Now, it must be said
that what comes after the “instruction” portion of Paul’s rehearsal of the
Lord’s Supper is regularly incorporated into the practice of communion.
The “words of warning,” as they are generally viewed, are usually included so
as to induce introspection among potential participants at the table.
Paul writes “For this reason, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the
Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the
Lord. A person should examine himself first, and in this way let him eat
the bread and drink of the cup. For the one who eats and drinks without
careful regard for the body eats and drinks judgment against himself. That
is why many of you are weak and sick, and quite a few are dead. But if we
examined 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”
(1 Corinthians11:27-32).
These “words of
warning” have been appended to the “instructions” for good reason.
However, the way in which they are presented and in which they are urged to be
taken, removes them from their practical and objective context, as participants
are usually asked to apply this warning individually, as somehow related to
their personal salvation or personal spiritual status, with considerations of
personal and individual judgment falling if one does not have the right mindset
or status of holiness in one’s taking of the elements or the absolutely correct
understanding of what the bread and the cup represent.
Pretending that Paul
has such things in mind is unsatisfactory, and it ignores the corrective action
that Paul is taking, first and foremost with this church, as this body of
Jesus-followers fails to follow the example of Jesus and fails to understand
that Paul is criticizing this church for their failure to embody the kingdom of
heaven. In addition, the encouragement to come to these words
individually and personally, as if the recipients of this letter were silently
reading their Bible for themselves in their studies, rather than hearing the
letter read out loud to the entire congregation, has had a hand in creating an
unreasonable and Scripturally unsupportable expectation of some type of
Christian perfectionism and a need for confession of personal “sins” after a
personal examination of the condition of one’s heart before taking communion.
Continuing on from
the “words of warning” that Paul has delivered, corrective language from Paul
is encountered. He goes on to write “So then, my brothers and sisters,
when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry,
let him eat at home, so that when you assemble it does not lead to judgment”
(11:33-34a). If one is allowed to jump right in to the communion at the
twenty-third verse, not taking into consideration that which comes before in
the same chapter, nor the building message and movement of the entire letter,
then the addition of these words from Paul do not make a great deal of
sense.
Along with that, if
there is a failure to take common first century meal practice into
consideration when these words are read, then they are not going to make
sense. Finally, if one does not bear in mind the vision of the messianic
banquet and the personal example of Jesus participating in communion in a way
that goes beyond the “Last Supper” and takes in the whole of the tradition of
His meal practice that has the vision of the messianic banquet standing in its
background and informs the understanding of the early church as to why they are
even engaging in this practice in this way, then there will be a high degree of
difficulty encountered in the process of making sense of what Paul is getting
at it with these final corrective instructions.
Thus it is more than likely that the reader or the exegete is going to
approach and utilize the words of Paul incorrectly, missing out on the depth of
the serious problem that is being addressed.
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