[302 words]
The Corinthian church was slipping away from the pattern that their Master had set for them to follow. The way they were observing the Lord’s Supper was one of the main problems in this area as it was being eaten with a common meal. The Corinthian brethren had totally lost the significance of the Lord’s Supper. Paul promptly reprimanded them for this and asked the question, “What, Do you not have houses to eat and drink in?”
The Passover was hardly a common meal. It was an Old Testament memorial where the people allowed their minds to go back to the time of the killing of the lamb without blemish and placing its blood on the two side posts and lintels of the houses to let the angel of the Lord know to pass over their houses so the life of the first born would be spared.
This was a perfect time to establish the New Testament memorial. While the disciples were still eating the Passover, Jesus chose this time to inaugurate the Lord’s Supper. It was composed of the bread which He broke among them and told them to eat in memory of His body given for them; and the fruit of the vine He divided among them and told them to drink it in memory of His shed blood (Matt. 26:26-27).
The Corinthians were clearly doing more than just eating some bread and drinking some fruit of the vine. They had turned the Lord’s Supper into a common meal, and Paul rebukes them for it. The Lord’s Supper is a memorial, not a meal. It’s about remembering the Lord. It is not about having a common meal which should be eaten at home.
What would be Paul’s major point if he wrote a letter to our congregation today?
William C. Pulley
Mount Morris, MI