Patrick Cooley: 00:12

Thank you for listening to FirstDay. I'm Patrick Cooley. Please visit our website at www.firsttoday.us, and there you can subscribe and share and also get, the the notes. Some people like to read along with the notes. So we're gonna go ahead and do the second part of 1st Corinthians chapter 11.

Patrick Cooley: 00:35

Paul turns his attention here toward another problem within the church and that is that the Corinthians are creating problems for themselves by refusing to see the church as 1 and refusing really to seek each other's betterment. So at verse 17, Paul writes, now in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, since you come together not for better but for the worse. For to begin with, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you and in part I believe it. Indeed, it is necessary that there be factions among you so that those who are approved may be recognized among you. When you come together then, it is not to eat the Lord's supper.

Patrick Cooley: 01:21

For at the mill, each 1 eats his own supper. So 1 person is hungry while another gets drunk. Don't you have homes in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you?

Patrick Cooley: 01:37

Should I praise you? I do not praise you in this matter. Paul would ask each Christian why he or she gathers with others at Christ's table. He criticizes the Corinthians because they come to eat the Lord's supper, not for the sake of unity, not for the sake of being 1, but for the sake of distinguishing themselves 1 from the other. Remember, Apollos, I am of Cephas, I am of Christ.

Patrick Cooley: 02:09

I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas, I am of Christ. Some feel comfortable eating food sacrificed to idols because they know better and others, it seems, want to ignore the fact that Christ Jesus, there is no male or female. It should come as no surprise then to discover that the reason for the Corinthians' coming to the Lord's table for communion is as selfish and as self centered as everything else they're doing in the church. Paul cannot understand why the Corinthians are acting this way. He says, don't you have homes in which to eat or drink?

Patrick Cooley: 02:48

For at the mill each 1 eats his own supper. So 1 person is hungry while another gets drunk. They have the bread and the wine, but communion has ceased to be that and has become instead an individual affair. Its purpose as a means of creating a new community in Christ's body and blood has been lost? Or you do or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?

Patrick Cooley: 03:20

What should I say to you? Should I praise you? Paul asks. Here, Paul starts meddling in the lives of modern western Christians. In in these Corinthians' zeal to prove how strong their faith is, how in tune with God their lives has become that they can take care of their own communing with Christ.

Patrick Cooley: 03:46

Each attempting to walk closer to Christ on his or her own, they prove that they have no idea what the church of God in fact is. In fact, Paul says, they are demonstrating that they hate it. The Christianity has become a work of individual merit lacking all empathy and compassion. Based on Paul's response, what should I say to you? Should I praise you?

Patrick Cooley: 04:14

I can only reckon that these Christians were expecting a double thumbs up for their efforts towards becoming righteous. No, Paul tells them here, he will not praise them because they are doing the wrong thing at the lord's table. They're making the lord's table about themselves, each 1 about his or herself, and not about building righteousness within the entire body. Paul continues here at verse number 23, for I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you. On the night when He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread and when he had given thanks, broke it and said, this is my body which is given for you.

Patrick Cooley: 05:01

Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also he took the cup after supper and said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. These Corinthians have done the opposite of what Jesus commands here regarding his table.

Patrick Cooley: 05:31

They have forgotten Christ. The purpose of communion is to remind us of of Christ and what he has done for us and it is to empower us and to motivate Christians to be willing to do the same for others. It's not Jesus died for me so I must be awesome, but Jesus died for me so that I can lay down my life for you. Paul will return to this in his letter to the Philippians, but more on that later. Ask not what the church can do for you, but what you can do for the church.

Patrick Cooley: 06:07

The Corinthians and even we can do this because in communion, we place ourselves spiritually with the other disciples around the table in that upper room so long ago. Deuteronomy 26:5-nine states, and you shall answer and say before the Lord your God, my father was a Syrian about to perish and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number. And there he became a nation great and mighty and populous. But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us. And then we cried out to the Lord God of our fathers and the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression.

Patrick Cooley: 06:56

So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. He has brought us to this place. This passage plays an important part in the Passover celebration in Judaism. In reciting it, Jews identify them with those who have gone before and lay claim to the blessings and the attention and the promises that God bestowed upon them. In this act, they become the child, they become Jacob's child.

Patrick Cooley: 07:30

They become the victim of oppression. They are liberated by God and brought into the promised land. Paul's point to the Corinthians is that it is the same for them around Christ's table in communion. The same blessings that the disciples and the first apostles received, received, they do too when they place themselves at that table spiritually. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Patrick Cooley: 08:05

This sacrifice is ongoing. Not in the sense that Jesus dies again and again, but rather we receive from him forgiveness and ongoing sustenance to continue our journey and the mission that we have received from him. Jesus died to free us from the power of Adam's sin. And Jesus lives so that we might live and have life abundantly. John 10 10.

Patrick Cooley: 08:37

First Corinthians 11 27. So then, whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and the blood of our Lord. Let a person examine himself. In this way, let him eat the bread and drink from the cup. For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.

Patrick Cooley: 09:06

When the Corinthians take part in communion in a way that causes division for the purpose of elevating themselves or distinguishing themselves 1 for another. Some get drunk while others go hungry. When they do this, they forget the reason why it was given to them by the Lord. When they ignore the fact that this thing called communion proclaims Christ's sacrifice to establish a relationship with God for the sake of those who are unworthy to have 1. They commit sin and make a mockery of the very church that Jesus has established through his death and through his new life.

Patrick Cooley: 09:51

Verse 30, this is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep. If we were properly judging ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned with the world. Of course, Paul is not talking here about physical sickness, but about spiritual sickness and death. Visit the podcast series on James, and it dives into this topic of spiritual sickness.

Patrick Cooley: 10:23

Here, he's calling on the Corinthians to practice critical self evaluation. If we were properly judging ourselves, he says, we would not be judged by the Lord. How often do we do this as modern Christians? Do we do we do it at all? I guess things don't change that much.

Patrick Cooley: 10:45

In most churches today, both conservative and progressive, rarely do we experience the sentiment of how have I contributed to this problem. We judge ourselves worthy and gosh darn it, okie dokie. We, like the Corinthians, have made Christianity about ourselves. Why are we okay as we are? And why are we right?

Patrick Cooley: 11:14

And why we ourselves and others should accept who we are? Rather than about taking hold of the life of Christ ourselves and sharing it with others. What can the church do for me, not what I can do for Christ's church? And as he has just said that divine life is defined by Christ's death on the cross and the empty tomb, both of which the savior experienced for our sakes. Verse, 33.

Patrick Cooley: 11:51

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, welcome 1 another. If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you gather together, you will not come under judgment. I will give instructions about the other matters whenever I come. So we must make every effort to make our faith about Christ's work about others. How different would our communities be if our churches would focus on others and not on themselves.

Patrick Cooley: 12:25

If we promoted other people's closer walks with Jesus rather than practicing our faith in order to feel good about ourselves. I am Patrick Cooley, and thank you for listening to this episode of First Day. If you have any questions or comments, shoot me an email at connect at first day dot us. So until next time, blessings and goodbye for now.