ordinary christianity for the world.
Corinth, A Church Divided, 1 Corinthians 10:14-22
Poetic Praise
Participation
1 Corinthians 10:14-22
Paul raised the ante of his accusations against the Corinthian leaders from sexual immorality to idolatry, as we saw in the previous verses of chapter ten. Note that Paul does not recommend that the faithful Corinthian Christians make the effort to save those who have been captured by idolatry. He did not recommend that they maintain fellowship and try to convince the idolaters about the truth of the gospel. Rather, he told them to "flee from idolatry" (v. 14) They were to separate themselves from the idolaters.
He knew that not all of the Corinthians would hear him. Not all had "ears to hear" (Matthew 11:15). Some of those who had been baptized would not hear, would not heed his words, and would not be saved. He was speaking "as to sensible people" (v. 15) — "wise men" in other translations. But the wisdom of those to whom he spoke was not the wisdom of intelligence. He was not speaking of intellectual or academic wisdom. Rather, he had in mind the wisdom of Christ, which he had been preaching from the beginning of this letter. He was speaking to those who had ears to hear, to those who had the ears of the Holy Spirit, to those who had been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. He was not speaking to all who were listening, but only to those who were actively in Christ, to those who could hear him.
But Paul did not know exactly who that was. He didn't know who was really born again and who wasn't. He didn't know who would be able to hear him. That knowledge belongs to God alone. We don't have access to the hearts and minds of others. Knowing this, Paul told them to "judge for (them)selves" (v. 15) what he had to say. Each person would have to judge (krino) — distinguish or decide — for himself whether Paul spoke the truth, and whether or not to heed the truth that Paul spoke. Understanding was not sufficient, Paul called them to action, to flee from idolatry.
Was Paul asking them to rely upon their own resources to make such a determination? Was he assuming that they had sufficient ability in-and-of-themselves to be able to hear him, to be able to correctly understand him, and to be able to make the right decision?
No. Paul knew that they would not be able to do any such thing because he knew that he had not been able to do it on his own, and he knew that he was much smarter, much more committed and better trained in religious disciplines than they were. He couldn't do it himself — and he didn't do it himself. Neither could they.
Paul had been saved against his own will, at least initially. He had been blinded and thrown in the dust when he still hated Christ. Once the Lord had his attention, Paul willingly conceded, of course. But the point was that Paul had not been called to rely upon himself or his own abilities in order to be saved — no Christian is. Rather, we are called to rely upon the ability and the reliability of God's Holy Spirit. We are called to rely upon Jesus Christ, not ourselves. We are called to regeneration, to rebirth. People do not cause their own birth, nor their rebirth. It is the power of God through the Holy Spirit who regenerates people, and it is upon that power that we must rely — before, during and after, 24/7.
When Paul said, "judge for yourselves" (v. 15) he meant that he was teaching them how to make determinations about faithfulness and faithlessness — and that the principle application would always be to themselves. His purpose was to teach the Corinthians about the characteristics of faithfulness. He would lay out the characteristics of faithfulness and contrast them with the characteristics of faithlessness. We will watch for this pattern as his letters to the Corinthians unfold. By laying out the characteristics of faithfulness he would teach them how to judge themselves, and how to grow in faithfulness. His intention was that Christians should judge themselves against the characteristics of faithfulness, and make necessary adjustments.
A better translation of this phrase is "you judge what I say" (MKJV). He was asking them to rely upon the Holy Spirit, who indwells believers. The Holy Spirit would evaluate the gospel that Paul taught and apply it to each believer's own life. With that in mind Paul immediately turned his attention to the sacrament of Communion. What has Communion to do with all of this? Everything.
Paul called upon the sacrament of Communion to illustrate what makes Christians Christian. At the heart of Communion and of Paul's illustration is the mystery of the Trinity. Paul's purpose in this letter to the Corinthians was to teach the difference between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of Christ. That is the theme that he now illustrates with the sacrament — the mystery — of Communion.
