Category: Band

As a church, we take the Lord’s Supper each week. It isn’t because we believe that you must take it each week. It is simply a regular reminder of what Jesus has done for us as well as a way that we can reinforce with the people in our church of how to take the Lord’s Supper and offer it to others. We have several people in our church who are new believers, so this is an opportunity to reinforce the fundamentals of our faith. In addition, we believe in each believer being a priest in the Kingdom of God, so we regularly ask different believers within our church to lead us through the taking of the Lord’s Supper.

One of the issues that has come up along the way within our church with regard to taking the Lord’s Supper is a question who should take it. Some, especially those who have come from other churches and other church backgrounds, have pointed out to me along the way that someone who possibly shouldn’t have taken it has actually done so, their point essentially to be to ask me why I allowed that to happen, why I allowed them to take the bread and the cup. From there, at times these people have engaged me over a longer conversation in an attempt to explain why we should take the Lord’s Supper in a certain way, including who should take it and who should not. In other times and with other people, the conversation simply ends there, at the original question and query about why the other person is allowed to take the bread and cup.

Today in our daily scriptural reading, though, we came to 1 Corinthians 11, a chapter that speaks to two primary issues within the church at Corinth. The first is that of having a head covering for women while praying and the second is that of taking the Lord’s Supper. At some point, I’ll come back to the head covering for women, but for now, I want to touch on taking the Lord’s Supper.

Paul addresses this issue with the Corinthians because he says that he has heard that there are divisions within the church related to the taking of the Lord’s Supper. In their time, it was literally a supper, a meal, and in the midst of that meal, they would take a moment to remember what the Lord had done for them, just as Jesus had done at the Last Supper. The church wasn’t simply taking a cracker and some wine or juice as we frequently practice it today. They were eating together and the Lord’s Supper was intended to be a moment of unity for the body of Christ. All people, whether Jews or Greeks, rich or poor, regardless of their background, if they are a part of the body of Christ, they should come to the dinner table and eat together as one.

But in the Corinthian church, there was a problem. Some of the people, the poor in particular, didn’t have food and went hungry. Meanwhile, the rich brought food and wine and were even becoming drunk as they ate and drank. Of course this caused significant divisions in the church, whether as a result of socioeconomic differences, or even creating division by being seen before men as somehow being better or worse before God. Some were potentially considered to have a higher, or more important, position in the Kingdom, or in the body of Christ, because they were able to eat as kings, especially in front of the others who may, or may not, even be able to eat as peasants.

It is for this reason specifically that Paul says that he has no praise for the Corinthians. Here is what he says:

In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!

1 Corinthians 11:18-22

So Paul goes on to explain what he received from the Lord. Remember, unlike the other Apostles, he wasn’t there. He wasn’t with Jesus for the Last Supper, the final Passover supper that Jesus ate with his disciples. So instead, Paul has received this practice – as he says, from the Lord – and has now passed it along to the Corinthians, and presumably the other churches as well:

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night 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, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

But now we come to the crux of the issue, I believe. This is where I believe most of our contention and disagreements originate and so I want to spend a moment talking about these next couple of verses. In verses 27 and 28, Paul says that we have the potential of committing sin – specifically a sin against the body and the blood of Christ – as we take the bread and the cup. He says that we need to examine ourselves so that we don’t do this. Here are the verses:

So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.

1 Corinthians 11:27-28

What is Paul referring to here? When he says that if we eat the bread and drink the cup in an unworthy manner, we will be guilty of sinning. What is he talking about?

In an attempt to answer this question, let’s start with another question: Can we ever be worthy of Christ’s body and blood? Is it possible for us to clean ourselves up enough to be worthy of taking the bread and the cup of the Lord’s Supper?

I believe that the answer to that question is a resounding No. There is no way that we can be worthy to take the bread and the cup. In fact, the entire reason that we are taking the bread and the cup is that we completely unworthy. We have sinned and we are absolutely dependent on Christ’s body and blood to make us clean through Christ before God. Only his sacrifice can pay for my sins. I have done nothing worthy of salvation from God’s wrath. I can only have faith that God will save me because I have placed my faith in Christ’s sacrifice. That’s it, nothing more. That’s the only reason that I would be considered worthy of anything as I stand before God. I can do nothing to merit his favor, his mercy and grace

