The Who of Love | The Confessions of Communion - 1 Corinthians 10 | May 5

Intro

Hey family! How are we all doing?

Today, we are in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. And we’re going to be wrapping up the first of this three part series centered around love. We are finishing up a focus on the Who of love. The next three chapters will be concerning the Way of love. And the three following that will focus in on the Why of Love.

And there is a reason we have grouped these chapters in sets of three. It is because each set forms a literary unit to address specific concerns, all three of which ultimately bring Paul back to the idea or directive of love. We see it very clearly in chapters eight to ten as Paul begins chapter eight by addressing food sacrificed to idols and we’ll see him conclude chapter ten in much the same way with some words about food sacrificed to idols.

In Biblical literature what something like this typically points to is the use of a chiasm. Which is when an idea is communicated one way and then restated again in the reverse order sometimes in the immediately next verse, sometimes chapters later. And the Bible is absolutely full of chiasms. If we look at Genesis chapter nine verse six we see an obvious example, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.”

Another example would be Jesus’ words in Matthew chapter six, “24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

I wouldn't be surprised if that’s what’s happening in this literary unit as well. In fact, I very nearly scrapped everything I had planned on talking about and just finished off this theologically packed letter with three final teachings, one on each literary unit to get to the main point that Paul is trying to make through each set. That’s how important this is.

Quite often, when a chiasm occurs, especially in longer chunks of text, you can trace the repeated ideas back to their common center and find the main point, the main principle that is trying to be communicated. This is because chiasm comes from a greek letter that is identical to our letter X. We trace the wings back to the center and find what matters most. If we do that with these passages we find that Paul is using the subject of meat sacrificed to idols to point to a larger truth.

If this were a Chiasm, the very center would be this paragraph found in chapter 9, “19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”

We already talked quite a bit about this verse last week, but the important thing to note for Paul, the point he is trying to make throughout these three chapters, is that we lay down ourselves, our desires, our preferences for the sake of our brothers in Christ. And as we’ll see today as he continues his discussion and gets distracted along the way, as Paul turns his attention to the “love feast” of Christ, what we’ll see is how much greater it is to be together as one body than make use of the freedom that is ours in Christ and thus hurt or alienate our brother or sister. Jesus is better than all other so-called gods. And we celebrate Him better when we are together.

A RANT ABOUT COMMUNION

Now, what Paul is primarily going to do in chapter 10 is turn his attention to what happens when believers gather to eat together, when they commune around the table. And in some ways he’s almost utilizing the framework of the feast of the tabernacle that we see in Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 14:22-29 says, “22 “You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. 23 And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. 24 And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, when the Lord your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the Lord your God chooses, to set his name there, 25 then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the Lord your God chooses 26 and spend the money for whatever you desire—oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household. 27 And you shall not neglect the Levite who is within your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance with you. 28 At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. 29 And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.”

Communion, the Lord’s Supper, references several important feasts throughout the Bible from the Garden, to Passover, and even Revelation, while at the same time it maintains its own distinct purpose and character. But here we see Deuteronomy making some very clear influences on how the early Church practiced communion. It was more than a meal, it was something special as a religious observance and act of devotion. Communion wasn’t a meal in and of itself, but the practice seemed to have been integrated during a meal that included meat and alcohol, borrowing from Deuteronomy and the traditions of Passover. It was very much a mixed bag of status and authority. There were the well-to-do as well as the poor. In fact, in Corinth the wealthier seemed to be using it as an opportunity to party and get drunk, which Paul frowns upon. Overall, it was an opportunity to rejoice before the Lord in their feasting. It was a celebration.

So then, what 1 Corinthians 10 is about, in essence, is the way the Corinthians had overestimated the power of the Lord's Supper as sacramental food, while at the same time underestimating the purpose of the Lord's Supper as spiritual fellowship with Christ and their brothers and sisters in Christ.

“In other words, they saw eating the bread and drinking the cup as a kind of sacramental antidote to any ill effects that might come from tasting the poison of idolatry. And so they overestimated the power of the Lord's Supper.

