It is great to welcome you to the second episode in Series 4 of 1 Corinthians. Each series has a different topic, and we are now dealing with the question of public worship in the Corinthian church. This covers a whole series of different issues that were brought to Paul’s attention by members of the Corinthian church who came to see him, and raised concerns about things that were going on in the church. He was far away in another country, and he began to write in detail about some of these issues.  

Recap and Background 

Paul was particularly concerned for public worship, because the success of a church is often closely related to how its public meetings are conducted. It is very easy for public meetings to become frustrating and negative, and to be meetings that do not attract non-Christians because of all the problems or issues that are taking place. This is what Paul was concerned about in Corinth. He had spent 18 months there, and all the time he was evangelising. Paul was a very gifted evangelist and had been sharing the good news with people in the streets, the synagogues, the marketplaces and in people's homes. He gathered an initial congregation of up to about 200 people who had come to faith during his time in Corinth. He wanted the Corinthians to continue that momentum of witnessing to others, but that energy for witnessing and evangelism had drained out of the church because of its own internal problems. These problems were seen publicly in the way that meetings were conducted and the things that went on.  

In the last episode, I outlined what you might have seen if you had been to a meeting of the Corinthian church. There may have been 100 to 150 or more people gathered, probably in a courtyard of a big house in the city of Corinth, belonging to a member of the church. You would have seen a chaotic scene with people coming and going at different times and no obvious leadership. It is quite clear that the women were taking off their head coverings, which represented their marriage vows and marriage commitments, and that was a distraction and a problem. There were different factions. Some people brought their food and had meals there with their friends, but then they excluded other members of the church; poor people came without food.  Later, people were shouting out and contributing spiritual gifts and making their own comments in the meetings, in a random and disorderly way. Paul was alarmed by all the things that he heard. He went through the different issues that he wanted to address. The first one we looked at in the last episode, was the question of how men and women should conduct themselves in worship, particularly husbands and wives, and the respect for the marriage relationship that needed to be demonstrated in the public gathering. 

Now, in this episode, he turns his attention to another very important issue: the conduct of the Lord's Supper, sometimes called the Communion, or the Eucharist. It appears, from what we see in these verses, that things had gone very badly wrong in the conduct of Communion. 

Different Ways of Conducting the Lord’s Supper 

Firstly, reflect on your own experience. Churches have many different traditions and approaches to the Holy Communion, or the Lord's Supper. Maybe you are in a traditional church where the priest is at the front, leading in an orderly fashion. This is common in many different denominations and churches around the world. Usually there is respect during the time of Communion with sometimes silence, prayers, Bible readings, and it is a time where the church is gathered together in a sense of solidarity, as a community. ‘We are the body of Christ’, we say.  

In some parts of the world, the church operates informally. Sometimes church meetings are held in secret, and some people listening to this episode may be part of private or secret meetings, house church meetings, or informal church gatherings in countries where you don't have total freedom of religion. In that context, you will also be sharing Communion but almost certainly it will be less formal. You may be sitting in somebody’s home, and sharing together informally, in a very meaningful way. Perhaps that is your experience of Communion. There are all sorts of different ways the church celebrates the Communion. But now we need to see what was going on with the situation in Corinth. 

The Corinthians’ Chaotic Approach to The Lord’s Supper 

“In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval. So then, when you come together, it's not the Lord's Supper you eat. For when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. Don't you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the Church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? Certainly not in this matter.”  

1 Corinthians 11: 17 – 22 NIV 

You can see the incredible chaos that is being described here. It is remarkable when you think about it. There are people getting drunk on alcohol in church meetings. That is almost impossible to believe but that was the situation in Corinth. Total chaos. This is another symptom of the lack of leadership. People were doing whatever they wanted to do. Why did some people come as if they were going to have a meal out, and sit in a corner of the courtyard to eat a rich meal of food with their friends, and ignore everybody else? Paul is almost in despair when he hears the extraordinary story of what is going on in the church in Corinth regardingCommunion. 