So, I can’t be good enough before God. I can’t be worthy enough. And so I think that, because that is true, we should reconsider some of our practices within the church, especially as we think about the Lord’s Supper. For example, I’ve seen situations where, in churches, people do not take the Lord’s Supper because they are sinners. They don’t feel worthy in that moment to take it, and they are affirmed in this feeling and told that they shouldn’t take the Lord’s Supper. Hmm… Yes, actually, their feeling is probably correct. They don’t feel worthy because they are not worthy. They are feeling the weight of their sin as they stand before God. But the truth is that no one else who is taking the Lord’s Supper that day is worthy either. To say it again, neither those who don’t feel worthy are worthy to take the Lord’s Supper, nor those who do feel worthy. Neither one. Only Christ’s sacrifice, his broken body and shed blood make us worthy.

I’m going to assume that Paul knows that, under their own strength, no one is worthy to take the Lord’s Supper. Therefore, I’m also going to assume that there is something else that he is referring to within these couple of verses. He must mean something else when he says that they shouldn’t take the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner, and I would suggest that Paul is referring to exactly what he has spoken about throughout this chapter. He is telling them that they should take the Lord’s Supper in a worthy manner based on what he has been saying through chapter 11.

Paul has been telling the Corinthians that there shouldn’t be divisions among them. They shouldn’t have some people that have food and others that have none. They shouldn’t have, nor create, divisions among them, which is what they are doing by having some with food and drink and others without. He explains this both before he reminds them of how they should take the Lord’s Supper in verses 18-22 as well as after in verses 33-34. In fact, in these later verses, he goes on to explain even further how they should eat together as one body of Christ, in unity:

For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.

So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together. Anyone who is hungry should eat something at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.

1 Corinthians 11:33-34

I think it is notable that Paul seems to be giving instruction to both the rich as well as the poor. To the rich, he says that they should discern the body of Christ. They should realize that the poor who are there amongst them are part of the body of Christ as well and they should all be eating together. They shouldn’t be having private parties because they have food and drink. They should be eating together, possibly providing for the others, or eating nothing as the others are doing. Even abstaining from eating a large meal would be more in line with what Paul had been teaching, even as far back as his teaching in chapter 10 where he said that he wouldn’t eat if it were to cause someone else to fall or lose their faith.

In addition, Paul gave instruction to the poor. For those that are hungry as they come to the Lord’s Supper – remember, they are eating a full meal – they should eat something at home so that divisions do not occur and judgment won’t come upon them because those divisions are cropping up amongst them.

I believe, therefore, that this whole discussion about being worthy is really a discussion of maintaining unity amongst the believers through the taking of the Lord’s Supper when they are together. When Paul says that they are taking the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner, it is because of their practice of having created division amongst them. I believe that understanding is consistent with what Paul has taught through the course of chapter 11 and is consistent with what Paul has been teaching throughout his entire letter to the Corinthains. Their main problem has been that they have been experiencing division within the church for a variety of reasons, including the way that they have taken the Lord’s Supper, so Paul is encouraging them in their practice to create unity in Christ, never division.

Of course, saying this may cause us to ask some additional questions. Here are some of those questions:

First question: What was the purpose of what Jesus did with the bread and cup at the Last Supper, the original Lord’s Supper? And why did he command them to continue to take it?

Jesus commanded his disciples to go and prepare the Passover meal. The first Lord’s Supper was taken in the context of the Passover celebration. The Passover is the festival that was commanded for the Israelites to celebrate as they remembered how God “passed over” the Israelites as he went through the land of Egypt, killing every first born son, thus causing Pharaoh to command the Israelites to leave Israel once and for all.

Fittingly, Jesus was also put to death on the cross, his blood having prevented God’s wrath from coming upon us in judgment as we put our faith in Christ’s sacrifice. Just as the Israelites put their faith in the blood of the lamb that they wiped over their doorways, we also put our faith in the blood of the Lamb, that of Jesus.

During the meal, Jesus took the bread and gave some to each of the disciples telling them that it is his body that will be broken for them. Then after the meal, Jesus gave them wine telling them that it is the blood of the new covenant, poured out for them. Here are the verses with his words:

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”

Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Matthew 26:26-28

Coming up to this time, we see that Jesus had been telling the disciples that they were going to Jerusalem and he would be handed over to the authorities and would be killed. But it is clear that the disciples didn’t understand. They continued to believe that Jesus, as Messiah, was entering Jerusalem to become king. They imagined the Messiah as king over Israel, taking once again the political throne of David and throwing off the oppressive Roman government who was over them. They expected the kingdom, the political kingdom, to be restored to Israel.

