Arbitration

The settling of disputes by appeal to a wise judge or, in the apostolic writings, by appeal to fellow believers rather than to outside courts. Two scenes anchor the topic: Solomon hearing the case of the two women, and Paul's rebuke to a Corinthian congregation that took its quarrels before unbelievers.

Solomon and the Two Women

A dispute between two women over a living child comes to the king without witnesses. Each claims the surviving infant as her own, and the dead child as the other's: "the one says, This is my son who lives, and your son is the dead: and the other says, No; but your son is the dead, and my son is the living" (1 Ki 3:23). With nothing to test the claims by, Solomon proposes a thing he never intends to do. "And the king said, Fetch me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. And the king said, Cut the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other" (1 Ki 3:24-25).

The proposal is the test. The mother of the living child relinquishes her claim to save the child's life: "Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no way slay him." The other consents to the cutting: "He will be neither mine nor yours. Cut [him in two]!" (1 Ki 3:26). The verdict turns on the response. "Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no way slay him: she is his mother" (1 Ki 3:27). The chapter closes with public recognition of the gift behind the judgment: "And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do justice" (1 Ki 3:28).

Paul to the Corinthians

Paul's appeal to the church at Corinth treats arbitration as a matter of identity. The shame is that one believer drags another before pagan judges at all. "Dare any of you⁺, having a matter against the other, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?" (1 Co 6:1).

The argument runs from the saints' future to their present. If the saints will judge the world, and even angels, then the smallest disputes of this life are well within their competence (1 Co 6:2-3). The Corinthians have inverted the logic: "If then you⁺ have to judge things pertaining to this life, do you⁺ set them to judge who are of no account in the church?" (1 Co 6:4). Paul puts the question shame-side up: "What, can't there be [found] among you⁺ one wise man who will be able to decide between his brothers, but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?" (1 Co 6:5-6).

The deeper failure precedes the lawsuit. Going to law at all, against a brother, is itself "a defect": "Therefore already it is altogether a defect in you⁺, that you⁺ have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather take wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? No, but you⁺ yourselves do wrong, and defraud, and that [your⁺] brothers" (1 Co 6:7-8). The remedy urged is not better courts but a wise brother inside the body — and, where that fails, the willingness to absorb a wrong rather than carry it outside.