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Avoid Duties of Civil Magistrate - page 191
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Church Manual, page 191 (17th edition)
· “Civil litigation is often carried on in a spirit of contention that results from and reveals human selfishness. It is this kind of adversary proceedings that must be discouraged by a church that seek to exhibit the spirit of Christ. Christian unselfishness will lead followers of Christ to suffer themselves to be defrauded (I Cor. 6: 7) rather than to ‘go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints’ (I Cor. 6: 1). While there are, in the modern world, occasions for seeking decrees of civil courts, Christians should prefer settlement within the authority of the church, and should limit the seeking of such decrees to cases that are clearly within the jurisdiction of the civil courts and not within the authority of the church of for which the church agrees it has no adequate process for orderly settlement. Such suits before civil courts should never become revengeful adversary proceeding but should develop out of a desire to seek arbitration and to settle differences amicably. Examples of such cases may include, but are not limited to, the settlement of insurance claims, issuance of degrees affecting the boundaries and ownership of real property, the deciding of some matters of the administration of estates, and the awarding of custody of minor children. While the church should set up procedures within the constraints of legal practice to avoid the type of litigation referred to in I Corinthians 6, it should constantly be on guard against turning from its gospel mission and taking up the duties of a civil magistrate.” (See Luke 12:13, 14 and Testimonies Volume 9, page 216 – 218)
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The part I would like to focus on is the last sentense.
| ". . While the church should set up procedures within the constraints of legal practice to avoid the type of litigation referred to in I Corinthians 6, it should constantly be on guard against turning from its gospel mission and taking up the duties of a civil magistrate.” |
Question 1: When should the church get involved with disputes between members?
Question 2: Should a member be disciplined for taking another member to court, after he quotes this text as a reason not to bring it to the church?
I am especially interested to know about situations that you know where this text has been used by the church to support a decision by a local church not to discipline a member.
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Please post your comment on this text or your answer to Question 1 or Question 2 or both
The church needs to get involved when there is a grievance. The text refers to I Corinthians 6 which is about grievances. Also the examples given of settlement of insurance claims, ownership of property, custody of children are non-grievances. These are example of cases that should go to a civil magistrate. It is grievances that need to be resolved by the church first.