But Jesus is using the bread and the cup as an object lesson to explain to them how his body would be broken and his blood would be poured out so that they would once again become God’s people because they had been made new through the New Covenant in his blood.

Jesus also knew that, as people, we are really good at forgetting what God has done for us. We move on with our lives, getting busy with the concerns of our daily lives and forgetting what God has done for us. It is for this reason that God gave his people points of remembrance, altars that were set up throughout Israel, to remember what God had done for them in that place and in that time. It was for this same reason that God commanded the people to carry on the festivals. He wanted them to remember what God had done for them. To retell the stories. To remember his faithfulness toward his people, the people of Israel.

So Jesus does the same. Yes, Jesus had told the people that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood, but he didn’t mean that literally when he said it at Capernaum after feeding the 5000, and he certainly doesn’t mean that literally now while taking the Last Supper. These elements symbolically represent his body and his blood that we take so that we can be reminded of the incredible gift of God’s love, grace, and mercy given to each of us through Christ’s death on the cross.

Now, second question: What if unbelievers come into the meeting of the church? Should they take the Lord’s Supper?

To answer this, I will say that I believe that we must be clear about the meaning, the significance, of the bread and the cup. We must be absolutely clear that we are celebrating the death of Christ as Jesus taught us to do, and it is only through his death and resurrection that we are made right before God. This is what Jesus did as they celebrated the Passover and we can imitate him also in our practice.

But shouldn’t the people be baptized before they take the Lord’s Supper? Personally, while I understand why churches say this and use it as a way to make a distinction, I don’t think that we technically see a requirement for baptism before taking the Lord’s Supper. In other words, there is no recipe that says: First you are baptized, and Then you take the Lord’s Supper. Here is my reasoning:

• Baptism today, given our understanding of the Gospel of Christ, is not only a baptism for repentance, as it was even in the time that John the Baptist was preaching baptism, or even in the time of Christ. Instead, today, our baptism shows publicly that we have both repented and put our faith in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and have a new life in Christ that allows us entrance into the Kingdom of God.
• In the time of Jesus, I don’t think that we can say that they had the same understanding. As I noted above, the disciples were waiting on Jesus to become the Messiah that they were expecting him to be. They heard Jesus telling them that he was going to be killed, but from my reading of the Gospels, I believe that this is actually the first time that Jesus says that his blood will be poured out for the forgiveness of sins. Yes, we have seen that Jesus had authority to forgive sins, and we see that Jesus commanded his disciples to forgive others, but I believe that this is the first time that we see the same connection between Jesus’s death and resurrection linked to the idea that we can have forgiveness for our sins.
• Now, as Jesus explains that to them, especially assuming that it is the first time that he says it, does that mean that they all believed in Christ as both Lord and Savior in that particular moment? That they all understood that they must have faith in his death and resurrection to receive salvation? I don’t think that we could make that claim. What is more, we should ask ourselves: whose hand was in the bowl to take bread with Jesus as they were taking the Lord’s Supper and Jesus was explaining the significance? It was Judas! The one that would not only not believe in him, but would even betray him! I think that we should instead understand the Lord’s Supper as a way to declare the Lord’s death and continue to remember the body and blood of Christ broken and shed for each of us. I believe that is what Jesus did at the Last Supper and should be how we continue to see the Lord’s Supper today.

So, is the Lord’s Supper for believers and followers of Christ? Absolutely. We must take the Lord’s Supper as we follow the commandments of Christ. But at the same time, I think that we should take the Lord’s Supper more as a way to understand and remember Jesus’s sacrifice and less of a way to determine who is in or who is out. Baptism into the death Christ and rising into life of Christ, instead, is the public demonstration of our faith in him for our salvation.

Practically speaking, here is an example of the way that this has been carried out in our church: A Muslim man began to come to church, and in the first time around that we passed out the bread and the cup, he grabbed the bread from the tray and popped the bread and juice into his mouth without even thinking, even before we had the opportunity to explain the significance.

But since that time, once he understood the meaning of the bread and the cup, he hasn’t taken it since, deciding instead to abstain because he wasn’t yet at a place in his understanding that he believed in the body and blood of Christ given for him.

