Those Who Could Not Deny Themselves

17But in giving you this command, I don’t praise you, that you come together not for the better but for the worse. 18For first of all, when you come together in the assembly, I hear that divisions exist among you, and I partly believe it. 19For there also must be factions among you, that those who are approved may be revealed among you. 20When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. 21For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken. 22What, don’t you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly, and put them to shame who don’t have enough? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I don’t praise you. 23For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread. 24When he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me.” 25In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of me.” 26For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 27Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in a way unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. 29For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body. 30For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep. 31For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn’t be judged. 32But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. 33Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. 34But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest your coming together be for judgment. The rest I will set in order whenever I come.

Over the last two sermons I have told you that women can receive office in Christ. I have also told you that Jerome, who translated the New Testament, put his own ideas into his translation, and that women have suffered great disadvantage because of it down to this day.

To the men who complained about women, Paul answered that the decision rested with the women, and that this particular trouble in the Corinthian church was not a serious matter, since it did not arise in other churches.

He then goes on to set down an explanation of the Lord’s Supper, to make them see how foolish their conduct in the church was.

People who believe in Jesus Christ and yet cannot deny themselves behave little differently from the people of the world, who do wrong because they do not know Christ. So Paul wanted to awaken them to what it means to believe in Christ, and to the heart with which God’s born-again children ought to live.

He did this because their conduct could change only if they understood, as Paul did, the heart Christ wanted his disciples to have when he instituted the Lord’s Supper.

The members of the Corinthian church were members of the one body of Christ, yet they gave no thought to the suffering of their brothers and sisters. They acted for themselves alone, no differently from the world, and felt no guilt whatever.

Corinth had many wealthy residents, and also many poor people who lived as servants of the wealthy.

To have food, clothing, and shelter, the poor had no choice but to do whatever their masters commanded. The rich, believing that money settled everything, treated the poor with contempt.

That is how the world lives, in bonds of master and servant.

In the world, because of the difference in rank, the poor had no choice but to obey, even when their master was a brother in the faith. But in church it was different.

It was different because the church is a place where people are judged by faith, and there everyone must take off the world’s outer garments and serve one another as members, with Christ at the center.

But coming into the church did not change the way they saw things.

The reason is that unless they counted all their worldly power as refuse and threw it away, as Paul did, their old ways would show themselves in the church just as before.

The habit of taking it for granted that others would wait on them in the world came with them into the church, and they displayed the same selfishness that gives no thought to anyone else. Perhaps the reason a church is shaken and in uproar is the boasting, the greed, and the cravings of people like these, who have not been born again.

People who are honored in the world as tycoons, as men of power, as graduates of fine schools, expect their fellow believers to recognize them and lift them up in church as well.

As I always tell you, in the church we must take off the world’s outer garments.

Not only in church but in our life out in the world, we who have put on Christ must always humble ourselves and lay ourselves down. Only then can we become new creations.

However far we have risen in the world, whatever high title we hold, in Christ we are nothing but sinners forgiven and saved through Jesus’ sacrifice.

This is because God does not make high position in the world a condition of salvation.

A fine education, or a doctorate earned by mastering a single field, is still only the knowledge of the world. Because it is not the spiritual word, it does nothing to bring anyone to salvation.

Those who come into the church and show the pride that demands recognition, or who foolishly want to be exalted, only throw the church into turmoil, and they will be sternly rebuked by God and by Paul.

Some churches, when there is a national election, have candidates stand before the pulpit and give speeches, or the pastor becomes involved in politics and recommends a particular person.

But the church is not a place for proclaiming the affairs of the world; it must proclaim the word alone. And because our citizenship is in heaven, we must not carry the problems of the world into the church.

As you will know if you read the Old Testament, it is God who sets both good men and wicked men on the throne, and it is God who uses earthly kings to lead his people in the way of faith.

Unless God permits it, the people cannot change the world’s kings and rulers by their own efforts.

When God’s people serve him in faith, good rulers will arise; when they walk the way of sin, wicked rulers will arise.

Once we grasp this, we will see how foolish it is for the church to labor for secular politics.

If you have received Christ and come to understand this truth, you must live by Christ’s word for the sake of your salvation.

But some among the Corinthian church could not shed the habits of the world and behaved carelessly.

Rather than seeking harmony and oneness with the saints, who are members of Christ, they thought and acted only for their own gain. In the end they threw the church into confusion and fell into the sin of failing to show forth Christ’s grace and sacrifice.

How wise, after all, can a human being be who has sinned against God the Creator?

All that a person owns belongs to God, so there is nothing to be proud of.

Unless we believe that all of it is a tool God has entrusted to us, we will end up settling comfortably into the world.

1 Corinthians 11:22

22What, don’t you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly, and put them to shame who don’t have enough? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I don’t praise you.

