What does it mean that we will judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3)?

Not a few statements may be traced in scripture, which have been given but a single mention; but they are just as certain as any others which are repeatedly named. The apostle Paul, in 1 Cor. 6:3, declares that the saints shall judge angels. It is not only that they shall judge the world, which no doubt is a truth revealed elsewhere; but it is there expressly said that they are to judge angels. I am not aware of any other scripture which intimates a destiny that most would consider strange if not incredible. We do find that the world to come is not to be put under angels; but that is a different thing. It does assure us that the habitable earth is to be put under the Lord Jesus in that day; and the saints are to reign with Him. To the risen saints will be given to share His royal authority; for that is the meaning here of "judging." It has nothing at all to do with Christ's final award of man. It is not a small mistake to suppose that the saints will exercise the final judgment over men or angels. All such judgment is exclusively given to the Son of man (John 5:22, 27; Rev. 20).

Further, as showing the superior place to angels in which grace has put the believer, we are told that “we shall judge angels” (1 Cor. 6:3).

There are two ways in which this Scripture may be fulfilled. Seeing “the world to come” is to be put under the dominion of the Son of man, and believers will be associated with their Lord in His earthly rule, it is quite possible that angels may be under the direction of the saints in that day. Or, as has been said, “when Christ shall judge the world and pronounce the doom of the [fallen] angels, the church will be associated with Him and take part in His judgment, for she has His Spirit and His mind.” The fact that we are to judge angels was mentioned to shame the Corinthian believers, who were going to law before the unjust.

With κρ. therefore ἐν is quite distinct from ἔμπροσθεν or ἐνώπιον and beyond controversy confirms instead of enfeebling what had just been laid down as an axiom of common christian knowledge, that the saints are to judge the world and even angels, not merely to be present when their judgment proceeds before the Lord. So Raphelius and Kypke, the last explaining the idiomatic use of ἐν from a company of judges in the midst of whom the case is disposed of. But the truth is that the preposition branches out from a mere local or material idea of inclusion into various applications characterizing what is spoken of, and so even meaning "with" or "by," as grammars and lexicons will show. κρίνεσθαι ἐπί is much more to be "judged before," as anyone can see in the preceding verse 1: ἐν ὑμῖν should be distinguished from this, as it unquestionably is the strictly proper phrase for the closer sense of "by you." It is not the final judgment, that of the dead, which is in the hands of the Lord, the Son of man (John 5), but of the quick, judging akin to the sense of reigning. (See Matthew 19:28; Revelation 20:4) Even now angels are ministering spirits sent out for service on account of those who shall inherit salvation: how much more when the saints shall be glorified and reign with Christ!

In this chapter there is another matter raised in which the Corinthians had not been using proper judgment. No individual is singled out here, but the strong reproof of the apostle is for any who had laid charges in the law courts against their own brethren. Did they realize they were relying on the judgment of the unjust in this case? Was it becoming that they should accept the judgment of the ungodly at a time when they might have the fair and properly considered judgment of the saints of God?

Had they not been taught that the saints will judge the world? They will be fully identified with Christ in that discerning judgment that distinguishes between one matter and another that must be faced when the world is brought under judgment. How thoroughly wrong then it is that the world should sit in judgment as regards the saints. If saints are to judge the world, are they not able now to judge as regards the trivial personal matters between believers?

Verse 3 goes still beyond this to assert that we shall judge angels. It is as Man that the Lord Jesus is given authority to execute judgment, and this includes the judgment of angels (Jn. 5:22,27). And redeemed mankind will be fully identified with Him in this judgment. Then if so, how much more should a believer be able to judge as to things in this life. Let it be remembered that "he that is spiritual judgeth (or discerneth) all things" (ch. 2:16).

Yet the decree has from of old been established, and, since the ascension of the Lord of glory, has been openly asserted by the Spirit, that His saints shall judge the world.7 Righteousness shall judge unrighteousness; and they whose calling it is to sit with Christ in heaven will have dominion over them that dwell upon the earth. Are, then, he indignantly asks, the heirs of such a calling "unworthy to judge the smallest matters?" Are God's assessors unequal to the task of settling their own disputes? Is the Spirit, which was given them that they might search the depths of God,8 incapable of showing them the merits of some shallow controversy between man and man? Was Wisdom failing her own children, or had Righteousness forsaken its abode? The more our own souls as believers are enabled to appreciate "the true grace of God wherein we stand,"9 the more justly we shall estimate the deep and fervent emotion of the apostle as he poured forth his marvellous invective, which is now pursued in a yet higher strain.