He mentioned earlier in this chapter about the role of baptism as a distinguishing mark of a Christian. Christians are baptized people, he said. But not all baptized people are faithful Christians. We discussed that in the previous chapter. Now Paul turns his attention to the other mark of a Christian — Communion. Christians are baptized people who participate in the Lord's Supper. By speaking about these two things — Baptism and Communion — Paul was identifying the central characteristics of a Christian. A Christian is a person who has a new identity in Jesus Christ. And the Trinity is at the heart of our Christian identity.
Just as God is identified as Trinitarian, so are His people, and so is His world. We have been created in God's image, and God is Trinitarian. Christians are to understand the world through God's eyes, and God's eyes are Trinitarian. There is nothing outside of or apart from God. God is all encompassing, "infinite in being and perfection" (WCF 2.1). The point is that God is ultimately one and at the same time God is ultimately three. In God alone there is ultimate unity and ultimate diversity at the same time.
Let me illustrate and apply this idea. How can I be an individual, a unique whole, and at the same time be part of a distinct individual corporate entity (the Body of Christ)? I am who I am in and of myself, yet my identity as a Christian is interwoven will all other Christians. While we use these distinctions all the time, it is quite difficult to provide an ultimate and rational explanation for such definitions and distinctions of personal identity.
While it is difficult to explain the Trinity, it is the most ordinary concept imaginable. Everyone intuitively understands that a thing can be both individual and corporate. Everyone intuitively knows what it means and uses such distinctions every day — everyone, not just Christians. And yet, few people can explain what the Trinity means or unpack its implications. We use a lot of things that we don't understand — cars, computers, microwaves. We don't need to understand everything about a thing to use it. Yet, we can use a thing more effectively when we understand a little about how it works. So, how does the Trinity work?
Being a Christian means being an individual Christian and at the same time being a member of a group of Christians, a member of a Church — the Body of Christ. An individual person may be a Christian, but he cannot be a Christian by himself because being a Christian is a matter of corporate identity as well as individual identity. Christians are called to love, so there must be an other — someone else to love. There's no such thing as a "Lone Ranger Christian." Christianity is both an individual and a corporate affair.
Becoming a Christian means being born again, being regenerated by the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the hearts, minds and lives of believers. Ask a young Christian under three feet tall how he knows he is a Christian and he will likely tell you "because Jesus lives in my heart." This is deep wisdom, and not mere childishness.
While "me" and Jesus live in the same body, it is not simply a matter of my individuality because Jesus, who lives in my heart, also unites me with a larger group of people, who also have the same Jesus living in their hearts, so to speak. Jesus is the bridge between me and God, and also the bridge between me and His people — the Church or Body of Christ.
Paul asks, "The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation (a communion, a fellowship — koino¯nia) in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation (a communion, a fellowship — koinonia) in the body of Christ?" (v. 16). They are not actually questions. Paul is stating facts about the Trinitarian God. To receive the cup is to participate in or unite with Christ. To receive the bread is to participate in or unite with Christ. Communion is for faithful Christians because it is a participation in and/or a union of sorts with Christ. It is an acknowledgment of corporate membership in Christ. It is not mere assent, but involves all of the actual spiritual and legal rights and responsibilities pertaining thereunto.
It is not to be received casually or indiscriminately and especially not unfaithfully. As we will see when we get to the eleventh chapter of First Corinthians, people are to identify themselves as faithful Christians before coming to the Lord's Table, lest they eat and drink judgment on themselves (1 Corinthians 11:29). Participation in the Body of Christ requires self identification as a Christian and faithfulness to that identity.
Most translations translate the Greek (koinonia) as communion rather than participation, but either will do. Communion is not simple union, but it is a kind of union. Where union is a kind of merging or loss of self in something greater, communion is not a loss of self, but an expansion, a clarification or extension of self. In communion both self and other remain clearly defined in the same way that God's Trinitarian parts — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — are clearly distinct, yet identical.
Christians have a unique individual identity, yet an overlap of common identity with Christ and with the community of Christ exists at the same time. There are common elements that belong to the self, to other Christians, and to Christ. The Christian identifies with Jesus Christ, but He does not become Christ, nor does he lose himself in Christ. Rather, his identification in Christ makes him — his self, his individuality — more unique, not less. The sharing of Christian values and Christian character gives his personality increased definition, increased clarity. He becomes more himself in Christ. People become more in Christ than they could ever be apart from Christ.