But let’s think about that: We didn’t stop him the first time. We didn’t move his hand away from the tray. He took it. Is it blasphemy? Has he brought judgment upon himself? Did he take it in an unworthy manner? Or even more, did we lead him even further astray by allowing him to take it?

No, he took it in ignorance. He wasn’t doing anything with malice against the body and blood of Christ. He was eating a snack!

But then he understood and he realized that this wasn’t for him…yet. Because he did not place his faith in Christ as both Lord and Savior He chose to walk away, at least for now.

And yet, he continues to come. He sits and he listens. He is trying to understand. We are praying for him, that he understands that God gave himself for him. I would contend that this is all part of the discipleship process, teaching him to obey everything that Jesus commanded us to do, including both him and us.

Now, last question: What if someone has unrepentant sin in their lives? Should they take the Lord’s Supper?

First, let me say that there is nowhere that says that we should, as believers, abstain from taking the Lord’s Supper. Instead, even if we read the passage above out of context, that we should examine ourselves before we take the Lord’s Supper, we aren’t told to not take it. Instead, upon examination, if we find that we must repent because of sin in our lives, we simply must repent.

In a similar way, as Jesus preached in the sermon on the mount, he said:

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

Matthew 5:23-24

No, that isn’t speaking directly of the Lord’s Supper, but I think it gives us instruction and indication of what we must do. Before coming to worship the Lord, if there is something that needs to be resolved, go resolve it. Repent. Now. That is our response to the sacrifice of Christ. We can’t make ourselves worthy, but we can repent and ask for forgiveness. That much we can do, so whether it is something we must do before the Lord or something that we must do with another person, that is the calling that we have in that moment. Whether as believers or unbelievers, Christ calls us to repentance, reconciliation, and forgiveness. There is no way to be worthy except to repent and that is what we must do, going on to take the Lord’s Supper just as Jesus commanded us to do.

If we are wise, we can learn from those who have gone ahead of us. We can think about what has happened to those whose history we know and we can know those things that we should do as well as those things that we shouldn’t. As Paul spoke to the Corinthians in his letter gave examples of exactly how this worked to help the Corinthians learn from the experience of the Israelites in the desert.

Paul explained that the Israelites received a baptism. Following their exit from slavery in Egypt, the Israelites were under the cloud as they followed God and his presence as he led the Israelites through the wildnerness. In addition, they also went through the sea, speaking of their miraculous trek through the Red Sea.

Paul says that they were, therefore, “baptized into Moses”. Speaking of Moses, we use his name as a way to speak of the law that God provided to him. The Israelites were under the law that God had given to Moses on Mt. Sinai.

God had provided everything for the Israelites. He had brought them out of slavery. He had protected them as they escaped from the Egyptians. He gave them food and water and he even provided a land where they would go, the promised land of Canaan.

But the Israelites were stubborn and despite what God had provided, they were unwilling to continue to follow the laws that God had given to them. They quickly turned away toward the gods of other nations, or toward idols of gods that they made for themselves, and in doing so, they brought God’s wrath and punishment upon themselves.

Yet God says that Jesus was with them even in this time. Jesus wasn’t born until several millenia later, but Jesus was symbolically there with the Israelites even in that time.

They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

1 Corinthians 10:2-5

Christ is the rock, the foundation of our faith, and he is shown in this imagery as producing water that gave the Israelites life in the desert. In this same way, Jesus actually said that those who believed in him would have streams of living water flowing from within them.

In the same way that Paul is calling the Corinthians to learn from the Israelites, we also should do the same. We must learn from God’s Word, from the Spirit of God, and from the experience of others. We need to know how we can not only repeat the successes but also how to not fail as others have failed. May we have wisdom and look to others’ experience as we do this so that we may bring God glory in all that we do.

Very frequently in Christian circles, when divisions arise, we hear discussion of how Paul and Barnabas separated within their work. I have, in fact, used this very same discussion point in my work as there have been points along the way that it was obvious that the disagreement about how to proceed would run deep enough that it would prevent us from effectively working together as we move ahead.

In fact, that is what happened between Paul and Barnabas. Barnabas wanted to take along John Mark on their second missionary jouney, but when he had gone on the first trip, Mark had left them as they had arrived at Pergamum, just a little way into their trip, so it seems that Paul didn’t trust him and didn’t want him to go. That created a significant disagreement between Paul and Barabas, so they separated.

