1 Corinthians 11:17

Now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not, that you come together not for the better but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and I partly believe it... When you come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. For in eating, everyone takes before other his own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunk. What? Have you not houses to eat and drink in? Or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.

When a church gathers, is it for the better — or for the worse?

From Commendation to Condemnation

At the open of chapter 11, Paul began with a commendation. In verse 2 he said, "Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things, and you keep the ordinances as I delivered them unto you." But when we come to verse 17, the tone shifts to condemnation: "Now in this that I declare unto you, I do not praise you, that when you come together, you come together not for the better, but for the worse."

The word translated church is the Greek ekklesia — assembly, gathering, congregation. It didn't only describe the church of God; in the ancient Roman world, any large public assembly could be called an ekklesia. But in the New Testament, the church is the gathering of people under the banner, headship, and authority of Jesus. It never refers to a place, a building, or a location — always to the group that gathers.

In Corinth, the believers were scattered throughout the city. There was no single large meeting place; they gathered in homes or whatever venues they could find. And when they gathered, Paul says, nothing good was coming out of it.

Gathering for the Better

When the body of believers gathers as the church of God, it should be for the better. The point of gathering is the exaltation of God through worship and the edification and equipping of the body of Christ. As Ephesians 4 says, God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers "for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ."

But in Corinth, it wasn't for the better. Their gathering didn't end in the exaltation of God or the building up of the body. It ended in jealousy, division, and immorality. So you start to wonder — why even get together if this is the result? Paul essentially says that if this is going to be the outcome, it would have been better for the Corinthians not to gather at all.

When Worship Becomes Worthless

That may sound shocking, but there is a way in which our worship can become worthless — even wickedness. Consider Isaiah 1, verse 11. God, speaking through Isaiah, says:

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? I am full of your burnt offerings... Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abomination unto me. Your new moons, your Sabbaths, your calling of assemblies. I cannot. Away with it... When you make many prayers, I will not hear, for your hands are full of blood.

In the eighth century BC, Israel had become stubborn and rebellious, departed from the Lord in their hearts. Yet they still went to the temple, offered sacrifices, and observed the feasts. There was an appearance of godliness devoid of any real devotion to God. So through Isaiah, God says, "Just stop."

He says it again through Amos in chapter 5, verse 21: "I hate, I despise your feast days... Take thou away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of thy vials." Could you imagine God saying today, "I don't want to hear your songs anymore"?

And in Malachi 1, verse 10 — God's last words before the coming of Messiah — perhaps the heaviest of all: "Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar. I am not pleased with you, says the Lord Almighty." It's so bad that God wishes someone would have enough guts to lock the doors, because their hearts were so far from Him that it was more sinful for them to be there than to stay away.

The Question We Must Ask

Hebrews 11:16 implies there's a type of person God is ashamed to be called their God — that when they say "I'm a Christian," God responds, "Could you not say that?" Because of the way they live, their witness is shameful to Him.

So we have to consider: Are we gathering together for the better or for the worse? Is it for the glory of God and the growth of the body of Christ? Or are we gathering for our own glory, our own greed, our own gluttonous appetites? That's exactly what was happening at Corinth.

Divisions Among You

Verse 18: "For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it." Paul is giving them the benefit of the doubt — he already knew full well there were divisions. No wonder Ray Stedman used to call 1 Corinthians "1 Californians."

The word for divisions in the Greek is schisma, from which we get schism. As we saw earlier in 1 Corinthians 1, the Corinthian body had already divided itself based on the personalities of its leaders. It wasn't simply that the church was too big to meet in one place — they separated out of desire. In 1 Corinthians 1:10, Paul addresses it: people were saying, "I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas, and I am of Christ." Paul asks, "Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you?"

Divided by Class and Gifts

But the divisions went much deeper than leaders. Within those fellowships, people divided along social lines. The church at Corinth — and the early church in general — was filled with people from different backgrounds. Many were slaves; others were masters. When they gathered, the wealthy grouped over here and didn't associate with the not-so-wealthy over there.

As chapter 12 unfolds, we'll see they also divided according to spiritual gifts — the gifted ones and the not-so-gifted ones. "I speak with tongues and you don't, so I can't hang out with you." What they failed to recognize is that those gifts were given to minister to one another and to God, not for personal pride. So Paul exhorts in 1 Corinthians 12:25 that "there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another."

This social division is clearly seen in the world, and it seems to get worse every day, with people pouring fuel on the fire. I saw Michael Moore — a millionaire himself — on MSNBC this week, holding handcuffs, looking into the camera at the Forbes 400, saying, "We're coming for you, you should be arrested for all your wealth." He needs to remove the plank from his own eye. He does not speak for me. But in the church, this kind of social warfare should never be the case.

One in Christ

Look at the standard for the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:13: "For by one spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free." Galatians 3:26-28: "You are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus... There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ." And Colossians 3:11: "There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all in all."

The body of Christ is to be open to all who would come. It's not a social club, not a country club. There ought not to be special seats for the top ten tithers, a high-IQ row, a blessed balcony, or a spiritual-elite corner. But at Corinth, there was. All are one and stand on equal foundation at the foot of the cross. This carnality should be crucified.

Heresies That Reveal the Approved

Verse 19: "For there must also be heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." This can be confusing, especially in some translations. The key is that two different Greek words appear here. In verse 18, divisions is schisma. But in verse 19, the King James is the better translation — the word is hyreses, "heresies."

Schisms happen when we alienate ourselves from one another over foolish things — when people leave a church because of grudges. That grudge creeps in and festers like something forgotten in the back of the refrigerator. It grows, because you can't keep it to yourself; you talk with two or three dozen others under the guise of "we need to pray about this." But the prayer meeting just becomes a time of gossip. It builds into a root of bitterness, and people pick up their baseball bat and go to another diamond. It's far easier to pick up and go than to sit down, settle the issue, and move on. The same thing happens in marriage, with more than 50% ending in divorce.

