I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 6:5 Go To 1 Corinthians 6
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Is it so that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? This is severe irony, and a tacit reproof and condemnation. Sedulius and Gregory (Mor. lib. xix. c21) take it a little differently, as if said seriously, as though he meant: Let those who are of lesser merit in the Church, and who have no great gifts of power, judge in matters of worldly business, that so those who cannot do great things may be the means of supplying lesser benefits.
This judging of secular causes was afterwards intrusted amongst Christians to the presbyters and Bishops, as appears from Clement (Constit. lib. i. c49-51 , and Ep. i. to James the Lord"s brother). He says: "If brethren have any dispute let them not take it for decision before secular magistrates, but, whatever it Isaiah , let it be ended by the presbyters of the Church, and let their decision be implicitly obeyed." "This too was afterwards decreed in the civil law by the Emperor Theodosius, and confirmed by Charlemagne (xi. qu1 , Can. quicunque and Can. Volumus), who gave permission to any one, whether plaintiff or defendant, to appeal from the secular tribunal to the Ecclesiastical court. Hence it was that Gregory Thaumaturgus, Bishop of Neo-Csarea, discharged among his faithful the office of Judges , as is testified by Gregory of Nyssa in the life that he wrote of him; so did S. Ambrose, as appears from Offic. lib. ii.c29 , where he says that he had brought to nought the unjust judgments of the Emperors; so did S. Augustine (de Opere Monach. c26); Synesius (Epp57,58). But as the number of Christians and lawsuits increased, the Bishops transferred this duty to secular Judges , who were, however, Christians. This they did, following the teaching and appointment of S. Peter, who this writes to Clement, and in him to all Bishops, in the letter here cited: "Christ does not wish you to be a judge or decider of worldly affairs, lest being engrossed with the things that are seen you have no leisure for the word of God, or dor severing the good from the bad according to the rule of truth,"
It may be asked, Why then foes not S. Paul intrust this office of judge to the Bishop? Ambrose replies, Because there was no such officer at Corinth as yet: "He had not yet been appointed to rule their Church." The Corinthians had but recently been converted by S. Paul, and were yet but few in number.
