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§33 Proper and Improper Attitudes at the Supper (1 Cor. 11:27–34)

In essence, Paul’s reflections in this section are concerned with one’s attitude toward the Supper. He gives advice for eliminating an improper disposition at the celebration. The final lines, verses 33–34, are practical and elucidate the more abstract materials that comprise verses 27–32.

Some preliminary comments on this section are in order. First, Paul is not directly or indirectly concerned with the nature of the sacramental elements; second, the matter at hand is not the issue of one’s personal piety or lack thereof; third, Paul’s concern is for believers to have an appropriate attitude that fosters appropriate behavior.

After the rich, complex verses of the earlier portions of this chapter, these tightly focused verses may seem related to merely mundane matters in the past. The verses, however, are filled with concrete issues that cause Paul to make remarks that have been applied to many different, later contexts. The verses are specific, but there are important implications for all Christians. Thus, elements of these verses have been given significant weight and demand careful attention.

11:27 / The opening word of the line, Therefore (Gk. hōste, “so then” or “and so”), indicates that Paul is drawing a conclusion from what he has said and giving an explanation to his teaching. Despite the way that this sentence is bound to its context, this verse has been used for an unbelievable number of reasons to keep people from participating in the Lord’s Supper. For example, in certain periods of church history people would refuse to participate in the Lord’s Supper after taking their first communion (if they took even that) until they were on their deathbeds and had received ritual absolution from all the sins of a lifetime. Such hypersacramentalism and hypersensitivity to Paul’s warning against participating in the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner is not grounded in a sensible reading of Paul’s statements.

At the outset, the reader should notice that in this section, in distinction from the vast majority of the rest of the letter, Paul is addressing each of the Corinthians as individual persons. The matters under discussion are personal, but in the context of an address to the body of believers, the issues are not private. Moving from a concern with the general life of the congregation, Paul turns to the members as believing persons. The issue he discusses here is so serious that he writes to gain every person’s attention.

In the context of this letter and in the light of the discussion he has offered the Corinthians up to this point, one should see that, for Paul, to eat the bread and to drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy way is eating and drinking with an attitude of self-centeredness, of individualism or arrogance. As Paul has presented the situation in Corinth, with one person or group attempting to prove personal spiritual superiority, even hyperpious individualism would fall under the rubric “unworthy.” Unworthy participation amounts to coming to the Supper without regard for the result of Christ’s reconciling work that draws the Christian community into a new selfless relatedness. Paul insists that such an attitude makes one guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord. In other words, to live in such a way—even religiously—as to deny the reconciling, unifying effects of Christ’s death casts one into the company of those who crucified Jesus.

11:28 / Because of the importance of the celebration, with its capacity to proclaim Christ’s death in anticipation of his coming (11:26), Paul insists that one must examine one’s self to ensure the appropriate Christlike attitude and then, in a spirit of self-giving and interrelatedness with the other believers, one may eat and drink. The qualifying phrases of the bread and of the cup show that Paul is concerned with participation in the activities of the Supper, not with the elements that are being used in the course of the celebration. The admonition of this verse is about attitude, not about the substances that are being consumed.

11:29 / Without the proper attitude, Paul says, one participates in the Supper unto judgment; that is, one casts one’s self outside the pale of redemptive reconciliation into the context of God’s eschatological wrath. Verse 29 mentions recognizing the body of the Lord. This statement should not be reduced to an abstract level. Rather, Paul speaks metaphorically about the concrete nature of the celebration, so that to recognize or discern the body (notice the absence of blood) means to comprehend and appropriate into one’s own life the transforming significance of Christ himself. “Body” metaphorically identifies the Christ event with its power to transform lives and create the new Christian community of reconciliation. The mystery of the Lord, his presence and relatedness to the congregation, lends its hue to the color of this mysterious line. To discern the body in the context of the Lord’s Supper is to see the reality of Christ in each and every other member of the “body” (ch. 12) and to value each person for the part played and the place given by the Lord whose body all the believers now constitute.

When we contrast the mention of “the body of the Lord” here with the previous reference to “the body and blood of the Lord,” we see that Paul is not writing in shorthand; his choice of words clarifies the level of his real concern. The language is metaphorical, referring not merely to the Lord himself or even to “the body of Christ” that will be a topic of discussion in chapter 12; rather, Paul uses this picture language to signify the presence of the Lord in the life of the church and the relationship of the Lord and the believer that forms the foundation of the relationship(s) between the believers themselves. One should evaluate the motives and aims of one’s participation in the life of the church by determining if that participation focuses on the Lord’s real presence and the real relationship that forms human existence as a result of his presence.

Fee (Epistle, p. 564) is typical of commentators who, even after examining the complex theological character of Paul’s metaphors, then write, “To fail to discern the body in this way, by abusing those of lesser sociological status, is to incur God’s judgment.” One understands this conclusion, especially when Paul’s enigmatic lines lie so close to verses 33–34. Nevertheless, this conclusion is a reduction of the gospel to a moral maxim: because of God’s judgment, be nice, especially to those less fortunate than you. Paul is not so trite. The gospel calls the believer beyond himself or herself into a new and radically freeing relationship to Christ, so that in that relationship one may put others—no matter their social status—before one’s self. This is Christlikeness: freedom from the self and freedom for God and others. One should notice that Paul says, “Eat at home”; he does not say, “Bring more food and pass it around.” True freedom is charismatic in quality, often unpredictable and even offensive in the way it alters human life and reorients living. Paul’s metaphorical language seeks to speak of that charismatic quality of life without pressing it into a set of ways to be nice. Believers live in relationship to Christ and out of that relationship into relationship with others.

