Discerning the Body

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

God has called a people from all nations and from all classes of people. He has called them to be united together in the body of Christ. This shows the great ambition of God. People have tried to find world peace and to come together as one. After thousands of years of failure, the task seems an impossible one. But we must remember that nothing is impossible with God.

The church at Corinth was not doing a very good job with unity within the church. Despite the fact that Paul had labored a year and a half with them, the church was full of divisions. The congregation was split between groups that claimed Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and Christ as their leader. Members were taking each other to court over petty lawsuits. But nowhere were the divisions in the church more apparent than when they came together at the church. The center of the service was the Lord’s Supper which is supposed to be the shining example of Christian unity. Yet Paul has to scold them that when they came together for worship, they were coming together for the worse and not the better. Instead of growing together in love for Christ and each other, they were leaving the church more divided than ever.

Paul does admit that some dividing had to be the case in the church. There had to be discipline in the church. A man who was sleeping with his stepmother was to be separated from the congregation. Of course this was to be done in the hope that he would repent and be allowed back in. Others who showed themselves to have a heretical spirit were to be removed also. The goats had to be removed from the sheep. The devil does constantly attack the church. But even in his attempt to destroy the church, he can only in the end do the Lord’s bidding. The genuine would remain.

It is hard to determine whether verse 20 is in the form of a question as the original Greek text did not contain punctuation marks. If it is a question, it would read: “When you come together, is it not to eat the Lord’s Supper?” This would expect a positive answer. If this is the reading, then it shows that the Lord’s Supper was central to the early worship of the church. The “for” in the next verse is a little difficult grammatically as it is usually a development of a statement and not a question. If it is a statement, then it reads: “When you come together as one, it is NOT to observe the Lord’s Supper.” This then says that whatever supper they were observing, it was not the LORD’s Supper. This still implies that they should have been observing the “Lord’s” Supper, but what they were practicing was so contrary to what the Lord’s supper stood for, that it could not be called such as all. This means they were not really worshiping the Lord either. Either way, Paul levelled a very serious charge against the Corinthians. They were not discerning the body of Christ. And God had responded against them in judgment and had taken the lives of some of them.

The church did not have a building to worship in, so they would worship in house churches. There were some wealthy members who were at Corinth who had fairly large dwellings. We know that Erastus was the treasurer of the city, for example. Gaius may also have been wealthy. It is places like these that the church came to worship after they were separated from the synagogue. There is no indication of them renting a facility such as the church did at Ephesus which met in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

The large estate the church probably met at was more like a plantation than a single family dwelling we are used to living in today. It would have been run by a servant who in literal translation was the chief economist. He would run things for the master of the house. The master would have slaves and servants working for him. There also would have been some skilled craftsman who were free men who would provide for crafted items. Horse shoes, barrels, etc. The house was run by strict rules, in Greek the words oikos and nomos, economy. There were also societal rules on had to observe based upon social rank. The master was fed at table first, then the family next, then the common free men, and lastly the slaves.

Part of the master’s duty was to provide for feasts on occasion for the community. These were often dedicated to one of the gods or goddesses, of which there were many in Corinth. The master of benefactor was obligated to provide food, drink, and such for the feast. But this did not mean that all were equal at this feast. Those of high rank would get the choice food and the best wine, and would eat first. Then the common citizens were provided lesser quality food and wine. The slaves and servants were only entitles to coarse bread and cheap wine. In this the rank of society was closely observed.

With the coming of the message of Christ came to Corinth, the feasts to the other gods were discontinued by the Corinthians and replaced by the Lord’s Supper in commemoration of Jesus Christ whose body was broken and blood spilt for our sins. This was observed from the very beginning in the church. Paul only delivered what he had received concerning the supper. These words of institution in 1 Corinthians are probably the earliest testimony to the words of institution as the other gospels were probably not written until later.

