Problems Plaguing a Local Church, Part 21
In our message, ORDER AT THE LORD’S SUPPER (1 Cor. 11:17-34), Paul addressed a second question on corporate worship dealing with Communion itself. Just as the Lord spoke order into the chaos when He created all things (Gen. 1:1-3; John 1:1-5, etc.), He continues to speak His Word (i.e. the Bible) into the church today to bring order (1 Cor. 14:33, etc.).
While Paul was pleased earlier with the fact that the Corinthian assembly sought to keep some helpful traditions (1 Cor. 11:2), God says He is not pleased with how the local church in Corinth was keeping Jesus’ mandatory ordinance of the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:17, 20, 22, etc.). To understand this section of Scripture today, we need to explain what the Agape or “love feast” was in that time- which in Corinth was taken BEFORE Communion there. In my sermon for this message, I mentioned this Agape/Love Feast is also referenced by name in the Bible in Jude verse 20 (a one-chapter book in Scripture). I misspoke. It is actually listed in Jude 1:12.
Agape is the Greek word that expresses the Lord’s unconditional, selfless love that we as Christians have received and are called to image in the world (e.g. Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 5:8; Eph. 4:32; John 3:16, etc.), and the Agape meal of that time was different than our ‘potluck’ today because it was not simply a fellowship meal, but also a charity meal for the poor. My systematic theology professor in ecclesiology and church historian Dr. Svigel explains, “Some people have said the love feast was just a potluck. No. It’s better translated- charity meal. It was often observed in conjunction with the gathered community as a way of providing for those in need by those who had plenty. It would be your benevolence fund, or collection that you would take on behalf of the poor and the needy… Don’t confuse any meal [our potluck or their Agape with] the Lord’s Supper. [Neither the] agape [of that time] or our fellowship meals [today are] the Lord’s Supper.”
In times of want, agape meals were a means of the church potentially expressing their love for the poor. Remember, in the Roman Empire and ancient times there was no such thing as food stamps. And agape meals have been used in the church at various times as a proper way to show love. We could and maybe even will need them again in our culture if/when our government is unable or unwilling to provide resources for the poor. The problem in Corinth, however, with their agape meals (which God will address here) was they were anything but loving! (1 Cor. 11:21-22). And the fact they were taken BEFORE the Lord’s Supper resulted in much of the church sharing the Lord’s Supper in an “unworthy manner” which brought God’s judgment upon them (1 Cor. 11:27, 29, etc.). So serious were problems from the agape feasts taken before the Lord’s Supper in the early church that at “the Council of Carthage (A.D. 397), they were forbidden” – Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary Dr. Ron Allen. While we do not have agape meals today before the Lord’s Supper, we still need to “examine” ourselves when coming to this sacred ordinance so we also do not have to be corrected by our heavenly Father (1 Cor. 11:28, 30, etc.).
Problems at the Agape meal in that time were a direct result of “divisions” (social groupings where the rich were not sharing with the poor, 1 Cor. 11:18, 21) and “factions” (theological differences which also resulted in people not sharing with one another, 1 Cor. 1:11-12; 11:19, 21). People brought their “own supper” from home but instead of sharing with one another they hoarded it by “eating… ahead of others” and some even got “drunk” which is clearly sin too (1 Cor. 11:21; Eph. 5:18, etc.). [Note: their “own supper” here is NOT the Lord’s Supper, but the agape meal that preceded it in that day as it is quite obvious that hoarding the small piece of bread from the Lord’s Supper would not make much difference physically to a “hungry” person and it also would be impossible to get “drunk” from the small cup of wine/juice there.] This selfishness and sin at the agape meal displeased God and was leading to their discipline (disapproval) by Him when they took Communion afterward (1 Cor. 9:27; 11:19, 22, 27-30).
