"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? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!"
Perhaps the problem in our churches is that there doesn't seem to be anybody wise enough to solve the dispute. But I think that it is what is being communicated here. There were people capable of mediating the dispute. So why weren't disputers going to them? Perhaps the offended party failed to seek out brothers to deal with the problem because he thought that they would not be able to enforce their decision. So to keep from loosing out, he went to court before unbelievers. This does not keep a person from defeat. It is a defeat.
We are so concerned about standing up for ourselves that we cannot imagine a situation where it would be good for us to suffer wrong or be defrauded. So instead of taking it, we dish out. We go from someone who was suffering because someone did wrong to being one who is doing wrong.
It would be far better for me to suffer wrong than to do wrong. God will not hold me accountable for the wrong done for me, but He will hold be accountable for the wrong that I do.
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