Table problems

Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. – 1 Corinthians 11.17-22

The church at Corinth had really mucked things up regarding the Lord’s Table. They had taken a simple meal of remembrance and turned it into a great Agape Feast to celebrate what Jesus had done and to celebrate love.

I am sure the motive was right. This is to be all about unity so lets celebrate the love of Christ for us and our love for each other by having a big feast! That doesn’t sound bad, does it?

The problem is that it didn’t stay that simple. The flesh took over and it became more about the party than the purpose. Drunkenness and gluttony crept in. Instead of sharing food at the Agape Feast the rich brought their best and ate it themselves. The poor brought their meagre fare, if they had it, and often went hungry. They had missed the point. Paul said, kindly I think, ‘I praise you not.’

There were divisions. There were heresies. There was drunkenness and gluttony.

They had got it terribly wrong.

I hope none of us would be guilty of what the Corinthians did. We do need to be careful though that we don’t take things that start with a good and decent purpose and let them be corrupted though our desires and fleshiness. Let’s be sure that the purpose of what we do is always to glorify God and edify and care for each other.