The Lord’s Supper was being commemorated, or so the Corinthians thought, at the worship service of the church. The trouble is that even though they were no longer dedicating the feast to pagan gods, they were still observing the rules for such feasts. They were gathering together according to social rank. The more wealthy were gluttonous and drunk, whereas those who were seated last did not get enough to satisfy their hunger and thirst. Even if the actual breaking and bread and drinking the cup was held in common, some of those who came brought extra food to the supper and did not share it with the poor. What a spectacle to see a small group of gluttons who were drunk mingling with the hunger pangs of the poor. What was that saying?

Paul said it would have been better for these gluttons and winebibbers to have eaten before they came rather than to make such an awful testimony about the church. This does not mean that the church should not hold a feast rather than share a cracker and a sip of wine like we do in church today. What would have been best is that those who were more wealthy had brought enough good food for everyone, rich and poor, and shared liberally and freely. After all, this was one of the purposes of the Old Testament feasts, that at several occasions during the year, that everyone could feast sumptuously and celebrated the goodness of the LORD. How much more should this be observed in the church. The communion does not just remember the death of our Lord in his broken body and spilt blood. Jesus also said He would drink the cup anew with His church when the kingdom comes. There is the anticipation of the marriage supper of the Lamb which will be a great feast of joy indeed.

Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper at the last Passover He shared with His disciples. The Passover was a great feast with a lamb as the main course. It was to be entirely eaten. There was at least four cups of wine drunk. There were other dishes. It was the combination of sumptuous food and bitter herbs. This is also what we should observe. There is the bitterness, but this bitterness is turned to joy because the Lord arose on the third day.

It seems that when communion Sunday comes at the church, and I speak of mainly Protestant churches who do not offer communion at every church service, is a week of low attendance. Part of this is people read the text in 1 Corinthians and are terrified because they see the eating and drinking unworthily as a damnable offense against God. This has been reinforced by our preaching to the point that people do not come. If one had to be personally worthy to attend communion, who could come? If it was a matter of living above sin or something we do to become worthy, we could do nothing but eat and drink damnation upon ourselves. But we must realize that it is precisely because we are unworthy that we come to the table. It is only the sacrifice the Lord made for us at Cavalry which can make us worthy. This is what we remember every time we come to the Lord’s table. It is by our remembering the great sacrifice Jesus made for us that we are cleansed. So do not let your sin keep you from the table. Rather, you should run to it. It is quite true that we should live lives worthy of our calling. But the table reminds us of this too. Come and dine.

It is clear that the problem with Corinth being addressed by Paul had to do with the way the the Supper was being observed. Thye world has its caste system. The rich and poor despise each other. We see the division between rich and poor becoming more pronounced in America today. Even in the church, we are segregated by race and social rank. We come together in our enclaves of like people and share a cracker or small piece of bread and a little juice. No one is a glutton or gets drunk at the Lord’s table, but perhaps we should also consider if by not reaching out equally to all Christians whether we are not just as guilty of not discerning the body of the Lord. In heaven, there will be no distinctions by social rank or race. This is the great ambitious plan of God for us. But as Charles Wesley states in “O, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing” states “Anticipate your heaven below and know that love is heaven” we must anticipate the heavenly reality. We need to be as ambitious as God to make this the reality in our churches.

We must get beyond thinking that ministry to the poor is sending a mission team out once in a while to a poor area to build porches and roof houses. We must stop thinking tht ministry is throwing a biscuit out the back door and not inviting the poor to come in through the front door to worship with us. We must stop thinking that it is only the gutter drunk who needs the gospel and to be saved. There are a lot of people who have a lot of this world’s goods who are equally wretched. The worst kind of poverty is one who is unwilling to share the bountiful blessings we have received though Jesus Christ. Those who have been blessed materially, open up your hearts and richly share with those who have not enough to eat and drink. Those who are spiritually blessed, share the good news of the gospel to those who are perishing of spiritual hunger.

O Lord, help our segregated churches come together for the better and share as one in your goodness. Help us have the vision to properly discern your body. Amen.