Do's and Don'ts When It Comes to the Lord's Table (1 Corinthians 11:17-34)

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.[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. [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. [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.

I. Since We Regularly Eat

In a section of the letter focused on church gatherings, and in contrast to the commendation Paul gave the Corinthians in verse 2 of this chapter, Paul's assessment is clear in verse 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.” The topic at hand here is, of course, the Lord's Supper. And just as our spiritual ancestors have done for almost two thousand years, since we regularly participate in this sacred meal as well, we should be eager to understand what God has for us here.

II. The Passage: “It is Not the Lord's Supper That You Eat” (11:17-34)

To make sense of what we find here in chapter 11, vs.17-34, look with me at how the text has been broken into paragraphs by most English translations. The first paragraph is in vs. 17-22, the second (introduced with the word “for”) runs from vs. 23-26, and the third (begins with—or at least the second word is, “therefore”...it), goes from vs. 27-32. Finally, we find a short conclusion to this text in verses 33 and 34. But let's briefly walk through each of these three paragraphs to discover exactly why Paul is writing and how he addresses the topic at hand. So...

Let me suggest that the first paragraph (vs. 17-22) focuses on the the Table polluted.

In what way was this church gathering (v. 17) “not for the better but for the worse”? Because of how they were treating the Lord's Supper. Of course, the picture Paul paints here makes no sense to us if we only think of the Lord's Supper in terms of the ritual we practice once a month, with a small wafer and a small plastic cup of juice. As many of you know, the original Lord's Supper was like the 'Last Supper' that Jesus had with his disciples the evening before his death. No. It wasn't a Passover meal, but it was a meal; a full meal. It was like our regular communion observance combined with a church potluck, with everyone bringing food to share.

But as we heard in that first paragraph, though it was meant to be a sign of their unity in Christ (cf. 10:17), in Corinth, it was a meal marked by division. Now, some division is to be expected in a struggling church, since some will be standing for what is right, while some persist in what is wrong. But the kind of division Paul writes about in verses 21 and 22 was absolutely unacceptable. Here's what was happening: some of these believers were showing up to this meal, and then just digging into their own food. Not only were they not waiting for those who were still on their way to the gathering, by they were not even sharing with those who had arrived. And some of these, probably for financial reasons, had arrived empty-handed. Look at how Paul describes the extremes (and the disparity) at the end of verse 21: “One goes hungry, another gets drunk.”

Now some in this church might have responded, “Well, I arrived on time. And... I was hungry. Why shouldn't I be allowed to eat?” But anticipating these rationales, Paul writes in verse 22, “What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in?” Paul goes on to summarize his correction and guidance in the concluding verses of this section, verses 33-34: “So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another—[and] if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home...”.

But please notice with me how Paul begins that correction and that guidance in the second paragraph, where he reminds his readers about the Table instituted.

A good number of the Corinthians seemed to be making the Lord's Supper about themselves; specifically about getting; about stuffing their faces and filling their bellies. But Paul's correction here starts where it needs to start: with Jesus, and with the 'origin story' of the Supper itself. Even though they were not treating it as such, this meal was no ordinary meal. When Paul wrote these words, the Supper was almost twenty years old, and it pointed back to that fateful evening when Jesus was betrayed, some twelve to fourteen hours before his crucifixion.

But as the Corinthians should have remembered, that meal was not first about them, it was about Jesus. And according to Jesus, the meaning of the meal wasn't first about getting. It was first about giving. Instead of putting his own body first, Jesus Christ used the broken bread to com-municate this message about the cross: “This is my body, which is for you.” As we talked about repeatedly in the last section of this letter (8:1-11:1), Jesus was concerned about the other, and concerned to the extent that he was willing to sacrifice his own body, and shed his own blood, for the good of the one in need. In contrast, some of the Corinthians weren't even willing to wait before they ate. Though their Lord had given to the point of death, they were not even willing to share food with those who had none; those who were their spiritual brothers and sisters.

In light of that, look again at verse 26: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” That is what the Lord's Supper was all about. It was all about the cross, and remembering the cross. Since literacy probably never exceeded 15-20% in the First-century, Roman world, this sacred meal, this holy habit, this ritual observance was meant to be a powerful and a regular reminder of what stood at the center of the Christian faith: “we preach Christ crucified” (1:23). Paul is, therefore, deeply disturbed and deeply disappointed by behavior that is so antithetical, so contrary, to everything Jesus did and modeled for them.

