If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. Things pertaining to this life - They could examine all civil cases among themselves, which they were permitted to determine without any hinderance from the heathen governments under which they lived.
Who are least esteemed in the Church - Τους εξουθενημενους, Those who were in the lowest order of judges; for the apostle may refer here to the order in the Jewish benches, as Dr. Lightfoot conjectures, of which there were five, viz.: -
1. The great Sanhedrin, consisting of seventy-two elders, which presided in Jerusalem.
2. The little Sanhedrin of twenty-five, in large cities, out of Jerusalem.
3. The Bench of Three in every synagogue.
4. The Authorized, or Authentic Bench.
5. The Bench not authorized, εξουθενημενος. This latter bench was so called because it received not its authority immediately from the Sanhedrin, but was chosen by the parties between whom the controversy depended. The apostle certainly does not mean persons of no repute, but such as these arbitrators, who were chosen for the purpose of settling private differences, and preventing them from going before the regular magistrates. The following verse makes it pretty evident that the apostle refers to this lower kind of tribunal; and hence he says, -