It is no wonder that he used the expression in Chapter 7, ‘this present crisis’, to describe the situation in the church. He genuinely feared that within a short period of time, this church would no longer exist; people would be so discouraged, so confused by everything that was going on and so upset by the social divisions within the church. There was a division here between the rich and the poor. The poor people came and were not allowed to eat any of the food that came from the rich people. But Paul points out that Communion is not primarily about eating a whole meal together. ‘You eat your meals in your homes,’ says Paul. ‘When you come to worship, your primary focus is not eating a meal; it is to worship God and then take the Communion, the bread and the wine, in the middle of an act of worship.’ That is Paul’s focus. 

Paul went on to help the Corinthians to think about the foundation for the Communion service. He went back to the tradition, about what Jesus did in the first place, that he had received from the other Apostles. Paul didn't know Jesus personally; he met him on the Damascus road as the resurrected Jesus, but he did spend time with the Apostles, notably with Peter. He stayed with Peter 15 days in Jerusalem, according to Galatians, and he spent time with the other Apostles. They told him exactly how Jesus had set up the Communion. and Paul is now telling the Corinthians again what the Apostles - those who were actually presentat the Last Supper - had described. 

Jesus and The Last Supper 

“For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: 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.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.” 

1 Corinthians 11: 23 – 26 NIV 

Paul goes right back to the beginning. What did Jesus actually command? What is the basis of the Lord's Supper, or Communion? To understand this fully, we must go back into the story of the Gospels, which we covered in Word Online, in the Collection ‘The Life of Jesus’, where we looked in detail at the story of the Last Supper. I would encourage you to look at those episodes whilst you are studying this passage to help you.  

Jesus, in the last week of his life, was in the city of Jerusalem with his 12 disciples, or Apostles. On the Thursday evening of that week, he called them together for what we now call the Last Supper, or the Lord's Supper. This was the day before he died. He was celebrating the Jewish Passover meal - a traditional religious festival meal that took place every year amongst Jewish people in their family units, which celebrated the time in the history of Israel when they escaped from Egypt into the Sinai desert, and then into the Promised Land. God judged the Egyptians, but he passed over the Israelites when they sacrificed a lamb and placed the blood on the doors of their houses in Egypt. 

That is the original story. The Jews from that time onwards, ate as a family a meal with roast lamb as the central part of the meal and they called it the Passover meal. Amongst other things they ate a special bread together which they called unleavened bread - bread without any yeast. They also drank wine together. It is these two acts - eating bread and drinking wine together - that Jesus takes with his disciples to form what we now call the Lord's Supper, or Communion. He turns them into symbols of his death - his substitutionary, atoning death, using the words that Paul quotes here. “Jesus said to his disciples, ‘This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’” As each person took a small piece of bread, it symbolised Jesus' physical body, which had been given for them by Jesus' willingness to die on the cross. So, the bread represented the death of Jesus. Then the wine, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” As Jesus shared the cup of wine and they passed the cup around from person to person in the Last Supper, he said it was the sign of a new covenant. In other words, his death was bringing a new relationship between mankind and God which is the gospel based on the death of Jesus - justification by faith, the forgiveness of sins, the incorporation of all the nations into the Kingdom of God, That was what Jesus had put in place. He commanded his Apostles to keep celebrating the Lord's Supper, or the Communion, on a regular basis, to keep reminding them of what Jesus' death was all about - what their faith was all about. 

The Communion, or the Lord's Supper, is principally to remind us what the foundation of our faith is. Paul was troubled because in Corinth they had forgotten all about that. They weren't using these words. They were in a state of chaos and disagreement. Some people were drinking too much, and the whole situation was a disaster. Paul was extremely unhappy. The meetings were doing more harm than good. They were putting people off the faith. People were probably leaving the church as a result of the chaos.  

