1 Corinthians 11:17-22 (NIV)
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 is 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 shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!
In this section of Paul’s letter, he focuses on a central portion of the Church fellowship: the Lord Supper. The elders in the Corinthian Church were troubled, because the single most unifying event, sharing together the bread and the wine signifying the body and blood of Christ, had become a place where the fractures and divisions in the church were most prominent.
Paul had already acknowledged the divisions and sectarianism that had arisen in the Church at Corinth (1:10-17) and pointed the whole Church back to a clear and unified focus on Jesus, their one and only Savior, as the solution. But there was something even more insidious at work here, something far more destructive: self-centeredness pushing aside agape love.
When the Church came together to share the Lord’s Supper, there was a scramble among the believers to get to the head of the line, and those at the front took large portions of the bread and the wine, filling their bellies, getting drunk, and leaving little or nothing for those at the back of the line. And Paul was aghast!
As Paul notes, the normal procedure in Churches where the expected agape love is present in the hearts of the believers is for everyone to wait until all are gathered, and then to ensure that everyone received a portion before the actual eating and drinking took place. That way the slow, the small, the infirm, and those who were ministering to others were not left out. They were in fact lifted up to be equal to the fast, the large, the healthy, and those who had no responsibilities. It was love in action, putting others first.
Paul’s judgment on those in the Church who are acting in self-centered ways seems harsh to modern ears, but all of it is true. By their focus on themselves and their lack of concern for their brothers and sisters in Christ, they are despising the Church of God, and humiliating the poor in their midst. And it must stop!
Father, we do things differently than this today in most congregations, with the small pieces of bread and sips of wine or juice pre-portioned. But there are other ways in which those same strong indicators of lovelessness manifest themselves, such as at potlucks, where some at the front of the line are tempted to pile their plates high without regard for those at the end of the line. It betrays a strong focus on oneself, and a lack of mindfulness of others — a big problem from your perspective. It also reveals an attitude that militates against the strong unity that is needed to bind the Church strongly together and enable us to do the work we are called to. Help us all, Lord, to keep our eyes open for these troublesome indicators, not just in others, but in ourselves as well, and to deal with them quickly and conclusively any place they are found. Amen.