11:30 / Furthermore, Paul offers his own startling interpretation of troubling developments in the Corinthian church. He opens this line with the words dia touto (“Because of this” or “Therefore”; translated That is why in the NIV) and then explains the illness and death of some of the members, saying, That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. In other words, the failure of certain Corinthians to discern the body of the Lord in an appropriate way (v. 29) had—because they arrogantly and self-centeredly focused on themselves—already produced terrible results.

Paul’s troubling statement is open to misunderstanding and abuse. He is explaining that he perceives God to be at work disciplining the members of the Corinthian church. Whether or not he was right in his conclusions, he does not say that all sickness and death are the result of inappropriate behavior. Paul’s analysis at this point is concrete and historical in nature and should not be treated as an observation on all of life and the difficulties that are encountered in daily living.

In giving this explanation Paul speaks from the perspective of his belief in Christ’s real presence in the “remembrance” of the Supper. Because the Lord is present in the remembrance of the Supper, his powerful presence produces dramatic effects on the lives of the believers. Thus, according to Paul, those who come to the Lord’s Supper with inappropriate motives are vulnerable to the Lord’s power, which in their particular circumstances brings judgment. One should see that this explanation is descriptive and dramatic, not a declaration. He is not issuing a threat so much as offering a passionate warning. He is not condemning but informing, although he understands that judgment has already come to bear on certain members of the church.

11:31 / In turn, verse 31 speaks again of judgment. From the cast of the remark this reference to judgment is not eschatological but, as in verse 30, present judgment in this world. In combination with verse 30 this additional statement explains why it is so important that the Corinthians heed Paul’s directions. The statement is cryptic, but Paul seems to be saying that humans are in no position to make a valid judgment about themselves in terms of the way God evaluates their lives. To make a play on Paul’s wording, the Corinthians have not been judging themselves adequately, as is seen in their experiencing divine judgment; if they had judged themselves appropriately, they would not have experienced judgment.

11:32 / Lest Paul end this discussion of judgment on a totally negative note, he steps back from the experience of the judgment to explain why such judgment is a benefit to those believers who receive it. Apparently Paul means for this verse to offer sober comfort to the Corinthians in the face of undeniable problems. He says the judgment that the Corinthians have experienced is to their benefit, for it is the Lord’s discipline, not an end in itself, but the difficult means to a better end. Through divine discipline the believers are brought to a place where they will not be doomed to be judged with the world. Even in judgment, Paul perceives that the believers receive a divine benefit.

11:33–34 / Verses 33–34 begin, So then, and in a summary fashion that builds on everything said up to this point they aim at correction or circumvention of the previously named problem(s). Note the three-part advice that Paul gives, or restates, here. (1) When you come together to eat, wait for each other. From 11:21 one knows that the Corinthians individually or in small groups are going ahead with their meals. (2) In verse 34a, Paul parenthetically separates satiation of hunger from the community meal or celebration, saying, if anyone is hungry, he should eat at home (cf. 11:22). (3) Paul’s advice aims at preventing condemnation (judgment) that would necessarily ensue from a continuation of the inappropriate gathering in which the Corinthians are already engaging (cf. 11:17–19).

From this analysis one sees the repetition of concerns between 11:33–34 and 11:17–22. Indeed, as commentators interested in the literary quality of the letter notice, the two sets of verses form a bracket or an inclusio around Paul’s reflections on the Lord’s Supper in the material found in 11:23–32. The nature of repetition is to create emphasis, both by repeating the information itself (vv. 17–22; 33–34) and by highlighting the material that is surrounded by the repetitive two parts (vv. 23–32). Thus, verses 33–34 both bring the final segment of Paul’s discussion (vv. 27–34) to a conclusion and help focus and hold the entire reflection from 11:17–34 together.

Paul’s directions assume a fairly free-flowing, charismatic fellowship. His advice is practical and rather minimal given the seriousness of the situation as he seems to have understood it. When Paul tells the Corinthians to wait, he instructs the congregation as a whole to put both others and the whole church before their individual desires. As he did earlier in the letter, Paul calls for the Corinthians to forego or perhaps even to use their rights for the responsible execution of God’s will. Cliques in the congregation meant catastrophe for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, which itself signified and actualized the new patterns of relationship that were being created in the Christ-centered and Christlike lives of believers. Thus, Paul said, wait.

At the conclusion of this series of directions, criticisms, comments, explanations, and warnings, Paul offers a promise: when I come I will give further directions. Such a statement serves both to assure any Corinthians who have additional questions regarding the Supper and worship that Paul will provide them with an opportunity for further conversation, and to let the believers know that Paul has not exhausted his instructions at this point.