But I don’t think that it meant that they stayed separated forever. Paul and Barnabas had a significant and deep relationship. Barnabas had come to Paul when he needed to be introduced to the Apostles in Jerusalem. He came to Paul when the church needed additional teaching in Antioch. He traveled with Paul as a faithful companion on his first missionary trip. Barnabas was a great friend to Paul who seemed to deeply believe in him, and I don’t believe that they had simply separated and that was that.

In fact, if we look now on into 1 Corinthians, we can see evidence that their relationship had changed. Paul was now in his third trip, many years later staying at Ephesus, and was corresponding with the Corinthians when he is talking about the rights of an apostle to make a living from the Gospel when he directly refers to Barnabas:

This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. Don’t we have the right to food and drink? Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? Or is it only I and Barnabas who lack the right to not work for a living?

1 Corinthians 9:3-6

Instead of receiving his living from the Gospel, Paul decided, it seems now in conjunction with Barnabas, to live based on working in addition to their preaching. In fact, this is how Paul had lived while he was in Corinth, at least initially. The book of Acts says that he made tents with Priscilla and Aquila, at least until Silas and Timothy arrived, presumably carrying funds provided by the churches in Macedonia, because we see that Paul had then returned to preaching and teaching full-time.

But the most interesting part to me here is that Paul seems to be indicating that Barnabas is either there with him now in Ephesus, or that he is aware of how Barnabas is working. How? Because Paul knows, all of these years later after they had separated at the beginning of Paul’s second trip, that Barnabas had also been working to make a living while he was also preaching and teaching.

In other words, and to get to the more important point, the split that we saw between Paul and Barnabas in the book of Acts wasn’t the end of the story. Instead, they continued on working together. They continued to be familiar with one another and worked together. Just because it wasn’t mentioned again in the book of Acts doesn’t mean that their relationship didn’t continue, and that is what this seems to indicate. Instead of a permanent split, it seems that Paul and Barnabas reconciled and continued to work together for the sake of the Gospel.

To me, this means that there is a season for everything. There are moments when we have disagreements. But there are also moments when we have reconciliation. We can separate but we can also come back together. We shouldn’t go on being hard-hearted, but instead we should determine how to place the Gospel at the front and in the first priority for the sake of the Kingdom.

After Paul had finished his first missionary journey, he and Barnabas returned back to Antioch where they came into contact with some Judaizers who said, essentially, that the Gentiles must become Jewish if they want to be saved. Their specific message was that they must follow the law, even more specifically that they need to be circumcised. The circumcision was part of the law that had been given to Moses and passed down to the rest of the Israelites.

Paul and Barnabas end up having some “discussion” with the Judaizers there in Antioch but ultimately head to Jerusalem to meet with the rest of the Apostles to confirm that they are preaching the same Gospel that the Apostles are teaching. They are concerned that this has been an official stance that has come out of the church there in Jerusalem, so they go to have a meeting to confirm that everyone is on the same page.

It turns out that all is well and there is no significant difference between Paul’s message and that of the rest of the Apostles, but given the state of the current culture that they found themselves, they give warnings to stay away from food sacrificed to idols, sexual immorality, meat from strangled animals, and blood. Each of those had their own reasons to be included but primarily focus around the worship of the Greek gods and the surrounding culture.

With that as a background, Paul is responding to the Corinthians who have asked him about the meat sacrificed to idols, presumably specifically why they can’t eat it. It seems that they think that they should be able to and Paul’s response is interesting. He writes in his response in an attempt to help them understand why this is a problem instead of simply saying because the Council said so! He doesn’t invoke a new type of law – which it is not, of course – but instead labors to help them understand the reason that they are trying to stay away from the meat sacrificed to idols. It is based on love for those around them, and the intent of staying away from having others stumble as a result and lose their faith.

Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.

1 Corinthians 8:9-13

It is critical, from Paul’s perspective, to not lose people from Christ and to not prevent people from coming to Christ. So for this, he explains that he will not eat meat if it will causes others to fall, essentially saying, it isn’t worth it. If it will cause others to lose faith, he would rather not eat meat at all.

Paul is saying that the Corinthians should have the same perspective. Do they prefer to eat meat sacrificed to idols and fall from faith in Christ? Or do they prefer that others would retain their faith even if it means that they can’t eat that meat?

While we don’t have temples with meat sacrificed to idols, what is the principle that we can learn? What are things that we should consider to prevent people from falling from faith in Christ? What can we do to prioritize more people coming to faith? What should we lay down? Or pick up? Where is our priority on these things?

