So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.
The above verse is responding to a challenge in the church at Corinth (like most of chapter 11) that Paul was addressing at their request. He stated the challenge in the preceding verses:
1 Corinthians 11:20-22 (ESV)
When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
When they were coming together for the Lords Table (what we most often call Communion) they were turning it into a love feast. Most of those in Corinth were saved out of idolatry. Especially idolatry to gods of love and sexual desire. As they came into their Christianity they brought with them this mindset of having feasts to celebrate. Nothing was wrong the celebration. But the Lord’s Table was a time to remember Jesus spilled blood and broken body for their sins. Because they turned it into a feast they would be eating and gorging themselves in party fashion. Perhaps to the glory of Christ, but in the wrong mindset. Paul, in this section is correcting that behavior and practice. He does so my first reminding them about what the Lord’s Table was for:
1 Corinthians 11:23-25 (ESV)
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
He then warns the about those who abuse the Table:
1 Corinthians 11:27-32 (ESV)
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
That is why we have the top text instructing them to wait for one another. He wanted them to practice Christian love not pagan party love. He wanted celebration but he wanted it done with Christ at the center and not their fleshly needs. This passage shows us how quickly we can turn the spiritual into the physical. It shows how fast we can move away from the Spirit and feed our flesh, even in an act of worship. God gave us the Lord’s Table to remember His Son’s sacrifice for us, not to turn our worship into gorging of fleshly celebrations.
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