1 Corinthians 11 – [Part 1] – “Grown Up Sins”

The following post is in response to comments on THIS entry.

I guess I better get something underway in terms of answering your question.

I think I should probably begin with 1 Cor 11 (Or 1 Cor 10-12).

Background
In the pericope of our concern, 1 Corinthians 10-12, I think there are two big themes:

1] the UNITY of the baptized and communing body, and

2] the HOLINESS of the baptized and communing body.

These are themes for the larger letter of 1 Corinthians as a whole, and we can feel it strongly when we get to the end of 1 Cor 11 where disunity is a means of unholiness – and it is judged harshly.

My Goal
1 Cor 11 is NOT telling all to check if they are Christians, or if they understand doctrine.  It is telling the people to make sure they are not use the meal of unity to dishonor his brother with hypocritcal disunity.  We should examine this all the time, so that we can eat in peace.  But it is not a “moment of the meal” examination which excludes the young and the mentally handicapped.  This can be demonstrated contextually.

My goal is to show that Paul does not put restrictions on meal participation based on age or ability.  In fact, he doesn’t tell anyone NOT to eat; rather he tells us not to mock God with blasphemous, gross, or publicly hypocritical sins — grown up sins.

Paul’s goal is to prevent sin.  So he is saying: “Repent! Then eat as clean people…”  Not, “If you are a sinner, you should sit it out to be safe.”

Flat out, Paul has been saying that gross, public immorality, idolatry and hypocritically using the fellowship meal to exclude the poor are dangerous ways to live.  In fact, since you are GOING to eat, you will be judged for certain behaviors.

Please note: I am not talking about “getting saved or staying saved by works;” instead, I am talking about, “fearing God’s discipline enough to change.”

Presumably, it is Christians who need to worry about Paul’s threat in the passage; it is MEMBERS who need worry.  Of course, yes we all sin.  But there are things with which God is not patient, especially when the church defiles his name among the gentiles.  The idea of defiling the name of God among the Gentiles (See Ezek 36.22-32) is common in Paul (Rom 2.24), and is especially chilling in 1 Corinthians (see 5.1-5).

There we actually see the idea of immorality making the meal defiled, and the church BARRING the meal from the publicly known immoral ones.

¹It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. ²And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

³For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. ⁴When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, ⁵you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

⁶ Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? ⁷Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. ⁸Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

⁹I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— ¹⁰ not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. ¹¹But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. ¹²For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? ¹³God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

This dynamic continues in the epistle.  In 1 Cor 10, we look to OT saints who were baptized, communing and united, but whose gross immorality, idolatry and mocking of God received God’s judgment.

“Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.”  (1 Cor 10.6)

1 Cor 11 says that we defile our eating by mocking the poor, and so mocking members of the Messiah’s very body.  We use the occasion of the Lord’s meal to bring our own fancy sack lunches and eat and get drunk in front of the poor who end up with nothing (1 Cor 11.20-22).  A meal of unity for disunity, of fellowship for division, of koinwnia which is used to proclaim my wealth and status over another’s poverty.

THAT is what must be “examined” for (v 28).  I am to make sure I am NOT DOING THAT.  If I do I am not “recognizing the body” (v 29) in the meal.  I think these verses can faithfully be read this way:

²⁸Let a person examine himself, then, and [THEN repentantly or cleanly] EAT of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹For anyone who eats and drinks without rightly recognizing the makeup of the body [including the poor] eats and drinks judgment on himself.

What if Starbucks Marketed Like a Church [Beyond Relevance]

Prince of God – Son of God

Giving infants the ROYAL treatment they deserve.

I imagine that nobody has been on pins and needles to hear my review of chapter one of The Auburn Avenue Theology: Pros and Cons – Debating the Federal Vision. For some reason, I just CAN’T get through the review of chapter 1, even though I have read it three times.

—so—

Instead of waiting until I can get the whole thing together, I will skip the theaters and send this tidbit direct to video…or just play it here [much of this is my own wording or reasoning, but inspired by a paragraph in Wilson's work]:

Think of all the adult people you know at church.

Not just any long term visitor, but actual recognized members of the church. Now ask – do you treat these people like Christians? You have to treat them as Christians- unless you have enough proof to excommunicate them (declaring thus that they are not-faithfilled toward the Lord).

When an adult unbeliever converts – we baptize them, and afterwards everything we do toward them is with the normal assumption that they are Christians. BUT WAIT!, you say. Some of them will prove to be false.

You are right. But until they do, you base their treatment on their baptism; this is CLEAR:

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

(Gal 3.27)

In fact, Paul explicitly uses baptism of ALL church members to prove UNITY of all church members so that they have to treat each other equally; see the next verse.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

(3.28)

They are all ONE if they are “in Christ.”

—–So how do we know a man is “in Christ”?

—–ANSWER: “All the baptized have put on [become part of] the Christ, so none of you can act superior.”

If we treat Christians as Christians, then until a person proves to be a dead branch IN JESUS that God will break off and throw into the fire (John 15.1-6), we must accept them as part of the church – they are IN JESUS. And we say to them along with all of God’s people: “Hear O Israel, Yhwh OUR God, Yhwh is one God” (Deut 6.4 – My rephrasing – not inaccurate).

Here is the big therefore:

Therefore, we must treat baptized children the same way. Like Christians. WAIT, the Kingdom can’t belong to those too young to believe?

Now they were bringing EVEN INFANTS to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for TO SUCH BELONGS THE KINGDOM OF GOD. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not RECEIVE THE KINGDOM LIKE A CHILD shall not enter it.”

(Luke 18.15-17)

Part of the rebuke to us is that THE PEOPLE WE SHOULD BE ASKING ADVICE FROM ABOUT HOW TO GET THE KINGDOM RIGHT IS THE INFANTS.

In the biblical pattern, it isn’t just any random child, or every child, but the children of believers who are set apart for God through his covenant. (Gen 17, Ac 2.38-39, 1 Cor 7.13-15).

Will some of them leave the church? Yes, some will. But in the same way as there are some adults who leave even after profession and baptism and who seem to be believers.

But we expect all people who are covenant members to be believers.  And we should expect it, trusting God’s promise in Baptism: that the people of God, as a group are saved. So we say to everyone in the group – “You are saved.” Even the Infants.

Which is what we do in Baptism, AND the Lord’s Supper.

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–All scripture referrences, unless otherwise noted, are English Standard Version, thanks to Bible Gateway.