1 Corinthians 6:7-8

“Nay, already it is altogether a defect in you that ye have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather take wrong? why not rather be defrauded? 8. Nay but ye yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that your brethren!”

Here is the second charge which he brings against them, the fact of lawsuits in themselves. This charge essentially includes two. The ἤδη μέν, already, indicates the one; the ἀλλά of 1 Corinthians 6:8 the other. And first, 1 Corinthians 6:7, it is bad to have a lawsuit about a wrong which one considers to have been done to him by a brother. Why not bear a wrong? The therefore of the T. R. has no meaning; it ought to be suppressed.

The term ἥττημα, from ἡττᾶσθαι, to remain beneath, denotes a defeat when it is used in reference to a fight, and a deterioration or deficiency when applied to a state of things. The latter is the only meaning which is suitable here. There is a moral deficiency among them on this point compared with what they should be as Christians; ὅλως, in general; that is to say: “without dwelling longer on the particular fact which I have condemned above.” We must certainly reject ἐν, among, before ὑμῖν, you: “It is a deficiency on your part, pertaining to you.”

The reflex pronoun ἑαυτῶν is used here as it often is instead of the reciprocal pronoun ἀλλήλων; this form brings out the close solidarity in consequence of which a brother pleading against a brother pleads in a sense against himself.

The two questions which close the verse justify the idea expressed by the word ἥττημα. There is a defect in acting thus; for there is something better to be done: viz. to bear. There is therefore a lack of charity. Paul himself says, 1 Corinthians 13:4: “Charity suffereth long.” Μᾶλλον, rather; that is to say, rather than enter into a lawsuit. Paul does not say that a Christian should do nothing to secure himself against injustice. But if it must come to a lawsuit, he advises rather to bear the wrong. Is he alluding to the precepts of Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:39-42 ? It seems very probable. The thought which Jesus undoubtedly meant to express in these paradoxical forms is this: Love, infinite as God, is ready, so far as itself is concerned, to bear everything. If therefore in practice it sets limits to this absolute patience, it is not from regard to itself, as if its endurance were at an end; but it is for the good of that very being with whom it has to do, so that it is in this case its own limit, in other words, it has no limit outside of itself.

The two verbs ἀδικεῖσθαι and ἀποστερεῖσθαι are in the Middle: to let oneself be wronged; to let oneself be robbed. The former refers to injustices in general, the latter to wrongs in regard to property.