For This Reason
After years of hearing that eating the Lord's Supper unworthily was spiritual death, I spent some time reading Paul's instructions to the Assembly of Saints that we were read in church repeatedly. There was something inside me that just did not get speaking death over the church while they ate and drank the body and blood of Christ. It seemed intentional. Cruel and somehow completely backwards from what I percieved about God.
Anyway, do your own reading from a version of scripture you can understand, and read to the end of the advice!!! Don't stop when your own sense of right and wrong are satisfied because Paul was actually speaking to a very virulent and damaging selfishness in the people of God that was being practiced and accepted at church gatherings where the Lord's Supper wasn't wafers and juice but a communal Grace celebration meal.
Reading the scriptures shows us that the "Love Feast" of the Christians was popular and so was gossiped about as the social event of the week. All the people gathered with their own picnic lunch after the service and had one of those old Baptist throw downs of homemade and delicious foods. However, Paul had heard that these meals had become opportunity for those who were well off to show off and enjoy their excess plenty while many poor families brought meagerly what they could. Now, this wasn't one of those gorgeous spreads where all the gran'mama's foods were lined up on the table ready for the line of hungry brothers and sisters eating and socializing together outside their distinct groups. Oh, no. This was a place where those who had celebrated in their own little groups with their own bounty, and those who had little celebrated together with their meager meal as they all remembered the sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ for mankind.
Paul says, 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!
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!
¶
For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread
and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you.[fn] Do this to remember me.”
In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me as often as you drink it.”
For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.
¶
So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against[fn] the body and blood of the Lord.
That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup.
For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ,[fn] you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself.
Yet when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the world.
¶
So, my dear brothers and sisters,[fn] when you gather for the Lord’s Supper, wait for each other.
If you are really hungry, eat at home so you won’t bring judgment upon yourselves when you meet together. I’ll give you instructions about the other matters after I arrive.
This is a social issue that is a spirititual issue. We are not asked by Paul to examine our heart for sin!! We are asked to examine our heart toward our believer brothers and sisters.
Paul is saying the church is NOT THINKING AT ALL ABOUT CHRIST while they are celebrating the Grace of the Crucifixtion!! How are they being neglectful? By seeing no call by Jesus to sacrifice for those they judge unworthy, or outside their group, or different in culture, color or language. Our modern day solution is to kill it all together by making it another ritual of misinformation.
Selah
Comments
Post a Comment