
February 2, 2025|Come Together For The Better|1 Corinthians 11:17-34
John-Daniel Cutler
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As we continue our look at the letter of 1st Corinthians, we come to a shift in topic by the apostle Paul, after wrapping up his treatment of food offering to idols. Chapter 11 marks this shift, beginning in verse 2. 1 Corinthians 11:2 (ESV) 2 Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.
Verse 2 is interesting. Paul has been systematically dealing with problems in the Corinthian church and he is far from done with addressing the problems in the church, but he pauses to commend them or praise them that they are maintaining the traditions. What kind of traditions did he deliver to them and are they maintaining? Perhaps it is the…
Regularly gathering on the Lord’s Day. Setting aside a portion of their finances to support the church. Speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Devotion to the public reading of scripture. Probably includes the practice of baptism and observance of the supper.
In essence, although there are many challenges and problems, he is thankful that the church is holding fast to its calling to gather and to proclaim Christ.
The reason I think this is the idea Paul has in mind is that from 11:2 to 14:40 Paul is going to be addressing what happens when the church is gathered together. He has been addressing how the church is to act in the world and towards one another and now he switches to how they are to conduct themselves in the gathering. It makes sense therefore, for him to praise them that they are continuing to meet and in some semblance keep what he has delivered to them, however, out of control and wrong some of their practices are. In this section of the letter dealing with the gathering Paul is going to address the topics of head coverings, the Lord’s Supper, spiritual gifts, and orderly worship.
However, we have to understand the larger context of his instructions concerning the gathering. He has not abandoned the idea of managing the tension between personal freedoms verses corporate responsibility that we looked at in the issue of food offered to idols. I don’t want us to lose that thought as we move through the various difficult and possible contentious topics Paul is going to cover. With that said, please open your Bibles to 1st Corinthians 11:17.
Now if you are a regular attender you will notice that we have skipped over verses 3-16. I want to assure you we are not simply moving past that but rather, since we had our observance of the Lord’s Supper scheduled for today, we are going to go to what Paul says concerning it and then next week move back and address the topic of head coverings in worship that Paul deals with in verses 3-16.
When we think about the topic of coming together as the church, when we think about our experiences, prayerfully, they are mostly positive. I know that after having gathered with you I am often encouraged as well as refreshed. I love gathering with you. From hearing you sing together, to watching the kids gather at the front, to fellowshipping with you before and after. Sundays are my favorite day of the week. I think I often just take for granted that coming together as the church in this place is good for me and good for you. It is good for our walk with Christ, it is good for our souls. But what if that wasn’t the case. What if when we came together it was actually not to our advantage, but to our harm? What if the way we were doing things together was dishonoring to God and hurtful to one another? I hope that it is never true of us, but we have such a case today as we look in on what is happening in the Corinthian gatherings. But whether it is true of not is not primarily up to the Pastor or Elders, the teachers and volunteers, it is up to each of us individually by how and why we come together. It is important to remember that Paul is not writing a private letter to the leadership of the church but rather to the corporate body of individual believers that make up the Corinthian church.
As we have already noted, in this section of scripture in particular, Paul is going to address their corporate observance of the Lord’s Supper and how each individual is participating in it. Using that as our focus this morning I want to show you three areas in our text that will keep us from coming together for the better.
The first area Paul addresses is that they have…
I. A LACK OF UNITY IN THE BODY
This will become clear as we read verses 17-22 together this morning. If you have your copy of God’s word, I encourage you to follow along.
1 Corinthians 11:17–22 (ESV)
17 But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. 18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, 19 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. 20 When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. 21 For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
This is hardly the first time Paul has addressed their lack of unity. From some of the opening verses, Paul tells them that he has heard about the quarreling among them and their division across party lines. I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cephas, or I follow Christ. He identifies that these divisions are from jealousy and strife because they are living in the flesh. In chapter 6 Paul brings up the shameful practice that some were engaged in when they took their in Christ before unbelieving courts to settle legal matters rather than dealing with them in the church. We see division over the issue of marriage, where some are saying ‘you must get divorced and be single’ and others saying ‘you need to get married’. Then of course we have been seeing the divisions over the issue of food offered to idols over the last couple of messages. But I would argue, the lack of unity on clear display in the observation of the supper is by far the most concerning.