Prepare for the Lord’s Supper 

In these verses, Paul is now telling them how they should change things:  

“So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ, eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world. So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. Anyone who's hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together, it will not result in judgment. And when I come, I will give you further instructions.” 

1 Corinthians 11: 27 – 34 NIV 

These are very serious words, and a very serious situation. Paul always speaks plainly, courageously and honestly when there was a problem in the church. This is one of the wonderful things about Paul. Sometimes it makes uncomfortable reading for us. Paul believed, and knew, that the Holy Spirit of God is present when we share the Communion. His miraculous presence is there, and what Paul is encouraging people to do here, is prepare before you participate. This is not just a meal in a restaurant; this is a special religious event, a spiritual event of great importance that we need to prepare for. Because of the level of sin in the Corinthian church, Paul believed that God was disciplining the church by allowing some people to become sick who were consistently sinning. One of the points at which they were sinning was in their conduct of the Lord's Supper. 

Preparation is important. What does this preparation mean? We should turn away from any known sins before we come to the Lord's Supper. We should repent. We should put right any relationships in the church as far as we are able to do that. Don't bring your sins to the Lord's table. Prepare carefully. Be more discerning and, in particular, he said, ‘You should all eat together’. As they met in their church meetings, they weren't meeting as one group. They were probably meeting as different groups in different parts of the courtyard. That is the implication of what Paul is saying here. They weren't even acknowledging one another. In communion, we acknowledge our fellowship and our relationship, with every other believer in that meeting, as well as believers in other places, but particularly with the believers with whom we are sharing that event. We can't be divided from them. We can't have unresolved sinful issues between believers when we are taking communion without risking God's discipline in our lives. That is very important forus. It shows us the fact that the relationships between people in church communities are always of great interest to the Lord, and the Holy Spirit is very sensitive to where those relationships have been broken. We might have differences of opinion; we might have had conflicts in the past; we might see things differently; we might not like other people's personalities. We are not talking about any of those things here. We are talking about a sinful attitude towards somebody else in the meeting as you come to Communion. It was represented by division - not even talking to some other people, not sharing your food with them, not recognising them. Paul said that brings judgement. There was a great need for order in the church in Corinth.  

Reflections 

We have different experiences as Christians in different cultures, and in different denominations and traditions, of how we share Communion. There is much flexibility. We can share Communion in a variety of different ways, but Paul is indicating some underlying principles we need to consider. 

First of all, Communion or the Lord's Supper, is a regular part of church life. It should take place regularly in your church. If it doesn't do so, you need to ask the leaders why that is the case because Jesus commanded us to take Communion together regularly.  

Paul does not suggest here that people lose their eternal salvation if they bring sin into the Communion, but he does indicate that they will come under the discipline of God in their lives now, if they persist in sinful attitudes towards other believers. The Lord's Supper is for sincere and repentant Christians, not for insincere believers who carry a lot of sin in their hearts. It is a wonderful sacrament - a wonderful event, a wonderful ceremony - that Jesus has given to the Church.   

In the Communion there are four different things that we can easily gain. First, it is a place to be thankful to God. Looking up to God, is a great starting point because as you come to the Communion, you are thinking of Jesus' death - of what he has done for you. You think about your unworthiness, and you thank God. That is a wonderful part of Communion. Another great part is to look outwards at your brothers and sisters around you and affirm them. Remember them. Think about them. The third element of the Communion is to look inwards. By preparing carefully, we deal with sin as it accumulates in our life, and we put a stop to it when we come to Communion. That is very important too. Communion also looks forward. Paul says here, ‘Proclaim the Lord's death through Communion until he comes.’ We're looking forward to the time when Jesus will return and we will no longer be sharing the Lord's Supper to remind us of what Jesus has done for us, because he will be with us again.  

Thank you for sharing in this interesting and challenging episode. There are many things to think about, and I encourage you to work out what the applications are for you personally - in your context, and in your church life.