Verse 3. "Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" The repetition of the reproachful interrogatory, "Know ye not?" is a sufficient assurance to us that this doctrine, so astonishing in itself, yet in such strict and necessary keeping with our calling into the fellowship of the Son of God, had been a not unfamiliar topic of Paul's verbal ministry at Corinth, and had been both heard, therefore, and outwardly received, by those to whom he writes. But if so, they had proved since how little they had understood the ground of their own boasting, when they were puffed up, and reigned as kings. The saints shall judge angels who kept not their first estate,1 even as the saints are now served by other angels in the name and at the will of Him whose ministers they are, and who upholds them in their places by His grace.2 But if such be their destination and their present honour, how much rather should they be entrusted with the lesser interests of this present life? One further question follows, to complete the confusion of these "wise" Corinthians, by showing them that their practice was one of entire self-stultification.

The saints are to judge as well as reign (vv. 22-26). This is what the Apostle had in his mind when he rebuked the Corinthians for going to law with one another before the world. "Do ye not know," he indignantly exclaimed, "that the saints shall judge the world? … Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" (1 Cor. 6:1-3). This has reference only to the temporal judgments connected with the kingdom; when eternal issues are in question, we read of one "throne," not "thrones" (Contrast Rev. 20:4 and 11). But the position is nevertheless a wonderful one for us. Once we dreaded the judgment of God for ourselves, because of our many sins; now, all such dread has gone, and we look to sit upon the magisterial bench ourselves in the approaching day of earthly governmental glory.

They ought to have really known that "the saints shall judge the world." This fact had been stated in the Old Testament. "The Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom" (Dan. 7:22). Had they really known it they would not have dragged one another into heathen law courts. If we really knew it, we perhaps should avoid certain things that we do. A still more astonishing fact confronts us in verse 3: though here the change from, "the saints," to, "we," may indicate that the judging of angels is confined to the apostles.

Be that as it may, these verses open up before us a vista of extraordinary authority and responsibility, in the light of which things pertaining to this life can only be spoken of as "the smallest matters." In keeping with this estimate, is the instruction that if such questions are brought before the saints for judgment, those least esteemed in the church are to hear the case. We notice that it does not say that all the saints are going to judge in the coming age. Perhaps all are not, and so those least likely to be judges then are to be judges now. Such is the estimate which Scripture gives of the relative importance of the things of the coming age as compared with the things of this age.

(V. 2). To show the inconsistency of this course, the Apostle asks them to view their actions in the light of the world to come. They know that in that day the saints will be associated with Christ when He rules over the world and angels. How inconsistent, then, to seek the judgment of those whom we are going to judge.

(Vv. 3, 4). Further, he shows the futility of appealing to the world, for, if the saints are going to judge the world and angels, they must surely be capable of adjudicating in the comparatively small affairs of every-day life. This being so, if matters that pertain to this life arise between brothers, the least esteemed in the assembly are able to settle them, as they call for no great spirituality or gift, but rather common sense and honesty.

Another point to be remembered in considering the judgments of God soon to be poured out upon the world is that the heavenly saints are to be associated with the Lord Jesus in this solemn work. Daniel says, "Judgment was given to the saints of the Most High," or high places (Dan. 7:22). This the Apostle Paul reminded the Corinthians of. They were so far forgetting their high calling and destiny as to carry their disputes into the courts of the world, before the unjust. Paul indignantly exclaims, "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?" (1 Cor. 6:2-3).

This has been greatly overlooked in Christendom. Far from expecting to be the world's judges — yea, the judges of angels, too — not a few of those who really love the Lord Jesus quite expect to be brought into judgment themselves! This is serious — injurious to both peace and affection. As already shown, every believer is placed beyond judgment in the risen Christ, a standing in Divine righteousness being already his through His accomplished work. Nothing remains but eternal participation with Christ. Consequently in all He does we shall have a part; hence our future position as associated with Him in the judgment of the world and of the angels.

As to angels being judged at the Great White Throne, Scripture is silent, and so we must be content with the general statement of Jude; they will be judged at the great day. The apostle Paul in 1 Cor.6, tells us that we shall judge angels in association with Christ.