To participate in something is to take an active part in it. Participation and communion provide the foundation upon which social mores are built. Mores are strongly held social norms or customs, which derive from the established practices of a society or group. Taboos are a subset of mores that forbid a society's most unacceptable behaviors. Taboos are things like incest and murder. The word morality comes from the same root, as does the noun moral. Morality — behavior — is both individual and communal, personal and social. God's covenant is both personal and social. Being a Christian is both personal and social. God is both personal and social.
The point is that participation in the Lord's Supper provides the foundation for social mores and personal morals, which issue from the expression of Christian character through the imitation of Jesus. In other words, the Lord's Supper makes us who we are in Christ, both individually and corporately. It defines us as Christians and sets us apart from non Christians. It is not magical, but it is mysterious. It is spiritual, but it is also real.
Paul goes on to say that our Christian identity is like the bread that we share. It is one loaf, but it is torn into many pieces. Yet, the tearing does not diminish the oneness of the loaf, but rather it enhances it because the loaf is not merely one loaf of bread, but it re-presents the one Body of Christ. The division of the loaf into parts is an expression of the unity of Christ and actually increases the glory of Christ.
The same thing is true about the cup. It begins as one kind of grape, one bottle of wine. Interestingly, the grapes from which it is made have only a slight resemblance to the wine itself. And again, the oneness of the bottle or skin in which the wine was carried is not diminished by those who drink from it. It remains one bottle (or skin), yet, it too is enlarged by the drinking because it re-presents the blood of Christ, the one sacrifice made for the people of Christ. It becomes part of the identity and the unity of the people of Christ. And the glory of Christ is increased with every individual who participates in it.
In the Lord's Supper there is an intermingling of the elements, an intermingling of the unity and diversity of the elements, and of those who participate in the Supper, in such a way that the sum of the individual parts (or participants) is greater than the unity of the whole. Christ Himself is enhanced and expanded by the participation of His people in the Supper (if we can think of God in terms of size, which of course we can't. Nonetheless, Christ grows with His people.)
To clarify what Paul meant, he continued, "Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You 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. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?" (vs. 18-22).
Pointing again to the distinction he makes in Romans 9:6 he reiterates that the people of Israel are those who eat the sacrifices and participate in the "altar." All Israel participated in the sacraments of the Old Testament. That is what defined the people of Israel. And yet, his point was that in spite of the fact of their participation in the religious and cultural practices given to them, some of them were not genuine participants — "not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel" (Romans 9:6). Many Israelites during many periods of history were not faithful. That's the story of the Old Testament. Idolatry continued to plague Israel throughout her existence until it culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem in a.d. 70.
And in the same way the Corinthians were not immune from the temptations of idolatry. Paul clearly spelled out his implication when he said, that the Corinthians "cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons" (v. 21) without falling into the same sin of idolatry that ancient Israel fell into. He said that Christianity is an exclusive religion because God is a jealous God. The effort to participate in pagan holidays and at the same time maintain Christian faithfulness is impossible. It can't be done. Christ is not part of a pantheon of Gods. His position and authority are not shared. All religions do not teach the same things. Christianity is unique because God is unique — Christ is unique. And any position that teaches otherwise is either pagan or apostate.
If you have heard what Paul has said, you will realize that we currently live in a time and in a culture that believes and teaches what is contrary to the truths of Scripture. Indeed, the effort toward religious tolerance that is taught everywhere today is a movement into paganism and apostasy — and it is justified by an appeal to reason, humility and enlightened knowledge (or contemporary sensitivity).
The same things had been going on in Corinth, and Paul was trying to correct them. What some of the Corinthians leaders called reason, humility and enlightened knowledge, Paul called worldly wisdom and contrasted such ideas to Godly wisdom. His point was that what the non Christian world thought was wisdom was revealed in Scripture to be foolishness in the light of Christ.