And they failed to see that the purpose of eating the bread and drinking the cup was to share in the life of Christ and to fellowship with him as one body. And so they underestimated the purpose of the Lord's Supper, and thus its true power in the fight against idolatry and sin.”

Chapter 10 starts out, “1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.”

In one regard, there is no definitive power in the bread or in the cup, or in the act of eating the metaphorical flesh of Christ or drinking the metaphorical blood of Christ. You could do this as often as you like, three times a day or even more, and you could still continue to choose that which is displeasing to God–to choose things that are not God.

Now, there would be consequences to be sure. In chapter 11 Paul will write, “27 Whoever, 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. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.” It is of utmost importance to take seriously what we are doing each week.

Hebrews 11 tells us that pleasing God is a product of a faith that seeks the Lord and produces in itself righteousness. Acts of religious devotion such as participating in the Lord’s supper, participating in communion, participating in this “love feast” are only as useful as the heart that would set out to seek the Lord rather than remedy a life of choosing other things.

This is where Paul begins to marry these two ideas of Christian feasting with meat sacrificed to idols and draw comparisons of how the Corinthians were asking these questions to justify going to worldly parties to conduct business where there would be outward idolatry, but their own feasts of fellowship demonstrate their inward idolatrous nature, that they are breaking the laws of love in the way they treat their fellow believers.

“Martin Luther once said the fundamental problem in law-breaking is always idolatry. In other words, we never break the other commandments without first breaking the commandment against idolatry. (A Treatise on Good Works parts X, XI)”

The commandment we all break first is. “You shall have no other gods.” Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord God with ALL of our heart, ALL of our strength, ALL of our minds (Luke 10:27). All of our sin ultimately stems from not loving God with ALL. We look to other things for pleasure, for joy, for satisfaction.

IDOLATRY GETS IN THE WAY

“The human condition is driven by idolatry.”

We replace the Who of love with other things. When those things become what we love we transgress and fall into sin, into idolatry. We trade the ocean of God with a muddy puddle as Bri shared with us a few weeks ago. I wonder if at some point in your childhood you were unconsciously influenced by someone paraphrasing a quote from C.S. Lewis.

In the Weight of Glory Lewis writes, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. (25–26)”

This is right out of the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, “7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.”

And I hate to tell you, idolatry is far more subversive than those big three; drink, sex, and ambition. It is as subtle as control. There are plenty of Christians out there who integrate practices into their daily routines to gain a semblance of control over their circumstances: diet, exercise, and health regimes can all be idols. Tribal practices from hundreds or maybe thousands of years ago that have been integrated into our culture and accepted even by Christians such as smudging, the burning of herbs such as sage to cleanse negative energy can be idolatrous practices.

I’ve been meditating on Asa, who was one of the good kings of Judah in the divided kingdom. At the end of his life, Asa drifted from the Lord. And it says that, “Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians.” Now this is not saying don’t get help from doctors but even then we should be seeking the Lord first and not other things.

Idolatry is as subtle as comfort. Building up things in our life so that we don’t have to be inconvenienced. Has that thought or phrase ever influenced any of your decisions making, lifestyle choices, purchasing history, or caused arguments with your loved ones? “I just don’t want to be inconvenienced.”

About once every couple years I have an absolute meltdown. Because the things I want, you see, all cost about $3,000 or more. Like a one-wheel. And so, you can ask Jenny, I’m like I’m going to buy one, I’m going to do it. And then I throw a tantrum because I know I’m not going to actually do it. I’m much too sensible to just drop that much money on something that I don’t really need. Idolatry is as subtle as comfort.

Idolatry is as subtle as security. My friend Joe from New Zealand is so amazed by the culture of Christians in the South, even pastors, to have safes or rooms full of guns. Even for hunting let alone protection that’s a bit much. It has to be justified by a kitschy sign; “This house is protected by the good Lord and a gun, you might meet both if you enter unwelcomed.” Or, “In God we trust, guns are just a backup.” Idolatry is as subtle as security.