As we believe in Christ and take our steps forward in faith through baptism and placing our trust in Jesus, both for our salvation and for our headship as our King and Lord, God promises to give us the Holy Spirit to live within us. Previously, God’s presence was found in the temple in Jerusalem. As Solomon built the temple, we see that God’s presence filled the temple.

But as Jesus died, the temple curtain was ripped and everyone had access to God. No longer just those who were designated as priests for the people. Instead, we have all become priests. We have all been determined to be part of those who serve God. In all ways that one should serve God, we do as well.

As we receive the Holy Spirit, we see that we are, ourselves, a new type of temple. God’s Spirit takes up residence within us. We have God himself living inside of us!

It is for this reason that Paul admonishes the Corinthians against sexual sin. He points out that sexual sin is the sin that we can commit that is against our own body, which in reality is a sin against the temple of the Holy Spirit. The use of our body for sexual sin, whether to unite it with a prostitute as Paul points out, or otherwise, is a sin against our own bodies having been intentionally united with that which is intentionally impure.

Paul explains it clearly:

Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20

Paul says that we should not consider our bodies to be the bodies with which we can make whatever choice we want. Yes, in a certain sense that true, but as believers in Christ, we believe that his blood bought us. Our spirit, our body, all of it. We don’t separate one versus the other. We give all of it to Christ because he bought it all. He purchased us for his kingdom, so now we give him all that we have and all that we are and serve him with it all as temples of the Holy Spirit.

The church in Corinth had been experiencing another situation where a man had been sleeping with, presumably, his step-mother. Paul says that it was reported that he was sleeping with his father’s wife. He doesn’t say his own mother, so I’m assuming that means that his father had remarried and now this man was with this new woman, who would be his step-mother.

But what was even worse, Paul says that they are proud. The church is proud of who they are and what they are doing. They are continuing to accept this man in their church, despite of what he is unrepentantly doing, and are happy for it.

It is almost as if they are happy for the tolerance that they are exhibiting for this man. Proud of how open-minded they are. But in reality, they are headed straight for their own destruction.

Corinth was a provincial capital in the Greek empire. It is no longer Greek, per se, in the sense that the empire had now fallen and was overtaken by the Romans, but it was still considered to be Greek in its culture. And that culture was polytheistic, worshiping different Greek mythical gods that had been created by humans.

Unfortunately, because the Greek gods were created by humans, it was human decision also how they should be worshiped and one of the most significant ways that happened, besides animal sacrifice, was through sexual relationships with the temple prostitutes.

And having accepted that as normal, the men would also have mistresses and concubines in addition to their wives. And this was considered normal.

So it shouldn’t be a surprise that this was a significant issue in the Corinthian church, or for that matter, in any church that was establishing itself in the midst of the Greek culture of that time. Those were the normal practices of the day, but man’s ways are not God’s ways, and God taught them and the church that there should be fidelity between the husband and his wife without other women being found in the midst of their relationship, either for worship or simple purposes of pleasure.

But the worst part in the whole situation is that the “open-mindedness” that the church was exhibiting was going to destroy it and Paul notes this by explaining that the yeast works its way through the entire batch of dough. Here is how he explains it:

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

1 Corinthians 5:6-8

Paul is saying that they can’t keep doing what they are doing. The “old yeast”, as he says, is the sin of the world. We are sinful people, but where we see unrepentant sin within the church, we must call it out. And if that call does not respond with repentance, it must be removed. Otherwise, the sin will continue to grow and multiply to others and soon the church will collapse and simply meld into the rest of culture, becoming nothing more than a shell of an organization based on… nothing. Nothing that distinguishes it. Nothing that sets it apart. No identity. No purpose. And all because we were simply trying to keep an open mind.

The Corinthian church is divided based on the various leaders. Some are saying that they follow Paul. Some say they follow Cephas. Others Apollos. They are pointing their fingers at one another saying that they don’t do it like that, but they do it better because they are followers of this one or that one.

But Paul is pointing out that if they are lining up behind the teachers, behind those that are working to plant and found the churches, they are establishing themselves on top of the wrong foundation. The only foundation that they should work upon is Jesus Christ. Only upon him can they establish their faith. Not upon mere men. Not upon their teachings. Not upon simple servants.