Seeing what the wealthy had done, Paul rebuked them: such conduct despised God’s church and put to shame those who did not have enough.

In those days the church did not prepare food and serve the congregation as it does now. Each believer brought food from home, and they shared it.

Those who were well off would have brought plenty, while the poor would often have been unable to bring anything.

Things being so, the wealthy would have needed to be generous, either bringing more food for the poor or waiting so that everyone could eat together.

But those who had come into the church without giving up the habits of the world had no consideration for the poor. Having time to spare, they came to church early and ate up all the food, and some drank so much wine that they made a drunken spectacle of themselves.

Servants and the poor, on the other hand, could come to worship only after finishing their work, so they could not help arriving late.

They came to church to worship God, of course, but the joy of sharing the food their brothers and sisters had brought must also have been great.

In the world it was unthinkable for master and servant to share food at one table, which is why living in Christ was such a blessing to these people.

But the behavior of those who had not been born again caused some in the church to stumble. Love among the saints dried up, and more and more of them left Jesus.

When this happened, someone who cared for the church asked Paul for help.

They could not restrain the people who were disturbing the church and had to ask Paul for help, which suggests that the officer charged with discipline was a poor person.

The rich found it galling that a poor person who served them in the world should, simply because they had been given an office, presume to teach their own master the Scriptures.

In the church, whatever we own in the world, we must accept discipline as members of the congregation. Only then do we have the chance to understand God’s will and be born again.

But the reality is otherwise. When a person who is poor by the world’s measure rebukes a rich one, the rich one takes offense, whatever the office, and even turns against them, and so spiritual oversight becomes hard.

If one of the world’s powerful comes to church and does not know its teaching well, or acts against God’s will, the officers must be able to discipline them.

But if pastors cannot bring themselves to rebuke the wealthy, for fear that the church will suffer financially should they leave, then that soul cannot be saved, and the church itself cannot help but rot.

Paul boldly confronted them: Don’t you have houses to eat and drink in? Self-centered behavior like theirs, he told them, was a wicked thing that despised God’s church and shamed their brothers and sisters.

For the wealthy, this was food they could always eat at home with ease. The poor brothers and sisters could eat only when the others shared what they had brought in faith.

God delights to pour out grace on us who are poor in spirit.

In the same way, if the wealthy have the faith that delights in sharing with brothers and sisters in need, the church will always be a church of peace, serving and sharing.

Acts 2:42-47

42They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer. 43Fear came on every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44All who believed were together, and had all things in common. 45They sold their possessions and goods, and distributed them to all, according as anyone had need. 46Day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, 47praising God, and having favor with all the people. The Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved.

When the saints sold their property and shared it so that the gospel could be spread, as Barnabas did, theirs was a devotion the world could never match.

In the early church it was common to see a faith that did not cling to its possessions, that gave to brothers and sisters according to their need, and that, seeing their hardship relieved, gave thanks to God all the more.

When the people of the world saw this faith in the early Christians, they were astonished, and fear came on them, because things seldom seen in the world had come about through Christ.

The early church thought of its brothers and sisters, members of the one body, before itself, and put the church before self. That picture in itself revealed the glory of Christ.

They showed the holiness of people who had cast off the selves that lived in the world, by the world’s law, the way the world lives, and had been born again as children of God.

Their faith looked to Christ alone, without regard to wealth or rank, and it saved more souls than could be counted.

The saints set an example of faith, so as not to hide God’s glory in the church; and as the apostles proclaimed the gospel and did wonders and signs, the church began to grow.

When pastors preach the true word and their people show an example of faith in their lives, God blesses that church and its members all the more, and he helps many souls to be saved through the word.

Paul rebukes the church in Corinth because this good heart was missing.

Because the early Christians believed that Jesus was the Messiah and that heaven was real, they exalted Christ alone, and they saw many miracles that could not otherwise have happened in their day.

That faith gave them the courage to lay down even their lives to keep God’s word, and as citizens of the eternal Kingdom of Heaven they showed a faith the world could not match.

If you let go of faith first and hold on to the world, then however much God wants to help you, he cannot.

But if you believe in God’s power and long for his grace from a humble place, God will drive back the fierce opposition of Satan and the world. For you alone he will even change the laws of the world, cause you to meet the right people, and bless you greatly.

As 2 Corinthians 8:14 says, those who have plenty in the world should help with material needs those who are full in spirit, and those who are full in spirit should build up those who thirst spiritually. In this way we must make up what one another lacks and help one another live with equality.

1 Corinthians 11:23

23For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread.

On the day before he bore the cross, Jesus ate the Passover meal with his disciples. There he commanded them to remember the Lord’s Supper forever.

Breaking the bread and giving it to them, he said that this was his body; giving them the wine, he said that this was his blood. All of this, he told them, was deeply bound up with Christ’s atonement.

Through his broken body Jesus caused our original sin to be forgiven, and by pouring out all his blood and giving his life he showed the deep love that rescues us from death.