Paul says first off, when you come together as a church, you aren’t actually coming together, because I hear that there are divisions among you. What Paul exactly means by ‘and I believe it in part’ is hard to understand. Does he mean that he recognizes that the report he received may not be the whole story? That is to say, I believe that it is at least partially true, but I am hoping that it is not as bad as it sounds? The difficulty is that it could also be translated as ‘And I believe a certain report’, as in, I hear there are divisions and I believe that report. Either way, where Paul goes from here is not over all affected either way you choose to understand it. Whether he believes that it is partially true or he believes the report in its totality, he says in verse 19, that in the church, there must be factions among you. The unfortunate reality is that there will always be tares mixed in with the wheat, there will always be genuine believers ad unbelievers, mixed together in the church. I think that is why Paul says it is necessary, or there must be’ factions among you. Why? In order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. Paul says that we can, at least in part, recognize those who are genuine and those who are not by the way they behave in the church, especially if they are divisive.
Listen to what Paul tells Titus in his pastoral letter to Titus. Titus 3:8-11 (ESV) 8 The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. 9 But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. 10 As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, 11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned. Paul left Titus in Crete, in Paul’s words, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—
During the strengthening and establishment of these bodies if Titus came across a divisive person who refused to stop after two warnings, Titus was to have nothing more to do with him, because by his actions he was self-condemned. In the same way, here, Paul is saying that the divisiveness in the church is evidence that some are genuine and some are not. Paul does not camp out here but moves on to some of the ways that the factions are evidenced in their observance of the Lord’s supper.
Notice in verse 22, that what is supposed to be a central and uniting aspect of our corporate worship as a body has been reduced to a shameful, divisive, and Christ dishonoring experience for the church. So much so that Paul cannot find anything in their observation to commend. He can neither approve of it or praise any part of it. Let’s look at the way Paul describes their observance of the supper.
For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. For us to fully understand this, we need to understand the different nature of the gathering in the 1st century. Two things are particularly noteworthy. Most of the time, in these towns, there was no large space that could accommodate the church so they met in homes. From what I understand from the history is that there would often be a wealthy or prominent member of society that upon being converted would provide their house for worship. Second, the observance of the Lord’s Supper was tied to the love feast or a shared meal. From historians, we have an account of the early church gathering pre-dawn on Sundays, outside to sing psalms and praise God and then after working gathering in the evening for worship and fellowship, including the love feast. Now imagine, in the congregations of Corinth there were rich and poor, free and slave, essentially, the haves and the have nots. According to Paul, it seems that when the poorer Christians arrived, the wealthier ones had already gone ahead and eaten, leaving nothing for the poor. So extensive was their selfishness that some were consuming so much of the wine that they got drunk, we can imagine then that they likewise over indulged on food, leaving others hungry. How after all of this has happened are they supposed to pass a morsel of bread and a sip of wine and conclude that they had taken the Lord’s Supper? Paul is shocked that any Christian could behave this way and consider what they had done to be obedience to Christ. So much so that he says, whatever words you say and whatever actions you take when you are gathered, it is in fact, not the Lord’s Supper that you eat. Paul goes on to say that they are despising the Church of God and humiliating those that have nothing. The word despise is the idea of ‘thinking little of something’. In other words, is the church of God so inconsequential to you that you are only worried about yourselves?
What is the primary problem on display here that Paul is addressing? Although they may all be in one place, the people are not united as a body. It is an ‘every man for himself’ attitude that betrays the very body we belong to.
In chapter 12 Paul is going to remind them of this truth. 1 Corinthians 12:12 (ESV) 12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. This extends beyond just the Lord’s supper, it’s applicable to all the topics Paul writes about in this section, including head coverings and spiritual gifts. Yes, what we do when we gather matters. The Bible gives us instructions on the forms of worship that are acceptable and commanded by God, but how we do them matters as well. Any partiality, any division, can turn something that is meant for our good into something that dishonors Christ and harms the body. If we want to come together for the better, the first area we must guard is the unity in the body. The second area Paul addresses is that they have…
II. A LACK OF ULTIMATE PURPOSE IN MIND
We see this in verses 23-26 where Paul goes back to the basics of what the supper is and why we do it. Let’s pick up in verse 23 and read together.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (ESV)
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 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.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
They were incorporating the supper into these divisive and shameful love feasts, seemingly forgetting the purpose of observing it in the first place. So Paul begins at the beginning. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you. It is important that they see that when Paul instituted the Lord’s Supper in Corinth, it was not Paul who came up with it, but rather he had faithfully passed on what he had received from the Lord. We do not take the supper because I think it is a good idea, we don’t even take the supper because we all think it is a good idea, we take the supper because we have been commanded to by our Lord Jesus Christ.