Heresy, in contrast to schism, has to do with disagreements about doctrine — what the Bible actually says. While not necessarily good, heresy is actually better than schism, because it challenges the body to dig in and determine, "Is that exactly what the Bible says?" It causes us to return to the Word.

Testing Truth Against Error

The Lord allows doctrinal disagreements to form, for through them He makes manifest the distinction between truth and error. Someone says the Bible teaches Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer, a created being. Does it? Let's look. Someone says you'll become a god with your own planet, or that you must be baptized to be saved. Can you give me chapter and verse? Let's consider whether that's really what Scripture teaches.

When Paul was about to leave Ephesus, he warned that "seditious heresies" would come in, and that's why he stayed more than two years instructing them in the Word. Yes, doctrinal differences have produced many denominations — but through that same proving of truth, we've determined that groups like the Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses are not orthodox but heretical cults. The creeds of the church — Nicene, Apostles' — developed precisely when heresy came in and the church said, "Time out. Is this true?" I can understand a Lutheran, Baptist, or Presbyterian church. But there should never be a "first church of the really wealthy people," or an assembly formed against the church down the road because we didn't like them.

A Supper That Wasn't the Lord's

Verse 20: "When you come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper." As we'll see in verse 23, Paul had instructed the Corinthians in the Lord's Supper when he established the church: the Lord Jesus took bread, broke it, and said, "This is my body, broken for you; do this in remembrance of me," and likewise the cup, "the New Covenant in my blood... as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."

So they did it often. As the church grew, a tradition developed called the Agape Feast — essentially a potluck. Ray Stedman said it well: "I like potluck suppers, but I don't like the name. I'm physically opposed to the first syllable, pot, and theologically opposed to the second syllable, luck." Pliny the Younger, writing to Emperor Trajan in the early second century, described how Christians gathered for a common meal — that agape feast — and then partook of the Lord's Supper at the end. That makes sense.

But Paul had a problem. Verse 21: "For in eating everyone takes before other his own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunk." The fortunate brought food and wine and gorged themselves to the point of gluttony and drunkenness, while the poor who had nothing sat isolated in the corner. So Paul says: don't call that the Lord's Supper. That's not at all what it is.

What the Church Should Actually Do

If the church isn't to do what Paul describes — which looks very much like modern fellowship — then what should it do when it gathers? One of the best answers is Acts 2:42: "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and in fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers."

The word translated fellowship is koinonia, which implies corporate public worship. So the church gathers for instruction in apostolic teaching, corporate worship, breaking of bread, and prayer. That doesn't mean we never do anything else in His name — but we can't slap the label "church of God" on a potluck or a ball game and call that sufficient. "I had my church today — I went to a church potluck." No.

What was happening in the Corinthian agape was anything but agape. When we reach 1 Corinthians 13, we'll see that word defined — often translated charity in the King James. They withheld their food, isolated their portions, and said, "Mine." It's what we learn to say at age two. They displayed no love, then threw in the Lord's Supper and called it church. If you cannot show love, don't call it a love feast.

Things Better Left Outside the Gathering

Verse 22: "What? Have you not houses to eat and drink in? Or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not." It seems the Corinthians had written to Paul bragging about this great Agape Feast. He replies: I've heard about it — people committing gluttony, getting drunk, and excluding those who have nothing. How is that agape? I cannot praise you.

There are certain things we have liberty to in Christ, but they're better left outside the gathering of the body of Christ. If you're going to play bingo, please don't call it church or do it at church. If you're in a multi-level marketing business, don't run it from within the church or hold a "Bible study" that's really an Amway meeting. We must consider how we represent Christ and treat His body in the things we do.

When we gather in Christ's name, is our behavior glorifying and honorable to God? Are we honoring Him in our softball teams, in that fellowship meal, in the prayer meeting that degrades into gossip, in the work day or youth outing? We go under the banner of the church of God, declaring to people, "We're Christians." Do they see honor, honesty, integrity, the fruit of the Spirit — or do they see that we're just like the rest of the world?

What Does the World See?

At the end of John's Gospel, and in Matthew, Jesus enters the temple, makes a whip of cords, and drives out the money changers, saying, "This shall be called a house of prayer for all nations." Scholars believe that marketplace was in the court of the Gentiles — the only place where non-Jews could come to see and experience the worship of the one true God. What did they see? They concluded God was all about money — gouging on exchange rates, selling substandard livestock at exorbitant prices.

There's an amazing contrast between the Corinthian church and the Jerusalem church in Acts 4, where many sold all they had and gave to those in need. The Corinthians said, "This is mine." The Jerusalem church wasn't perfect — Ananias and Sapphira lied about their gift in Acts 5 and God dealt with them swiftly — but they genuinely shared. The Corinthians professed to be believers, but their lives did not portray it.

So we have to question ourselves. We announce to the world by our t-shirts and bumper stickers that we're Christians. Does God in heaven respond, "Oh no — really?" How are we representing Jesus to our coworkers, family, and community? Here's a heavy one: What would your coworkers say about you if another believer asked them? What would your spouse say? I'll leave you with that.

Closing Prayer

Lord, I thank you that your word is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, able to cut deep, dividing between soul and spirit, joint and marrow, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our hearts. Sometimes it's painful, Lord. But we thank you that your word is living and that you speak to us. You desire to transform us, that your church, your gathering, would take on a totally different nature than the self-focused, self-centered, self-idolizing gatherings of this world.

Lord, would you transform my heart and my mind, transform the way I interact with my family and friends, that those in this world would see and recognize you — that you would show up more through us than we ourselves. We need you to work in this way, Lord. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.