Correcting an Abuse of the Lord’s Supper  –  Tim Long

1 Corinthians 10:14-22

¹⁴Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. ¹⁵I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. ¹⁶The 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? 

¹⁷Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake {Koinonia speaking of fellowship} of the one bread. ¹⁸Consider the people of Israel:4 are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? 

¹⁹What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? ²⁰No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. ²¹You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. ²²Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

1 Corinthians 11:17-33

The Lord’s Supper

¹⁷But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. ¹⁸For, 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, ¹⁹for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. 

²⁰When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. ²¹For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. 

²²What! 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.

²³For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, ²⁴and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for6 you. Do this in remembrance of me.”7 ²⁵In 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.” ²⁶For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

²⁷Whoever, 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. 

²⁸Let a person examine themselves, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 

³⁰That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. ³¹But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. ³²But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

³³So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another—

In Summary —

“And what I am slowly, clumsily, learning is that, at the end of the day, the only way to extinguish desire is with desire. The only way to defeat false worship is with true worship. The only thing that will replace my affection and devotion to these other things is an affection and devotion to a greater thing – to the greatest thing.

And the strange mystery of sanctification is that it is in the midst of our failure and sin, and recognizing what poor lovers we are, what great idolaters we are – it is in the midst of our recognition of how hopeless we are, and how incapable we are of ultimately doing anything about it – it is in the midst of these things that the Gospel of grace is so powerful.

Flee FROM idolatry brothers and sisters. Flee TO Christ.  Rev. Scott Lindsay”

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