1 Corinthians SeriesThe Court of Public Opinion Introduction:“ A good reputation is more valuable then money” That’s a quote from Publilius of Syria, a freed Roman slave who lived during Jesus’ time. Living free in Roman he even managed to win a coveted award from Julius Ceaser for his writing abilities. Publilius understood Roman culture and ended up writing a book of ancient Roman proverbs, quotes the Roman’s lived by. One of them was this, “A good reputation is more valuable then money”. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been taught that a good reputation is one of the most valuable things you can have. Without a reputation no-one will ever trust you. When our reputations are broken we have no credit with people and no-one will take a chance on you.  The truth is, our world has tried to move away from reputation. We’ve used the internet to move away from actually trusting one another’s reputation. They’ve tried to replace reputation with fact and trust with proof. Sometimes, this is a good thing. I’d rather have proof that climbing a tree in a lighting storm is safe rather then just trust someones word. Yet in other places it’s impossible to move away from reputation completely. In places where science doesn’t rule, like relationships, counselling or life decisions a good reputation is necessary. People need to trust to work together. As long as people exist and live in community, a good reputation will be vital to healthy living.Today we are going to continue on in 1 Corinthians by examining chapter 6. Due to the nature of this passage, it’s really complex, we are only going to look at the first half, concerning the issue of lawsuits.Section 1: A History of CorruptionsSo… As Corinthian church was falling apart anger and tension began to raise among the congregation. Amidst the sexual sin and division over preachers members of church were becoming frustrated with one another. We don’t know what the issues were exactly other then they were insignificant civil matters. Maybe one member had stolen from another, or broken a contract, or damaged something, or injured someone. These were all small issues that, in the corinthians eyes, that demanded justice. These kinds of insults couldn’t go unanswered!So, they took each other to the local court, which was run by the Roman Empire. Well what Paul is about to say does apply to how we use our courts today we need to understand is that these roman courts weren’t quite like ours are today. Especially out in the Colonies like Corinth. The thing is, Roman Colony Courts had no ability to dispense justice because they were know for being wildly corrupt. Even the Emperor himself, Cicero, “complained that excessive favor, great resources, and money with which to offer bribes hindered justice in the provinces east of Rome”This meant that rather then dispensing fair justice for all the Colony Courts would just work to maintain power for the rich and submission for the weak. Whoever had more influence would win. However there was more under the surface. Money or retribution was often not the chief concern in Roman courts. Instead one’s reputation was at stake. To loose a civil cause was to be seen as weak and foolish in the eyes of the rich who controlled the court. So if you got into a civil cause and you were someone of influence, you would do everything you could to win otherwise your reputation was destroyed. Basically the courts in Corinth became a popularity contest. It was a court of Public Opinion. It was a matter of pride, of phussio. Puffed up arrogance. That core problem within the church. We don’t know whether the issue in Corinth was between rich Christians and poor Christians or between only the rich, what we do know is that in Pauls eye it was all foolishness. Section 2: Paul’s PushbackLike usual Paul is not impressed with the Corinthians. He sees there desire to sue one another, to seek out retribution as unwise. He gives three