If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.
Ver. 4. If then ye have judgments] As the Corinthians, being many of them merchants, had many lawsuits. But if men's hearts were not bigger than their suits, there would not be half so many.
Who are least esteemed] Rather than go to law before heathen judges. The lowest, if of any judgment, are high enough for such a purpose. Why should those sordida poscinummia, qui latrocinia intra moenia exercent, as Columella hath it, those Crumenimulgae, the unconscionable lawyers, make a spoil of us; and then when they die, build hospitals for fools, as one of them did, saying, Of fools I got my estate, and to fools I will leave it. Of those that go to law, we may well say, as Charondas once did of those that go to sea, Se non mirari qui semel mare ingressus sit, sed qui iterum, that he marvelled not at those that went once, but at those that would go again.