Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbor, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 1. Go to law before the unjust. Saint Paul here dissuades the new Christians from carrying their differences and causes about their temporal concerns before judges who were infidels, especially seeing the saints and the elect shall one day judge, that is, condemn all the wicked, and even the apostate angels, by approving the sentence which Christ shall pronounce against them at the day of judgment. Witham.—It was not unusual in the primitive ages, and even under Christian emperors, for the Catholics to refer their disputes to the bishop, and to abide by his decision, as Possidius informs us, in the life of S. Augustin. Est.