And if it is not ours in the first place, then we must be careful that we are observing it in obedience to Christ and for His purposes. Let’s walk through Paul’s reminder. On the night when he was betrayed- This calls to mind that this is infinitely more than just an empty ritual instituted by Christ with his disciples in an upper room. Christ is just hours away from being betrayed, arrested, beaten, taken through mock trials, and ultimately nailed to a Roman cross. And he knows it is coming. He has purposefully and determinedly walked towards this hour. But rather than being consumed with fear or trepidation, he patiently and lovingly shepherds his disciples, giving them a way to understand the meaning of his impending death as well as a way to regularly meditate and reflect on it. When he had given thanks- During the passover, prayers were said at set points during the feast. It is highly likely that Jesus would have said “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, ruler of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.” He broke it- Breaking it into pieces to be distributed. All pieces coming from the singular piece of bread. This is my body, which is for you- Especially powerful considering he had already told then he was the bread from heaven. In John 6 he taught John 6:48-58 (ESV) 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” in the same way he took the cup- there were four cups used in the passover, the third cup was after supper, called the cup of redemption where the blessing was, “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, ruler of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine. Let us gratefully drink.” The third cup was to remind them that they had been brought out of Egypt by the hand of God, the ruler of the universe and creator of all things. How were they brought out of Egypt? The passover lamb. this cup is the new covenant in my blood- This cup, Jesus says, is no longer about looking back to the physical redemption of Israel under the old covenant, but looking forward to the redemption of all of God’s people under the New covenant.
Remember, Jesus is essentially changing the passover meal right in front of these Jewish men who knew, from a young age, exactly what it consisted of, what it represented, and what was to be said during it. Twice he says…
do this in remembrance of me- do this, take the bread and drink the cup, do this, in remembrance of me. The purpose of this observance moving forward will be to call to mind me, to think on me, to remember who I am and what I have done. for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup- we are not told how often to observe the Lord’s Supper, but if we truly grasped the significance and beauty of it, I think we would probably do it every time we gathered to worship our Lord. you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes- Here Paul gives his Holy-Spirit inspired understanding of what participating in the supper truly means.
Every time you come to the table and participate in it, you are publically proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes. You are proclaiming that he is Lord and no other. You are proclaiming that his death was substitutionary for you and you have faith in what he accomplished. You are proclaiming that he is your only hope for salvation and will be the only hope for salvation, until he returns. You are proclaiming that you are in anticipation of the day when he has returned and he will once again eat and drink with his people at the marriage feast of the lamb.
Here is Paul’s theological reminder about the supper and its ultimate purpose. Are you ready? The supper is not about you, its about Christ.
By being self-serving and self-focused they were missing the very essence of not only the ordinance but of the one it represented, who himself was the one who humbled himself unto death, even death on a cross, for the salvation of his people.
But isn’t that applicable to every aspect of our worship? When we sing together, are you more worried about whether you like the song or the music style or in praising the one who died for you? When we gather together, are you more worried about getting what you want or having your way, or on ministering to those around you in Jesus’ name? When we gather who is your focus on and what purpose are you seeking? The ultimate aim of everything we do in the gathering must be the glory of God and the proclamation of our savior.
If we want to come together for the better, the first area we must guard is the unity in the body, the second area we must guard against is lesser purposes, the final area this morning Paul addresses is that they have…
III. A LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF THE LORD
This is no trivial matter for the Apostle, there is danger for the Corinthians if they continue in the way they are going. Let’s pick up in verse 27.
1 Corinthians 11:27–32 (ESV)
27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
Don’t miss what Paul says, there is such a way to participate in the supper that produces guilt rather than good. That way, he says is to eat and drink in an unworthy manner.
