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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - 1 Corinthians 11:30 - 11:34
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A final admonition to use care in going to the Sacrament:
v. 30. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep.
v. 31. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
v. 32. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with, the world.
v. 33. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.
v. 34. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come.
Practically all commentators agree in understanding v. 30 of physical inflictions and infirmities, of debility and ill health, many of them adding that these conditions were the result of the intemperance alluded to in v. 21. Others have suggested that such extraordinary and direct visitations and bodily punishments for spiritual shortcomings were a feature of the apostolic age. But the text itself suggests nothing of the kind, and the idea of believing some of the Corinthian Christians sleeping in physical death agrees neither with the usage of the word nor with the doctrine of Scriptures on this point. The meaning of the apostle is plain: Many of the members in their own midst were weak, they were lacking in spiritual strength, Mat_26:41; Rom_14:1-2; 1Co_1:27; 1Co_9:22; others were seriously ill in spirit, lacking the strength and vigor of the ideal Christian, Mat_9:12; Luk_5:31; and still others were dozing in spiritual sleep, Eph_5:14; 1Th_5:6, and therefore lacked the watchfulness, the spiritual vigilance, which should mark the Christian at all times, lest he fall into the snares of the devil, 1Pe_5:8. In other words, many of the Corinthian Christians, though still nominally believers and looked upon as members of the congregation in good standing, were actually in a spiritual state, which showed that energetic measures were needed to bring them back to true faith and the active life in Christ. Then, as now, this condition was the result of misusing the Sacrament, of eating and drinking unworthily, of not making the proper discrimination between the Lord's Supper and all other eating and drinking.
This sad state of affairs might have been avoided by the vigilance which should characterize the Christians at all times: If, however, we discriminated ourselves, we should not be judged. An earnest self-examination before every communion, together with a frank condemnation of everything found to deviate from the norm of God's holy will, saves believers from the judgment of unworthy communicants. But now that we are under judgment, since the Lord criticizes and condemns our laxity and irreverence with regard to the use of His Holy Supper, His is a pedagogical purpose. Through the earnest reproof of the apostle the Lord was chastising, disciplining, the Christians of Corinth, lest they continue in their spiritual sleep and in the end fall under the pronouncement of the final damnation.
And so the apostle, having summoned all the arguments which were necessary to bring the Corinthians to the realization of their situation, repeats his admonition in conclusion: Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. They should not continue the practice of splitting up into parties and cliques and, as a consequence, change the love-feast preceding the Lord's Supper into a debauch, but they should celebrate also this decently and together, lest the Eucharist be desecrated. And they should avoid the appearance of feasting. If anyone was hungry, he should attend to the satisfying of his hunger at home, in order that they did not assemble for worse, for judgment. Other matters which pertained to proper order and decency in the celebration of the Eucharist and public worship, Paul intended to regulate according as he might come. He did not yet know, at that time, when he might be able to visit Corinth, but he was determined to come as soon as circumstances would permit his making the journey.
Summary.The apostle discusses the veiling of women in church services, together with their position in the congregation, he chides the Corinthian Christians for the evidences of divisions among them as these appeared even in the celebration of the Eucharist, and speaks at length of the preparation for, and the proper celebration of, the Lord's Supper.