That broken body and that blood held both humanity’s utter betrayal and the love of God, who would not let go of sinners to the very end, for the saving of their souls.

It was atonement for salvation, to be sure, yet people betrayed Jesus to the last, and the Lord, looking on those who cast his love away, asked forgiveness for them to the very end.

1 Corinthians 11:26

26For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

The purpose of the Lord’s Supper is to realize, each time we come to the bread and the cup, why Jesus had to bear the cross, and through that realization to proclaim to the world that Christ will surely come again.

To proclaim Christ’s atonement and his return, we must put away our own cravings and live only as saints.

If Christians who have received Christ’s love and sacrifice live no differently from the world, not only will they be unable to share in the marriage supper of the Lamb, they will also receive the judgment the world receives.

For people saved by Jesus’ death to look down on a brother over food is unbelief; it fails to grasp the worth and meaning of the Lord’s Supper.

Although God sent his only Son into the world, desiring to forgive the sins of all humankind, those who have received that love and still cannot deny themselves are eating and drinking their own sin.

Eating the bread and drinking the wine does not mean we have taken part in the holy rite, nor that we have understood Jesus’ sacrifice. Only when those who come to the table truly put the word into practice in their lives have they fully taken part in the Lord’s Supper.

However highly a person is esteemed in society, the way they behave in church makes it easy to tell whether their faith is false or true. For the faith a person shows outwardly and the faith they actually hold are not the same.

Because false faith has no wisdom and is foolish, it not only falls easily into Satan’s grip but also cannot receive the help of the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of God.

False faith takes after Satan’s nature and is cunning. If we cannot discern spirits, we may be deceived, and so we must lean wholly on the Holy Spirit.

That is why Paul says in verse 19 that there must be factions in the church.

The factions Paul speaks of are not parties formed to split the church. He means that those who make the right choice by faith and those who make the wrong choice by worldly thinking will be clearly separated.

In the church, those who have understood the word live alongside those who have not yet been born again and are still worldly, so divisions are bound to appear.

When those who have God’s wisdom rebuke, as Paul did, those who have not understood the word, they are helping them, so that later on they will not be condemned with the world. Of course, being rebuked will wound our pride and leave us feeling hurt. Even so, to be saved we must receive rebuke with joy and turn back.

When I rebuke people, those who want to believe in God even a little better, and who are striving to hold on to their faith, do not sulk or flare up.

But when I rebuke someone who has shut their eyes and ears, I can feel my words coming back at me like a blade, though I spoke them with the same love.

Once a believer discerns that the pastor’s rebuke is not meant to take away the blessings they have received in body and spirit, they must heed it without reservation.

Paul was not admonishing the church in order to receive material help; he rebuked them solely for the sake of their souls. So even when the Corinthians mocked and despised the apostle, God did not rebuke Paul. The reason is that God already knew that rebuking a believer is done out of love for their soul.

If only they recognize the pastor’s rebuke as love and turn back, the weak, sickly, and sleeping parts of their spirit will awaken, and they will become instruments God uses greatly.

You must be sure of this: those who receive no rebuke are illegitimate children.

1 Corinthians 11:33

33Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

Paul told them that if they were too hungry to wait for their brothers and sisters, they should eat at home before they came.

He said this because, even if they had brought the food themselves, they had brought it to share with the other members, and so it had to be shared equally once everyone had gathered.

This is the very problem that arises in the church today.

Depending on how high or low their standing in society, how much or how little they own, some behave proudly in church. Others have faith enough to take up God’s work, yet because they are poor they shrink back, gripped by a sense of inferiority.

In Christ the most important thing is to understand God’s will and be saved. The rich, then, should become wise in humility, and the weak wise in faith, kneeling before the Lord.

You must come to understand the heart with which Christ told us to remember him in the Lord’s Supper.

Those who see God’s providence in all its greatness and breadth will meet God, who loved sinners even to the point of putting his only Son to death; Jesus, who obeyed his Father’s command and willingly bore the cross; and the Holy Spirit, who works even now so that Jesus’ atonement will not be in vain.

Only those who know how precious are the brothers and sisters they have met through God’s wonderful providence can receive God’s love.

Those who look after only themselves and their families, never asking whether their brothers and sisters have anything to eat, will never understand the meaning of the Lord’s Supper that Jesus instituted, and they will never receive its grace.

Even if it costs me something, even if I end up with a little less, I hope you will be people who give themselves for the church and for their brothers and sisters. And when someone beside you has a little less than you do, I hope you will share what you have and help them live with equality in body and spirit.

Do not hear this as a human voice telling you to hand over your property. Hear it as the word of God, telling you to care for the weakness of the brothers and sisters you have met on life’s pilgrim road. May you always humble yourselves, and may you be children of God who live as those who deny themselves in Christ.