Bible Studies for Life
Associate professor of divinity, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University
When Worship Dishonors God
1 Corinthians 11:17–34
Worship Is Dangerous
Our God is very serious about how He is worshiped, very serious about the Lord’s Supper. Some at Corinth were physically ill and some had even died, not, according to our passage, merely because of the common mortality that all sinners share but because some of them were eating the bread and drinking the cup of the Lord “in an unworthy manner.” Surely it behooves us who, according to the invitation and command of our Lord, partake of the Lord’s Supper to inquire further about this matter. How did the Corinthian believers’ practice of the Lord’s Supper so offend their Lord that it resulted in sickness and death?
It seems that some of the wealthier members of the church brought in expensive food, ate it in front of their poorer brothers and sisters without sharing and then went on to consume alcohol to the point of intoxication and basically turn the celebration of the Lord’s Supper into their own little private drunken party — that’s what they did. Because of this appalling spectacle, the apostle Paul could say, “When you come together in one place, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat.”
Righteous Indignation
Paul drives home the depth of the offense committed by these wealthier Corinthians by recalling the words of institution he had received from Jesus and had passed on to the Corinthians — “The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’” How does Paul’s remembrance of Jesus’ words of remembrance expose the seriousness of the offense of the well-to-do Lord’s Supper partiers at Corinth?
When my father was 5 years old, he found matches, lit the dry ground on fire and sustained second- and third-degree burns as a result. Many skin graft surgeries and trips to the doctor followed that tragic accident. My father could not walk for many months. People, mainly his mother, had to carry him. Many years later in my hearing, should my father speak to his mother in a manner she deemed inappropriate, she would often say, “How can you speak that way to the one who carried you after you burned your leg?”
Up to Our Necks in Bodies
Something of the righteous indignation that prompted these reprimands from my grandmother also informs these words of our Lord where the Corinthians are concerned: “This is my body!” It is as though Paul wants the offending Corinthian believers to hear the Lord Jesus saying, “How dare you, whose sins required the breaking of my body and the spilling of my blood, treat your brothers and sisters, also members of my body, with such contempt!” Don’t forget that in the next chapter, Paul will teach that every believer is a member of the body of Christ. It is as though Jesus is saying, “You do this in remembrance of me; you remember my death until I come again. I gave my body so that you could be part of my body, and now you treat my body this way!” When Paul identifies the actual content of the offense being given by the wealthy and callous Corinthian believers, his words would have cut them to the quick: “For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.”
Self-examination of a Particular Sort
Growing up in the church, my pastor, according to the clear teaching found in our focal passage, prompted the members of the congregation to “examine yourselves” before partaking of the Lord’s Supper. He seemed to have in mind a fairly general self-examination in which each would-be participant would consider whether confession of sin to God was in order prior to the taking of the bread and the cup. But according to our passage, it would seem that a more specific self-examination is in order, namely “How am I treating my brothers and sisters in Christ within this local body of believers? How do things stand between us members of the body of Christ that was broken in order to make us brothers and sisters?” There, it would seem, is where the danger lies and the repentance is called for.
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