Seeking personal vindication can swallow up all the energy of a person's life. Instead of commending them for standing on the side of pursuing justice and vindicating their personal losses, Paul's words deftly delivered a surgeon's razor cut to the heart. In fact, he suggested that the presence of lawsuits among them suggested that spiritually they had already been defeated. Paul's questions penetrate to the heart of the issue. In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul contrasted the differing results which come from pursuing the knowledge of personal rights and my freedoms as opposed to seeking the well-being of others.
Love builds up but knowledge puffs up.
As Paul would demonstrate in chapters 8 and 9, the principle of love can cause a person to forego personal rights in order to achieve the greater good of seeking the well being of others so that many will be saved. It is the principle of living with a higher ethic than seeking personal vindication. Overcoming evil with good is the way of Christ's disciple. A Christian is free to defend himself in court. But in pursuit of a more noble purpose than self-interest, a disciple whose heart has been molded by the cross might turn the other cheek toward insults, give more than would be taken through legal action, or go the second mile in offering service.