Reflection on 1 Corinthians 11:17-19: The Gathering That Changed the World
Reflection on 1 Corinthians 11:17-19: The Gathering That Changed the World
Reflection on 1 Corinthians 11:17-19: The Gathering That Changed the World (NIVUK)
In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval.
Commentary
So how are the Corinthians dysfunctional? Well, it seems from the letter that what they had essentially done was to uncritically import the kind of cultural values of the society that they were part of. And so they were obsessed with status; they were selfish and often attention seeking, and they were using spiritual gifts as a way to show off.
Instead of living lives of service and love, they were arguing and falling out like children in a playground squabbling for attention. And there’s an amazing line. In fact, if you’ve got Bibles in your pews, it’d be well worth having them open at 1 Corinthians. It’s on page 1052 in my Bible because I’ve got a few little references here to look at today. In one of them, chapter 11, verse 17, Paul says of them, “… your meetings do more harm than good.” What a thing to say! Paul is basically saying, listen, it would be better if you didn’t meet together because you do more harm than good. You see what I’m saying? Dysfunctional churches can go wrong. And so, in order to help them to put things right, the apostle uses what nowadays are quite familiar images of what it means to be church but, at the time, would have been utterly revolutionary.