Paul takes one more step forward as well, though. He goes further to say that the church is living in a certain sense of luxury. Paul says that they are rich. They are full. And they have begun to reign. Instead of continuing as they, the apostles are doing, and remaining as workers, the Corinthians are acting as if they are kings, passing judgment on others.

And in this, there is a heavy dichotomy because Paul is part of the apostolic band that is sent out, telling others about Jesus, and establishing the churches. The Corinthians have been beneficiaries of his work and yet they are living in luxury while Paul continues on without anything. The apostles are hungry and thirsty, yet the church is fat and full. The apostles are dishonored and the church is honoring itself. The apostles are beaten and homeless and yet the church has everything that it could possibly want.

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you! For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

1 Corinthians 4:8-13

Something is wrong with this picture.

Somewhere the message has gotten lost. Or somehow the culture of the world is seeping into the church. The Corinthians should be imitating Paul and the other apostles, working for the sake of the Gospel in their own hometown, and yet they are living in luxury. This is not how it was drawn up. This is not how the people of God should be living while we are here on the earth. This runs contrary to what Jesus both taught and demonstrated to his disciples. This runs contrary to how Paul lived among them and the example that he gave to the new believers.

So, what about us? Are we following Jesus’s example? Are we following Paul’s example? A friend of mine used to ask us: Are we more like a cruise ship, or more like a battleship? This is similar to the question that Paul is asking the Corinthians. Are they contending for the Gospel? Or are they happy moving through their lives without a care in the world? This is a significant question, especially for the church in the west and the type of faith that we are exporting to the rest of the world. What does our leadership look like? And how are we as disciples leading others?

Paul is continuing to write to the Corinthian church, but he is reproving and correcting them for the divisions within the church. He explains that, previously, he could only give them “milk” in his teaching and not the “meat” of the Word because they were worldly. They were like newborn children because of their worldliness. They believed, but the world and the way that it worked continued to find its way into the church and into the way of thinking of the people within it.

In the case of the Corinthians, this was particularly evident. As a city, they were particularly prosperous and wealthy. They used their prosperity as license to live lavishly, in drunken stupors, giving themselves away sexually to any and all. This was the way that the people of Corinth frequently lived, and we see hints of this show up throughout this book, but not even this is the point that Paul starts with as he writes to the Corinthians.

Instead, Paul points out their divisions based on their teachers. The Corinthians have divided amongst themselves saying that some follow Paul, others follow Apollos, but Paul explains, of course, that they are both simply builders. They are servants. But there is one foundation, and that foundation is Jesus Christ.

So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future —all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

1 Corinthians 3:21-23

Paul wants the Corinthians to build their lives upon Christ. He is the one who will be lifted up. He is the one who will be glorified. Him and him alone. Not the teachers. Not the builders. Only Christ. He is the one true foundation upon which we must build our lives, and if we try to do otherwise, building upon anything else, our lives – as a result of division, sin, disappointment, or otherwise – will crumble and fall. Nothing will be left. Paul knows this and wants to remove this possibility out from underneath the Corinthians. He wants them to build their lives, place their faith, and put all of their hopes in one person, in Jesus Christ. Jesus is of God and there is no other foundation upon which we must build.

Paul continues to tell the Corinthians that his goal, while he was there in Corinth, was to stay away from preaching and arguments that would be considered wise to the world, and instead speak with the wisdom of God. It would only be considered wisdom to those whom the Spirit had revealed the truth.

But to do this, Paul says that while he was with them, he simply sought to know Christ and him crucified. And this is the source of everything that Paul was doing. Because he sought to know Christ, he would have the wisdom that he would need to be able to speak to the Corinthians of the wonders of God.

Jesus told his disciples this very thing when he was with them. In John 15, he said that he is the vine and they are the branches. They must stay connected with him or else they would be cut off, fall to the ground, wither, and die. Only by staying connected to Christ can we produce fruit.

Now we see Paul saying something similar, that he sought only to know Christ, and because he did, he was able to speak with wisdom from Christ. Jesus is the source of Paul’s wisdom. Nothing more.

But how would Paul do that? The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John hadn’t yet been written. No, but the books that we now call the Old Testament had already been written and were available to Paul. In fact, we routinely see that Paul reasoned from the scriptures with the Jews, explaining that Jesus had to be the Messiah given the arc of the historical story told by the scriptures, given the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled, and given all that Jesus had done. Paul sought to know Jesus through what was told about him and through what was known of what he had done.