In a way that fails to communicate what the supper is intended to communicate. Mainly Christ’s death and all of the things we previously mentioned. Rather than reminding ourselves that we are forgiven because of the body and blood of Christ we sin against Christ by failing to rightly understand both the supper and ourselves. How painful it is to read about the very thing given to cleanse us of sin being the means by which we sin against our Lord! What are we to do in order to prevent this? Let a person examine himself, and so eat and drink. The word examine is the idea of scrutinizing something to determine if it is genuine or not. Often, I have called us to spend time asking God to search us for unrepentant sin or for unresolved anger or bitterness towards a brother or sister. And I still think those things are helpful, but I think the idea of examination goes further here. We must examine ourselves with respect to Christ’s sacrifice for believers. Verse 29 helps us understand the point of this self-examination. Paul equates examining ourselves with discerning the body. Rightly judging or rightly understanding the body.
I think Paul intentionally uses the word body here, with dual purposes. One to remind us that the bread we partake of represents the broken body of Christ, that was broken for each of us, but also that in giving his life he established a body of believers that we should do nothing to divide. One commentator said it this way.
Believers are to recognize that Jesus selflessly sacrificed his body for others and that this sacrifice was designed to make Christians a selfless corporate body.
Are we actively building up the body for which Christ died, or are we being divisive, selfish, or unloving? Paul says the gross abuse of the supper, the neglect of the poor among them, and the heathenistic way they are partaking of the supper has brought the judgment of God on them in the form of discipline. So important is our worship of Christ that the father will not allow those that are His to continue to blaspheme it. Many are weak and ill and some have died. An important reminder is that God is not sitting in heaven just waiting for you to take communion and because you forgot to ask forgiveness for losing your temper yesterday, he is going to smite you. None of us bring perfection to the table, that’s why we desperately need a savior. God knows that we are dust, he knows our frames, but he will not treat lightly those that distort the proclamation of Christ’s death through coming to the table in an unworthy manner. This is hard to hear in a culture where God is only ever portrayed as the kindly old grandfather and we imagine ourselves overly familiar with Christ. It is important to remember that Paul is not talking about eternal judgment or damnation, those that belong to Christ will always belong to Christ, but the Bible does seem to teach that God may ver well bring a temporal judgment on those that are His, sometimes even removing them in death.
Here is why I call it a temporal judgment. Paul says when we are judged and disciplined, it is so we will not be condemned along with the world. God does not discipline those that do not belong to him in the same way we do not discipline those who do not belong to us or have not been put under our care.
The author of Hebrews, quoting Proverbs says Hebrews 12:5-6 (ESV) “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” Discipline is not a sign that God does not love us but that he does. This love extends to every member of the body. If by your actions, as the Corinthians have been doing are despising the church of God, we should not expect that God would not discipline us, not only for our own good, but for the good of His church.
How do we prevent ourselves from coming together for worse? We must understand that the worship of our God is serious business, and that we are weak and prone to fail, and so we must continually be examining ourselves, not just in the supper, but every time we gather, to ensure that we have a right understanding of God and of ourselves.
Three areas we must be on guard against if we are going to come together for the better. We must guard the unity of the body, we must guard the purposes of God, and we must guard our minds and hearts against any flippant attitude towards the Lord.
Let’s pick up where Paul finishes this morning, closing with an exhortation to listen to his warning.
1 Corinthians 11:17–34 (ESV)
33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— 34 if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.
So then, because of all of that, my brothers, those that I love and cherish in the Lord, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. By waiting for one another, their focus would shift from their own plates to the plates of all those around them. As a unified body it would be hard to move forward in the kind of division and abuses they had been experiencing.
This is why we hold our elements and partake of the them together at the same time, which is certainly the letter of the law here. But what of the spirit of it? What was Paul trying to get the Corinthian church and us to see by waiting for one another? That the gathering is not about my individual experience, but it is about the corporate experience of worshipping Christ together. This is what it means to come together for the better and not for worse. When we all share a unified purpose and mind in what we are doing and when we all draw near to Christ together.
I pray that it can always be said of us that when we gathered it was for the better. Let us pray.
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