only is filing lawsuits against believers wrong because it brings matters before unbelieving judges, but because it brings disgrace upon the Christian community by airing its sins in public light. As Dr. Pratt goes on to note, "Bringing the disputes of the Christian family into the public eye damages the reputation and witness of the church. The gospel is supposed to reconcile believers in fellowship with each other in Christ. What will the world think when it sees Christians appealing to those without the gospel to solve the problems that the gospel should be correcting? Naturally, the world will think the gospel is ineffective. Even if a church court were to misjudge a case, this would be preferable to damaging the credibility of the gospel by going to public court." Similarly, Dr. McArthur does not mince words when speaking of these matters: "Such conduct as suing a fellow believer is not only a sinful shame, but a complete failure to act obediently and righteously. Christians who take fellow Christians to court suffer moral defeat and spiritual loss even before the case is heard, and they become subject to divine chastening." Now, some may counter that the community already knows of the issues at Bellevue, but there is no need to further drag its name in the mud.

Now, in taking issue with this teaching of the Bible, one writer at SavingBellevue, James Sundquist, wrote a letter saying that this passage only refers to trivial matters, referring to verses 2-3 of 1 Corinthians 6, which says, "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, by not fully quoting these verses, Mr. Sundquist does his readers a disservice because it deprives them of the full context of the verse. As Dr. Pratt points out, Paul defines what "trivial cases" are in the next verse -- "matters pertaining to this life." While certainly there are some very weighty issues here on earth, they are all trivial compared to the upcoming judgment of the world and even the angels, at which point some will be eternally cast into hell.

Now, I can't completely blame Mr. Sundquist for coming to this conclusion, as it is echoed in the Matthew Henry Commentaries, though it must be noted that the 1 Corinthians commentary is not written by Matthew Henry as he says - instead, it was written by other ministers, because Matthew Henry died after writing the commentary on Acts. However, conservative scholarship in the past few hundred years has differed from the Matthew Henry commentaries (though, I do agree with the commentaries when it says, "Christians should never engage in law-suits till all other remedies have been tried in vain"), and I do think Mr. Sundquist is misunderstanding the heart of this passage. It's not just an arbitrary rule made by God against bringing "trivial" cases to court; it has to do with the unbelievers' inability to judge truth.