Paul then explained and reminded them and us what the Lord’s Supper is (1 Cor. 11:23-26). Communion or the Eucharist in the Greek is “from the Lord” Jesus Himself and a command that we are to observe until He returns for the church (i.e. “take, eat…”, 1 Cor.11:23, 26; Matt. 26:26-27; Mark 14:22-23; Luke 13-15, etc.). It consists physically of a small piece of bread (1 Cor. 11:23-24) and a small cup of wine or juice (depending on a person’s tradition, 1 Cor. 11:25) which represent the body and blood of Jesus (1 Cor. 11:23-25). The bread obviously on that Passover night at Jesus’ last supper when He handed it to His disciples DID NOT become His literal finger or toe! Nor did the cup of wine become His literal blood (i.e. He did not have an IV going into the cup with His blood). But they represented those things for us to remember the Gospel and what He has done for us (e.g. “is” in Grk = estí 1 Cor. 10:4; 11:7, 24, 25; John 8:12; 10:9, etc.). That is, when Jesus says ‘This is My body’ He meant, ‘This represents My body” (1 Cor. 11:24) as we remember Him. His body was broken for our sin. He paid the debt no other could pay… and it was a body offered in our place (2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:3; Heb. 10:5-7; Col. 2:9, etc.). Christ is remembered not as a great example, or even just as a good teacher or prophet but as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and saves all who will come to Him by grace to the uttermost (John 1:29; 3:16; Acts 4:12, etc.). He is the one who brought us into the New Covenant promised from the beginning of creation (Gen. 3:15; 1 Cor. 11:25; Heb. 9:22, etc.) in which we are justified and forgiven- becoming His children forever (Heb. 8:10, 12; Jer. 31:33, 34, etc.). The broken bread reminds us of Christ’s body given for us; and the cup reminds us of His shed blood (Isa. 53:6; 1 Pet. 2:24, etc.). When we participate in this ordinance (the Word says “as often as” 1 Cor. 11:25-26), we share in (koinonia) deep personal fellowship with God and one another as Jesus is present in a special way and God makes us more like Him. At the same time, we “proclaim the Lord’s death [i.e. the Gospel] till He comes” for us (1 Cor. 11:26). Just like the ordinance of baptism, the Lord’s Supper is an enacted sermon providing sanctifying grace for God’s children who participate in it in a worthy manner…
“Therefore” we are to “examine” ourselves each time before we “come together” at Lord’s table (1 Cor. 11:17, 18, 20, 27-28, 33, 34). We are already, as His children, worthy of God by grace- having been forgiven by His blood, but the Word shows us here we can (if not careful) participate in this ordinance “in an unworthy manner” (1 Cor. 11:27, 29). Obviously, the brothers and sisters who were getting “drunk” in the agape feast before this and withholding food from the “hungry” were doing this as well as those who were worshiping and not turning from idols in their lives (1 Cor. 10:14; 11:21, etc.). One of the purposes of the Lord’s Supper is for us to confess and judge sin in our lives so our fellowship with God and one another (our intimacy) in the body of Christ is good (1 John 1:9). When we “examine” or “judge ourselves” it means God does not have to “judge” or discipline us (1 Cor. 11:28-29, 31). Chastening is God’s loving way of dealing with His sons and daughters to encourage us to mature (Heb. 12:1-11, etc.). Because of unconfessed sin “many” Christians in the church there were “weak and sick” and some even died when taking the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:30). “Sleep” here (Grk. κοιμάω koimáō) is a euphemism for death and ALWAYS refers to the physical death of believers in the Bible (1 Cor. 11:30; John 11:11, 12; Acts 7:60; 1 Cor. 15:6, 18, 20, 51; 1 Thes. 4:13, 14, 15; 2 Pet. 3:4, etc.). Some Christians had died physically and, in this case, here it refers to an untimely death. “For this reason,” in verse 30, emphasizes the fact that this discipline from the Lord on His children here was because of failing to examine themselves (failure to judge their sin) at the time of the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:30). God exercises this loving discipline because we are His and He does not treat us as the world who will be “condemned” (1 Cor. 11:31-32). Christians are judged/disciplined by their heavenly Father in the scope of space and time and sometimes even immediately as in the case of this passage here (1 Cor. 3:13-15; 2 Cor. 5:9-10, etc.). He does this so we “may not be condemned [Grk. κατακρίνω katakrínō- to eternal destruction in hell] with the world” because we have been saved by grace (1 Cor. 11:32; Eph. 2:8-9, etc.).
In view of all of this, God tells the Corinthians practicing the love feast in that time to “wait for one another” (1 Cor. 11:33). Don’t hoard your food! Share! Wait for one another! Be kind to each other! Oh, and by the way, don’t get drunk at the love feasts in the church so you are prepared for the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:21-22, 28, 33-34, etc.). He then said he would “set in order” everything else when he comes (1 Cor. 11:34). God will also do this when He comes for us and we want to be ready for Him (1 Pet. 1:13; 1 Cor. 9:27; 11:19; 1 John 2:28, etc.). Is there anything you need to get right before God today so He can form Christ more in you? (Heb. 12:10-13, etc.).