How NOT to Ruin a Good Meal | Pastor Kareem Smith | September 3, 2023

Paul takes the Lord’s table and shows that communion ain’t no casual little church moment. The table was meant to be a display of unity, harmony, love, and respect in the body of Christ, but Corinth had turned a good meal into a hot mess. Paul says their meetings were doing more harm than good because the same culture wars, class divisions, cliques, and disrespect from the outside world had bled right into their worship.

The orchestra picture helps make the point plain. Different people may have different gifts, personalities, and even biases, but beautiful music only comes when every part submits to the conductor. God is a stickler for oneness. Creation sings in harmony, the Trinity exists in perfect unity, and Jesus prayed that believers from every tribe, tongue, culture, race, and walk of life would be one in him.

The Corinthian church had forgotten that communion is about common union in Christ. The wealthy saints were eating first, drinking up the wine, protecting their privilege, and leaving the poor overlooked and humiliated. Paul says that kind of meal is not the Lord’s Supper at all. It is their own thing. It is factions over fellowship, cliques over communion, and pride over the gospel.

The warning gets heavy because Paul says eating and drinking in an unworthy manner means failing to discern the body. That does not first mean getting stuck in private moralism or treating the bread and cup as magical objects. In the flow of the passage, discerning the body means recognizing the people Christ has joined together. Believers are not only connected to Christ by faith. Believers are connected to one another through love.

The Lord’s discipline comes because God does not play with the unity of his church. Paul names weakness, sickness, and even death as evidence that Corinth’s divisions had provoked divine correction. The warning still lands hard when the American church is divided over politics, race, identity, wokeness, privilege, conservatism, and all the usual suspects. The table calls God’s people to check themselves lest they wreck themselves.

Jesus gives the only way back. Paul takes Corinth back to the night Jesus was betrayed, when Christ took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and pointed to his body given for the church. Jesus did not die for a political party, a racial category, or an elitist social club. Jesus died to make all things new and to make divided sinners one body. The bread and cup proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes, and that proclamation tells the watching world there is power, power, wonderful working power in the blood of the Lamb.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Communion exposes loveless division Paul refuses to let the Lord’s table become a religious cover for disrespect. The meal that should reveal Christ’s one body becomes judgment when factions, pride, and indifference sit down with the bread and cup. The table does not bless division dressed up in church clothes. [35:23]
• 2. Privilege can resent gospel equality The Corinthian problem was not just bad manners, but a heart trained by status. When privilege has been normal for a long time, equality can feel like oppression, and that feeling can make love look like a threat. The gospel does not ask the comfortable to feel guilty for existing, but it does command them to stop protecting comfort at the expense of the body. [40:05]
• 3. Discern the whole body of Christ Paul’s warning about eating unworthily belongs to the whole context of division and lovelessness. Discerning the body means seeing the brother or sister Christ has joined to himself, not merely staring harder at the elements. Communion becomes dangerous when reverence for the cup is separated from love for the people bought by the blood. [49:50]
• 4. God disciplines because he loves Paul’s words about weakness, sickness, and death are heavy because the unity of Christ’s church is not a side issue to God. Discipline is not condemnation for those in Christ, but it is still real, searching, and sometimes severe. The Lord may use affliction to wake his people from cynicism, tribalism, and contempt. [53:09]
• 5. The cross makes enemies one Paul brings Corinth back to the night Jesus was betrayed because the cure for division is not better branding, nicer politics, or stronger cliques. The broken body and shed blood of Jesus form a new people where old dividing walls lose their right to rule. Communion proclaims that Christ died not for isolated individuals, but for a church made one in him.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [20:25] - Praise and Opening Gratitude
• [22:01] - Sending the Schaeffer Family
• [23:36] - Responsive Reading from Corinthians
• [25:16] - How Not to Ruin a Good Meal
• [26:25] - Unity Under the Conductor
• [29:46] - Corinth’s Communion Crisis
• [32:32] - Culture Wars in Worship
• [38:52] - Love Feasts and Privilege
• [43:49] - Not the Lord’s Supper
• [46:48] - Eating and Drinking Unworthily
• [53:09] - Discipline at the Table
• [58:21] - Remember the Cross
• [62:51] - Communion Proclaims One Body
• [70:38] - Bread and Cup Together

Bible Reading

1 Corinthians 11:17-34
“But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. 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. 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.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 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. 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.” [22:31]

John 17:20-21
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” [27:45]

1 Corinthians 10:16-17
“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.” [51:55]

Hebrews 12:5-6
“And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? 'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.'” [55:19]

Observation questions

1. In 1 Corinthians 11, what specific things were happening at the Corinthian meals that showed division instead of love? [44:21]
2. According to 1 Corinthians 11 and 10, what words or images show that communion is supposed to express a shared union and not just a private moment?
3. In John 17:20-21, what connection does Jesus make between the unity of believers and the world believing the Father sent him? [27:54]
4. In 1 Corinthians 11:30-32, what forms of discipline does Paul mention, and what reason does he give for that discipline? [53:09]

Interpretation questions

1. Paul says, “when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse.” How can a church gathering still look religious on the outside and yet actually do spiritual harm on the inside? [36:28]
2. Paul says eating and drinking “in an unworthy manner” is tied to failing to “discern the body.” In this passage, why does that seem to mean more than just having a serious attitude toward the bread and cup? [49:50]
3. Paul brings the church back to the night Jesus was betrayed. Why is the cross the right place to go when a church is being torn up by pride, status, and factions? [58:21]
4. Hebrews 12 says the Lord disciplines those he loves. How does that truth help make sense of Paul’s strong warning without turning God into a harsh and uncaring judge? [53:48]

Application questions

1. Communion calls believers to recognize the whole body of Christ. Is there any kind of person in the church that is easy to overlook, avoid, or quietly dismiss—because of politics, class, race, personality, background, or something else? What might repentance look like there? [45:41]
2. Equality in the body can feel threatening when comfort and privilege have been protected for a long time. Where might comfort, preference, or social ease be making it harder to love brothers and sisters well? [40:17]
3. Paul says the church cannot come to the table while holding on to factions and lovelessness. What are some modern “cliques over communion” habits that need to be named honestly in church life or even in this group? [43:49]
4. “Check yourself lest you wreck yourself” is strong language, but needed language. Before taking communion, what are some heart-level questions a believer should ask to examine whether there is cynicism, contempt, or unresolved division at work? [53:39]
5. Jesus did not die for a political tribe or social club, but to make divided sinners one body. Which identity tends to compete most with identity in Christ—politics, culture, race, class, family background, or something else? How can that be put back in its proper place? [01:00:31]
6. The bread and cup proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. How would communion change if it was approached not just as “Jesus and me,” but as a public declaration that Christ has joined his people together? [01:02:46]
7. If unity in the church helps the watching world believe the Father sent the Son, what would it look like this week to pursue one concrete act of fellowship, reconciliation, or hospitality that makes that unity visible? [01:03:08]