Paul wants the Corinthians to feel the shame of what they were doing, and he says so: "I speak to your shame." His question is pointed. Can it really be that the whole church has no one wise enough to settle a dispute between two brothers? Barnes paraphrases it this way: is there "not a single member so wise, intelligent and prudent" that the others could trust him with their cases? Gill notes the sting in the question. These were people who had "so much gloried in their wisdom," yet they acted as though they had none.

Paul answers by stating what was actually happening: "But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers" (1 Corinthians 6:6). He then calls the whole practice "utterly a fault among you" (1 Corinthians 6:7) and goes further: "Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren" (1 Corinthians 6:8).

The Corinthian church prized wisdom and knowledge. Paul had thanked God that they were "enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge" (1 Corinthians 1:5), and he later said "ye are wise in Christ" (1 Corinthians 4:10), which Barnes calls "wholly ironical." That background makes this question sharp. Gill says Paul spoke to the shame of people who boasted of their gifts and abilities, even to the contempt of the apostle himself. The ESV joins this question with the next line into one question: "Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?" (1 Corinthians 6:5-6).

Paul's question exposes a gap between what the Corinthians claimed and how they lived. They spoke much of wisdom, but when it came to settling a quarrel between brothers, they acted as if there were none in the church.

The word "brethren" carries the weight of the question. These were not strangers but family in Christ. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary says, "It is a shame that little quarrels should grow to such a head among Christians, that they cannot be determined by the brethren."