Lawsuits among Believers

1When any controversy arises among you, will any one presume to appeal to the Gentiles, and not to Christians? 2don't you know that these are to judge the world? if the world is to be judg'd by you, are not you qualify'd to decide your petty causes? 3don't you know that we shall be judges of angels? much more then of the affairs of life? 4if then you have the cognizance of such matters, why do ye set those to judge who are despised by the church? I speak it to your shame. 5what, is there not a man of experience amongst you, capable of being arbitrator between his brethren? 6but when a contest arises, you must refer the decision to infidels?

7beside, you are absolutely in the wrong in going to law with one another at all: why don't you rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer loss? 8nay, in this case, you act injuriously, and do damage even to your brethren.

Members of Christ

9Know you not that the unjust shall not inherit the kingdom of God? be not deceived: neither the licentious, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor the brutal, 10nor thieves, nor misers, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor raparees, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11and such were some of you: but you have been washed, you have been sanctified, you have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the spirit of our God.

12Are all things lawful for me? however, all things are not expedient: are all things lawful for me? however, I will not be a slave to any. 13"meat is design'd for the belly, and the belly for meat:" true, yet God has design'd both for destruction, now the body is not design'd for licentiousness, but for the glory of the Lord; since the Lord died for the glorification of the body: 14for as God hath raised up the Lord, so will he likewise raise us up to partake of his own power. 15Don't you know, that your bodies are parts of Christ's mystical body? now, how can that which is Christ's, be made the property of a very creature? 16it cannot be, why, don't you perceive, that where there is such an attachment, they are but as one person? for the scripture says, "they two shall be as one." 17but he that is attach'd to the Lord, is united to him by one and the same spirit.

The Temple of the Holy Spirit
(Romans 12:1–8; 1 Corinthians 3:16–23)

18flee licentiousness, no other sin that a man commits does affect the church as a body: but the licentious commits a fraud against the whole body to which he belongs. 19what! know ye not that your bodies are the temple of the holy spirit, which is in you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20for you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.