Recently, we have been seeing Paul make a shift in this letter to this church that was located in Corinth to address their failure to reflect Christ or follow His teachings during their times of worship together. And as we continue to look at this letter, we see Paul reveal for us another way that this group of people who claimed to be Christians was failing to reflect Christ or follow His teachings during their times of worship together. So let’s begin by looking at this problem that was occurring as they gathered together for worship, beginning in 1 Corinthians 11:17:
But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper, for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you.
Paul begins this section of his letter to the church at Corinth by addressing a major problem that was occurring when the members of the church gathered together for their times of worship. What was occurring at the church was so disturbing that it was hurting its image and hindering its influence in the community.
To understand what Paul is communicating here as to the true nature of the problem, we first need to understand how and when worship occurred in the early church. At Corinth, like many cities that planted new churches, the church began by meeting in homes; they did not have sanctuaries or buildings dedicated to worship yet. Instead the church would meet in the evenings after people had spent the day working. In addition, their worship service would involve a meal, which would lead up to the celebration of communion as part of that meal.
To place this problem in a modern context, let’s say that our Connection Point service that occurs on Sunday nights included a catered meal. Now some people in Corinth who attended the church had white collar jobs and would be able to show up at 4:30 for the 5 pm service and would start enjoying the food and having a nice cold glass of wine, or 2, or 3.
Another group of people in Corinth, who were slaves, the blue collar folks, would not be able to arrive until 5:15 or 5:30 p.m. So by the time this group of lower income folks arrive at Connection Point there is no place left for them to sit. They would have to stay out in the parking lot. If that was not bad enough, there was no food left for them to eat. The rich members of the church were inside and had eaten all the food and were drunk, while the poor members of the church who had rushed to church without even stopping at McDonald's were now left outside starving.
And it was this situation that was occurring at the church in Corinth that led to two problems. First, this situation revealed the reality of the divisions that were present within the church. In addition, these divisions resulted in a division during the worship of God through the celebration of communion.
Paul then explains that the division at the church exposed two realities about that church to both himself and the community of Corinth. First Paul states that there must be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident. Paul’s point here is that the division within the church was exposing those in the church who had a growing and maturing relationship with Christ and those in the church who were posers. How people were responding to the situation that was occurring in Corinth revealed where they were in terms of a genuine and authentic relationship with Christ.
Second Paul asks the members of the church “do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing?” The word despise here literally means to look down on someone with contempt as being of little value. What was occurring was that those who were rich were causing divisions within the church by putting to shame those who were working class or poor by viewing them with contempt as second class citizens.
Paul then responds to the situation that was occurring in Corinth with two questions; “What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you?” In other words, do you really want my opinion? Do you think that I am going to express admiration and approval for what you are doing? Paul then answers his question by explaining to the church that they were not going to get his admiration and approval for the division that is in the church that is surfacing during your times of corporate worship”.
And in these verses we see that Apostle Paul reveal for us another timeless truth that can occur when Christians act unchristian. And that timeless truth is that Christians act unchristian when we worship with division. But why does Paul view this situation as so disturbing? As we have seen in this series, over one fourth of his letter addresses one form of division or another. And overall we see the Bible talk about division in very negative terms. But why is that the case? And why does Paul talk about division so much?
The rest of this week, we will answer these two questions and see two things that occur when a church worships with division.
Do you think division is a problem? Why or why not?
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