Quote:
Originally Posted by Cassidy
Precisely. According to the logic of Ray's argument any judgment requested in a civil court between believers, for whatever reason, is forbidden by Scripture. .
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I think you're missing an important element here...in an earlier post you used the a fence line as a possible point of contention.
Paul's appeal had to do with defending the gospel against unbelievers, the gospel, not secular matters. The point is, disputes between believers ought to be settled among believers and not in such away that would discredit believers in front of unbelievers. Here, it's any dispute since Paul doesn't qualify other than to call the disputes trivial. If a brother moves a fenceline and is adamant than, yes, rather than bringing him to court, despite how right you are, you should rather be wronged according to Paul. That's pretty clear. Of course reconciliation should be sought, there should be ones among the brothers who can settle such disputes. When a non believer makes accusations we have two possibilities, Christ's turn the other cheek or Paul's appeal to Caesar. I don't think they are mutually exclusive. I am sure Paul's decision came after a lot of pray throughout the whole time he had been in prison.