But Paul also knew Christ because of what God gave him as he believed in Christ. Paul received the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, and it is from the Spirit as his source, speaking within him, that he was now able to reason from the scriptures and reflect upon the wisdom of God.

Paul says that it is impossible for one person to know what another person is thinking. Only the person’s spirit inside of them can possibly know what that other person is thinking.

But in our case, we have received the Holy Spirit. He has made us to be a new creature, a new creation. And that new creation carries within it the actual Spirit of God. Now, because we carry the Spirit of God, we have within us access to God’s thoughts. We have within us the ability of know the internal depths of God, and because we can know God this intimately, we can understand him and his wisdom for us.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for,

“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?”

But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:10-16

I want to make note here that Paul says that we have the mind of Christ. He is writing to the Corinthians saying that they too have the mind of Christ. They have also received the Holy Spirit. They can understand the deep things of God. They can perceive and understand the wisdom of God. This is available to them as well.

And so also us. If we have believed in Christ and have received the Holy Spirit, we also can understand the depths of the wisdom of God. We must continue to dig. We must continue to explore. We must continue to ask, seek, and knock, but as we do, we can know Christ and him crucified more and more. We can know the wisdom of God and continue to help others do the same.

Paul now writes a letter from Ephesus back to the Corinthians, after having spent about a year and a half in Corinth establishing a church there in that city. Corinth was an extremely worldly city, known for its excesses in sexuality and drunknness, but also in business, wealth, and even religiosity based on the Greek gods. Between the two letters to the church in Corinth that we have, and a third that was lost, the Corinthians give us the greatest insight into how Paul had to work with its church and deal with some of the issues of that time within its community.

One of those issues is how the Corinthians saw their standing within the society based on their understanding of the Gospel. There were divisions amongst them with regard to who they followed, and there was pride about their knowledge of the Gospel.

Paul, however, says that this knowledge is probably nothing to be proud about, at least in front of the people of the world. If their intent is to be considered to be special by the world, they have it all wrong. They will simply be considered to be fools:

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Paul is saying that the world is looking for different things that what they are preaching. Human wisdom is completely different from God’s wisdom and those differences come out within the cultures within which that wisdom is grown.

For example, the Jews demand signs, Paul says. Why? Why would the Jews demand signs? The Jews have grown up telling the stories of the Old Testament, the stories of Moses leading the people out of Egypt through the Red Sea, the water coming from the rock, the manna falling from heaven. These were signs that the Jews of Paul’s time recognized as God’s work, even if there were points at which the people who experienced the signs didn’t actually recognize God’s hand in the demonstration of the original sign.

On the other hand, Paul says that the Greeks look for wisdom. The Greeks believed that they could understand the world through reason. Through their own human intellect, through what they could observe, they tried to answer some of life’s great questions, including human origin, human purpose, etc. Of course, we humans are very limited in our ability to observe, and thus limited in our ability to reason based on limited understanding, so we fail to come to the right conclusions.

In any case, regardless of the human system within which the Gospel is preached, Paul says that those who are listening with human ears and reasoning with human minds are doomed to call the Gospel simple foolishness. How can it be good news that a Messiah, the one that God has sent, is crucified and killed? What good can that possibly produce?

And yet, Paul says that is exactly the message that he is preaching. Why? Because this is the wisdom of God. God isn’t simply looking at our short span of time that we call life as humans on earth. He isn’t even looking at the timeframe of what we would call “history”, a few hundred years. He is looking at eternity. Eternity past, eternity present, and eternity future. Or simply, just eternity. God knows that the human soul will continue to live on forever, but in the context of God’s glory. Not simply in the context of our world. Not in the context of this life. In the context of eternity.

In that context, if we can even begin to imagine it, the foolishness that Paul is preaching begins to demonstrate the wisdom with which God is acting and moving. Everything else fades. All of the kingdoms of this world. All of the politics of the world. Everything else becomes nothing at all. Why? Because when we understand our lives in the greater context of eternity, we understand that we either give glory to God, the One who created and made all of eternity, or we run against Him, the one who made it all.

Christ is crucified as a payment for the sins that we have committed, allowing us to enter into the Kingdom of God. Now, as we understand this, we see the reason for this message. We see why God’s wisdom is different than human wisdom. God is allowing us to enter into his presence, to give him glory. Not glory for ourselves, but glory for God, and him only. Without this perspective, this message seems like foolishness, but for those who are being saved, it is the power of God.