“But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.” (1 Corinthians 6:6 KJV)

"On the contrary, brother is tried with brother, and that before unbelievers!" (LSB)

This verse is often misunderstood (or twisted) by churches and Christians. Paul’s complaint is that believers in Corinth were essentially filing what we would think of as lawsuits for personal issues, debts, and other business that believers should be handling in the spirit of brotherly love and right relationship within the church body. His point was – there is a biblical means to handle these personal beefs between supposed “brethren”: You go to the person who has done you wrong/sinned against you, you lay out your case and the offense. If the offender does not repent (generally marked by “making whole” the situation), then you try a second time with a couple of mature brethren as witnesses, again laying out your case and calling them to make right/repent. If that fails, then you take them before the local church to again lay out your case. If they continue to be unrepentant and refuse to make amends for their offense, they are to be removed from the church, literally “turned over to Satan” (1 Corinthians 5:5) – aka treated as an unbeliever. At that point, one could file a civil case in secular courts and not be in violation of Paul’s complaint.

An example of this might be that your fellow church member sells you a piece of land, but doesn’t follow through with what he promised – he has stolen from you and lied to you (and caused fiscal harm as well). You don’t just jump right in and file a lawsuit in the local court – you go to them, and carry on with that through the church. After all of this, if they still won’t make right/reconcile/repent – then they are put out of the church and treated as an unbeliever – you file a civil suit in the courts.

On the other hand, and many churches have been guilty of this – which has become a major headline-gaining shame on churches: Trying to simply hand’e criminal activity within the church. Who can miss the flood of sexual abuse/assault that historically were swept under the rug? That has become an extremely costly problem, both in actual financial ways, as well as in the church reputation and testimony. Yet criminal activity perpetrated in the church or by church people falls squarely in the realm of the governing authorities – aka the secular courts. To this Paul did NOT warn against. If someone is embezzling funds from the church – that should be handled through the judicial system. That doesn’t remove the church discipline factor, but the state’s courts have jurisdiction. If someone is abused in and/or by a church member or leader – yes the church should take action, but the primary is the judicial system (and in this sense, I absolutely agree with the state mandatory reporting laws). How many have done the exact opposite of “protecting the church”, indeed damaging the church’s reputation and testimony, as well as bringing legal grief on the body by the mixing up of these differing realms?

But should we be surprised that churches have often turned this all upside-down? In a culture that has decided to take everyone else to court over everything – even church members have joined in the wrong use of these separate realms of judgment. Marriage is one realm that, for believers, falls under civil matters (personal, and church business). Step 1 is the family realm – and biblical leadership and sacrificial love in fulfilling the promises and covenant of marriage. Scripture couldn’t be more clear about any matter than it is on marriage.

For I hate divorce,” says Yahweh, the God of Israel... (Malachi 2:16)

If reconciliation falls short within the realm of the family, then it should then be a matter for the local church, calling the guilty to repentance, and for reconciliation with prayer, counseling, and moral support to help restore the marriage.  Sadly, the church often is the one resource that couples often flee from when they begin to have divisions. Instead of running TO God's institution of reconciliation, they fell to secular institutions and methods, then often end up in the government (secular) courts with a lawsuit (that is what a divorce is - a lawsuit). Is this not another form of taking what ought to be handled by Christians, within the church?

This in no way negates the government's courts from being included when there is criminal activity involved.  Abuse, especially physical abuse, is not just a sin, it is a criminal act. And the secular courts do have authority in that regard.

The point being - when we get back to the original issue in the church at Corinth to which Paul was writing in our opening verse - it is a condemnation of the church (aka the assembling body of professed believers in Christ) who were failing to handle what were spiritual and personal matters in a biblical way, but instead were putting these spiritual battles in the hands of secular authorities - and THAT was bringing shame to the name of Christ and His body.