“Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?”
The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. — Paul redefines defeat: to litigate at all is to lose, regardless of legal victory. The ēdē (already) marks present, not future, loss. By appealing to pagan courts, the believers acknowledge they have renounced the kingdom's justice altogether. Furthermore, the practical outcome contradicts Christ's call: why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? suggests that accepting injustice preserves Christian witness better than pursuing legal vindication.
Church Fathers on 1 Corinthians 6:7
“Nay, already it is altogether a defect in you, that you have lawsuits one with another.” Do you see for what place he reserved this point? And how he has cleared the discussion of it in good time? For “I talk not yet,” says he, “which injures, or which is injured.” Thus far, the act itself of going to law brings each party under his censure, and in that respect one is not at all better than another. But whether one go to law justly or unjustly, that is quite another…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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