1 Corinthians 11:17-22

October 21, 2018

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

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The sermon starts at 16:10 in the audio file.

Or, More Harm, and Good, at the Lord’s Supper

It’s one thing to trip on a step, it’s another thing to trip on a step two minutes after someone warned you to watch out for a step that lots of people trip on. It’s one thing to order Diet Coke, it’s another thing to order a Diet Coke with your fried stick of butter at the State Fair. It’s one thing to come together, it’s another thing to come together to humiliate one another; it would have been better just to stay home.

While some of the praying and prophesying in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 may have happened when the church gathered, there’s no doubt that the entire church has gathered as the church in verses 17-34. Five times in these verses, and three times in the first four sentences, Paul writes, “when you come together.” In particular the second half of chapter 11 is about coming together (physically) to share the Lord’s supper (verse 20), and Paul rebukes them for not actually coming together (figuratively) and so they were not actually eating the Lord’s Supper (spiritually). One commentator called the scene “a theatre of discord” (Godet, quoted by Garland). It is possible that coming together can do more harm than good.

In the first half of the chapter Paul commended the Corinthians for their orderliness in recognizing appropriate distinctions. In the second half of the chapter Paul criticizes the Corinthians for their disorderliness in regarding inappropriate distinctions. The first half is about head coverings, the second half is about communion. The first half is about reflecting God-given structures of authority, the second half is about reflecting anti-gospel arrangements. The first half is about honoring one’s head, the second half is about humiliating one’s brother.

Verses 17-34 are all about communion, and especially about how the Corinthians were eating and drinking in an “unworthy manner” (verse 27, and the background of that claim is described in the first paragraph, verses 17-22). Most of the instruction I’ve heard about communion, and it has usually had much more to do with the nature of the elements more than the nature of the supper itself, has started in verse 23 and finished in verse 32. These are the only NT verses that repeat the Lord’s instructions when He instituted the ordinance, so that’s significant. These verses describe the consequence of unworthy partaking as sickness and death, which is also significant. And while acknowledging that “unworthy manner” could cover a variety of manners, the verses that bookend the instruction and exhortation, verses 17-22 and 33-34, are critical to defining what sort of manner is unworthy.

To be sure, the Corinthians needed correction. But as true as it is that those who administer the sacrament of communion should take this passage seriously, and so teach and warn partakers about the dangers involved, it is also true that not every believer and not every church that comes to eat and drink the Lord’s supper has the Corinthians’ sins. The Corinthians came together in a way that undermined the gospel, and there is more than one way to undermine the gospel. Many Christians served themselves first rather than their brothers and so failed to honor Christ who gave Himself for others. But many Christians today beat themselves up through miserable introspection when by Christ’s wounds we are healed. Getting drunk at communion is not the gospel, and neither is dumpster diving to find sin to feel bad about.

In verses 17-22 we see the disorder and division when the church came together, and it did more harm, and good.

Rebuke (verse 17)

The previous paragraph stands out in the letter for its positivity and p[...]