But in the following instructions, I cannot praise you. For it sounds as if more harm than good is done when you meet together. First, I hear that there are divisions among you when you meet as a church, and to some extent I believe it. But, of course, there must be divisions among you so that you who have God’s approval will be recognized! When you meet together, you are not really interested in the Lord’s Supper. For some of you hurry to eat your own meal without sharing with others. As a result, some go hungry while others get drunk. What? Don’t you have your own homes for eating and drinking? Or do you really want to disgrace God’s church and shame the poor? What am I supposed to say? Do you want me to praise you? Well, I certainly will not praise you for this!
1 Corinthians 11:17–22
Do you notice how this passage is a natural sandwich? In the following instructions I cannot praise you . . . Do you want me to praise you? Well I certainly won’t praise you for this! The meat in the sandwich all goes together. What is it Paul is condemning? Is he going back to divisions in the church? In fact he makes the point that in some ways divisions are good because they will expose which faction has God’s approval. But no he is focusing on another practice which only compounds the divisions already there. He moves on to something he has clearly heard from those in Corinth (vs 17). Paul is thinking about the way in which communion is being practised in the Corinthian church. Remember he is beginning a section here which focuses on Communion. It is like as he is contemplating communion as it is practised in Corinth because he remembers what he has heard from Chloe and others. A practice which leaves people disillusioned with the Christian church and feeling alienated.
It seems they were gathering to celebrate communion and pigging out instead. Or they were digging in to the food and wine etc before everyone had got there. As a result some gorged themselves and others got nothing. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth. (Excuse the pun’) Maybe any taste is better than no taste. Remember the pattern in the early church was to share a meal together and break bread and share communion in conjunction with that. The Last Supper was actually celebrated in the context of a meal with the bread as the utensils and wine as well. It is like what is described here is a pot luck dinner where the luck has run out. No doubt there were some poor folk involved as well. They haven’t brought any food but neither do they get any because everyone else has scoffed what was there. As a result they feel shamed because they have come to this event and have gone away emptied handed and with empty stomachs. It doesn’t endear them to the gospel when the believers behave in a way that discredits the gospel. Especially in the light of Paul’s comments in earlier chapters related to doing anything to win some, being all things to all people and being weak to win the weak. What about going hungry to win the hungry? Some seem to have missed the point. And all of this in the midst of communion. It is a travesty; as Paul says, nothing praiseworthy here.
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