And so, after addressing the present problem of the Table polluted by returning to that past picture of the Table instituted, he understandably moves from “reproof” and “correction” to, as Paul might put it, “training in righteousness” (cf. 2 Timothy 3:16-17). So we might talk about this third paragraph as the Table executed; that is, what should the execution of this observance look like? How should each one personally carry out an observance of this meal?

The simple answer to that question is this: judge yourself beforehand, so you are not judged afterwards. Look back at verse 28: “Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” What should they be looking for in such an examination? They should be (v. 29) “discerning the body”. Okay. Whose body is Paul talking about? Their own bodies; specifically, discerning their own hunger. Remember verses 33-34? “...if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment.” And so we read what we read in verse 31: “But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.”

What could such divine judgment look like? Look at Paul's sobering answer in verse 30: “That is why many of you [Corinthians] are weak and ill, and some have died.” Was this judgment an indication that the offenders had been rejected by God, or had proven themselves to be false Christians? No. In fact, it was an expression of God's fatherly discipline: (v.32) “But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”

III. As We Come to the Table

Brothers and sisters, there is absolutely no doubt that this is a very serious issue. Because we practice the Supper on a regular basis, we definitely can lose a sense of its sacred nature; that is, all of us can be tempted to think about it as just one more thing we do on Sunday morning.

But what God has given us in this passage is a powerful reminder of how we should come to the Table. Though our situation today is not a perfect fit with what was happening in Corinth, there are important truths, important principles, that Paul is operating from when he reproves and corrects and trains these disciples regarding the Lord's Supper. Just as there are three key paragraphs in this morning's text, I see three encouragements for us and our observance of the Table.

First, when you come to the Table, carefully consider what's inside you. In verse 27, the Apostle warned his readers about eating and drinking in an “unworthy manner”. Now, it's clear from the passage what that looked like in Corinth two thousand years ago. It looked like self-centered consumption, and sometimes to the point of excess. Okay. But what about today? Since we don't regularly observe the Lord's Supper as part of a meal, how does this scenario apply to us? Well, even though hunger may not be a driving factor, there remain things inside us that can tempt us to participate in the meal in an unworthy manner; things that, as with Paul's readers, can tempt us to focus on ourselves rather than Christ. I can't give you an exhaustive list of such things. But I think we can say anything that impairs our perception, in terms of the true nature of the Table, is moving us toward that “unworthy manner”. That leads to the next point...

Second, when you come to the Table, carefully consider what's in front of you. When Paul talks about that “unworthy manner”, he does so after already describing the worthy-ness of the Supper itself. It's worthiness springs from what is memorialized in the elements: the broken body and shed blood of the the Son of God. If I went to a dinner honoring those who died in the September 11^th terrorist attacks, I'm sure you could imagine how I might conduct myself in an unworthy manner. Anything I said or did that rejected seriousness and solemnity, anything that ignored the gravity of what was being remembered, anything that treated those deaths as unimportant, or cheapened the sacrifices made by first responders, for example, would by rightly counted as “unworthy” in light of the worthiness of not one, but thousands of divine image-bearers.

How much deeper the seriousness and solemnity and gravity and sacredness of the meal where what is memorialized is the death (the sacrifice!) of THE divine image-bearer? When Jesus said do this in “remembrance” of me, he was calling us to not lose sight of what happened on that cross (i.e., brokenness, blood... for us!), AND... who it happened to (the spotless Lamb of God, the one and only Son of God, the divine sin and wrath-bearer). In those things we find our true and enduring spiritual nourishment; that we might be brought to the end of ourselves, and be filled with the grace and the fullness and the love of Christ. But think about one more point...

Third, when you come to the Table, carefully consider who's around you. In the previous chapter, Paul wrote in v. 17, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” When sin and self distort our perception of this Table, not only can we lose sight of Jesus, we can also lose sight of one another. We are united by the finished work of Jesus. The Table is a powerful reminder of that. I think it may have been easier to grasp this truth when the Supper was a full meal; when food was shared around a table. But neverthe-less, when we come to the Table, we should strive to recognize and give thanks for that oneness.

Friends, even though this isn't first-century Corinth, all of us need God's help in seeing the Table for what it truly is; so that we might receive all the spiritual nourishment he wants to provide for us as we remember Christ, and the cross of Christ. Through Paul, the Spirit spoke here to the believers in Corinth about their disturbing observance of the Lord's Supper. But if the Spirit inspired a letter to us, a letter to you, about the Table, what might it say? In what ways might you need encouragement, or maybe even correction. Let's ask God even now to speak in that very way into our hearts as we come together to the Table.