The church is diverse. People who follow Jesus come from all kinds of upbringings, social classes, ethnicities, countries, and cultures. The local church is also diverse—everyone comes from a different neighborhood, career, or income bracket. Our differences shouldn’t create divides on Sunday morning, but they often do.
Paul cracks down on the Corinthian church in the passage we’ll look at today. They’re allowing social status to get in the way of their corporate worship. Read 1 Corinthians 11:17–22.
17 But in the following instructions, I cannot praise you. For it sounds as if more harm than good is done when you meet together. 18 First, I hear that there are divisions among you when you meet as a church, and to some extent I believe it. 19 But, of course, there must be divisions among you so that you who have God’s approval will be recognized!
20 When you meet together, you are not really interested in the Lord’s Supper. 21 For some of you hurry to eat your own meal without sharing with others. As a result, some go hungry while others get drunk. 22 What? Don’t you have your own homes for eating and drinking? Or do you really want to disgrace God’s church and shame the poor? What am I supposed to say? Do you want me to praise you? Well, I certainly will not praise you for this!
1 Corinthians 11 (NLT)
Looking at the verses in 1 Corinthians 11:20-22 again, how would you describe the problem in the Corinthian church?
One of the ordinances [rituals commanded by Jesus] of the church is the Lord’s Supper—sometimes called communion. It’s the last meal Jesus ate before going to the cross and we celebrate it to remember what Jesus did for us. It’s a sacred meal and it should unite Christians under Jesus’s sacrifice.
Like many in the early church, Corinthians took the Lord’s Supper as an invitation to eat a meal together as a congregation. But instead of going potluck-style, the Corinthians brought food only for their own families. Those who were too poor to afford a grand meal sat in the corner starving while other church members gorged themselves. Paul wanted nothing of it.
It’s tempting to judge the Corinthians for their behavior. Who would ever treat another Christian that way? But the truth is, we do it too—just maybe not in the same way.
Think about your church for a moment. It can be really easy to split up into cliques at church. We hang around people in our same life stage or our same income bracket. Or, if we think back to yesterday’s discussion, we choose clothing that flaunts our standard of living. We can cause the same kind of division in our church without even noticing it.
We’re going to finish off today with reflection. Choose two of the following categories to reflect on: income, social status, race, personal talents, children, spouse, life stage, upbringing, career, neighborhood, or hobbies. Think about each of your categories in the context of your local church. Would you say you bring unity or division when you talk about those things? What actions associated with those topics could potentially hurt someone in your church?
Worldly things like money and social standing should never divide the church. We’re united through Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection. Coming together on a Sunday to worship God should bring unity—and we can choose to either contribute to or tear apart that unity.
What will it be for you?
Write out one way you’d like to be more aware of how you approach those categories.
Text your response to the above prompting questions to your group and/or share it as a comment below
I think human beings naturally categorize things which I understand. I think being aware of how we might do that but also being mindful to not let it be a divisive thing is difficult but necessary. It is definitely easier to associate with people that are in the same social circles or race but that isn’t what God would want us to do. I think one way that I can be more mindful is not letting things like race create categories. Sometimes I think that someone of a certain race may not be interested in something because of their ethnicity but I think I need to be more mindful and inclusive in this regard. I enjoy worship the most when there is a wide range of people from different social statuses, races and life stages just worshiping God together. God’s Love can overshadow any divisive category and when we worship with one heart I think it is an incredibly awesome and beautiful thing.
I think when seeing the categories I think I can bring unity towards hobbies. I think God gave me the ability to take interest in a lot of things so when talking to people I often don’t find it hard to talk about hobbies. I just have a hard getting into the conversation. I think I’m pretty awkward until you get to know me hahah. I think I can get better at the more heavier topics I’m more a light hearted person but I can definitely work on giving more time in listening to people and sharing my expecetiences and maybe asking them if they can elaborate more so I can understand