Many are Weak and Sickly

What is the favorite thing to do when Christians get together?  Well, bring out the food and eat of course.  Seemingly things haven't changed in two thousand years.  The Apostle Paul had to spend some time in his first letter to the Corinthian church to correct some things that were not pleasing to God.

I'm speaking of the last half of Chapter 11 where Paul deals with the Eucharist, the communion-meal which represented the Lord's Supper.  The Eucharist proper was originally celebrated as a private expression of devotion usually in connection with a common meal.

In this communion-meal of the first century it became a social fellowship to which each person or family brought their own provisions to eat.  The Christians in Corinth were accustomed to meet together on the Lord's Day, Sunday, the first day of the week as believers do today.  It was after this common meal that the Eucharist was celebrated.

But a problem developed ...

1st Corinthians 11:20-21 ... "When you come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper.  For in eating every one taketh before others his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken."

The phrase ... "this is not" ... should be read ... "it is not possible."  In fact, Paul may have been saying ... "You cannot eat the Lord's Supper in this manner."  

Albert Barnes, the old American Presbyterian biblical scholar and theologian explains the meaning of this expression this way ...
 
"Though you come together professedly to worship God, and to partake of the Lord's supper, yet this cannot be the real design which you have in view.  It cannot be that such practices as are allowed among you can be a part of the celebration of that supper, or consistent with it.  Your greediness in partaking of the food and not in common; your intemperance in getting drunk, cannot be a celebration of the Lord's supper.  Whatever therefore, you may profess to be engaged in, yet really and truly you are not celebrating the Lord's Supper."

The problem was that even though it was customary in Corinth to eat a meal together as Christ did with His disciples during Passover; at this meal each party in Corinth sat apart and ate their own food when it was ready.  The result was that some began before the others were ready, and many had been drinking too much wine, while the poor, coming without much food were still hungry when the Eucharist celebration began.

This meant that those still hungry would partake of the Eucharist ... "the body and blood of Christ" ... for their meal because many others would not share their food.

Many of the poor came for no other reason but to partake of the common meal, but because so many would not share ... the end result left to the poor was to eat their fill of the Eucharist ... the bread and wine symbolizing the body and blood of Christ.

This may have been the poor's chief objective, to eat food, and not the Lord's supper ... but the whole Corinthian church acted in such an inappropriate way, not waiting for one another, nor keeping within the bounds of sobriety, indulging their appetites to such a degree ... they were unfit for any of them to partake of the Lord's supper.

Paul continues in 1st Corinthians 11:22 ... "What?  Have you not houses to eat and to drink in?  Or despise you 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."

The conduct of the Corinthians made it impossible to eat the Lord's Supper in any way but in ... an unworthily manner ... and there would be a price to pay for that.

1st Corinthians 11:27-30 ... "Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, (irreverently) shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.  For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, (irreverently) eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.  For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep."

These four verses cause a lot of weak Christians to not receive the Eucharist.  The excuse is ... "I am unworthy to partake of this holy ordinance."  This is an incorrect understanding of this scripture.

Many people seem to suppose the word is "unworthy" ... referring to their personal qualifications, to their "unfitness" to partake of it, rather than to the manner in which it is received.  The word is "unworthily" not "unworthy."  Unworthily, has reference to the lack of respect and in the irreverent manner of observing the ordinance ... not to their personal qualifications or fitness.

While it is true that in and of ourselves we are all "unworthy" to come to the table of the Lord ... but if you are a "born again" believer, weak or not, Jesus has made you worthy through His own blood ... which is the purpose of the communion service, to remember and celebrate that very fact.

Now ... because of how irreverently they partook or received the Lord's supper in such a careless manner, Paul told the Corinthians ... "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep."

Would I be correct in saying, it looks to me that the obvious interpretation of this scripture is clearly that God, directly or indirectly ... either sent or allowed sickness to come to them, even to the point of death ... because of the "unworthily" manner they partook of the communion supper.
 
I believe the Apostle Paul is saying that this is an expression of God's displeasure and judgment for their improper manner in receiving the Eucharist ... "the body and blood of Christ ... not discerning the Lord's body."

Paul goes on with this warning in verses 31-32 ... "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world."

These are strong words from this Apostle ... for he knew and understood the value of the body and blood of the Son of God that was given for our salvation.

I wonder just how many believers truly understand ... "the value and worth" ... God places upon celebrating the communion supper?  It is the most important and sacred ordinance instituted in the New Testament Church.

Do not enter into it lightly ... there are consequences if you do.



Comments welcome.