And so too, religious ceremonies can be idolatrous when the focus is on the rite at the expense of the God behind it. To easily ceremonies become rituals to win one over on God. They become spiritual tug-of-wars to gain power, control, security over our earthly circumstances which are quite simply out of our control.

There’s a story in Acts 19 that I love where Paul is doing his thing, very similar to what we’re doing right now in fact, and the fear of the Lord falls on the people. And so they all start bringing out these spell books and burning them. They were cut to the heart. And the thing about this story is that these are Christians. These are believers. What “spell books” are you still holding on to?

There is the very real possibility that we too may have lost all sense of the weight and wonder of communion.

WE ARE PARTAKERS

“15 I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 The 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? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. 18 Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? 19 What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 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. 21 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. 22 Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? (1 Corinthians 10:15-22)”

You can’t have your toe in Christianity and your toe in other things. Jesus doesn’t negotiate like we do with our kids at dinner. One more bite? How about five more bites? Two more bites? How about you eat the whole plate, okay?

As such, communion is not an act of eating, but an act of participation. As we partake we identify ourselves fully as in Christ.

Jesus doesn’t offer us a buffet style menu of beliefs and teachings to pick and choose from. He’s patient but he doesn’t negotiate.

Communion is more than just food passing through our mouths and into our digestive systems. It is an opportunity to praise, and rejoice, and enjoy the Lord. To remind us continually what life is all about.

Communion is a picture of you saying, “This is my story. This is who I am. Everything else is a lie.”

There’s another quote from C.S. Lewis in his Reflections on the Psalms where he muses, “The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about… I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation… The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever”. But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.”

Enjoying God is the essence of praising God. Enjoying God from the heart is essential to glorifying God from the heart. Communion is a picture of you saying, “This is my story. This is who I am. My joy is in the Lord. I delight in God.”

Listen to 1 Peter 3:18: “Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” — that he might bring us to God in whose presence is fullness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).

This is my story. This is who I am. My joy is in the Lord. I delight in God.

IT’S FOR YOUR NEIGHBOR

Paul continues, 23 “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. 24 Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. 25 Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. 26 For “the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof.” 27 If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience— 29 I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience?

Here are those repeated phrases once again which we saw a few chapters ago. The Corinthians had this mantra, “All things are lawful.” People today do the same thing, they start out with a truth and twist it to justify a desire. “We’re free right? God is love so there is no judgment. Do what you want.” “But your freedom is killing your soul”, Paul says. “It’s killing your neighbor.”

Let me ask you a question, “How much is your neighbor’s faith your priority? How about your spouse’s faith? How much are you thinking of your neighbor’s faith when it comes to the way you live?”

And I know that the idea of neighbor can be confusing. Some of us live miles away from our neighbors. Some of us have never even met our neighbors. It was just as confusing back then as it is now. Thankfully, Jesus answers the question, “who is my neighbor” in the parable of the good Samaritan and He defines the term for us. I’m not going to read it for the sake of time, but Jesus directs the question back at us. Whom can you be a neighbor to? Whom can you be for? Whom can you want Jesus for? Whom can you work for their spiritual good? That’s your neighbor. It’s a pretty open ended category. Who is in your life right now that you can be a neighbor to?

Is there anything in your life and the way you live that would confuse them, that would get in the way of their journey toward Christ? The unfortunate part of Christianity sometimes is the people involved. Most people who are dechurched left because of people, not God. We’re not talking about being perfect, but being consistent. Don’t live in a way that confuses those around you.

Communion should be a demonstration of unity, a demonstration that we are equal in our need for Jesus. You will never meet a person that doesn’t need Jesus. That includes you. As Paul writes to these so-called spiritual giants, he is constantly reminding us that we all need Jesus. We are equal in our need for Jesus. Maturity is found as we see ourselves more clearly in need rather than as a people who have it all figured out.

And this position of need should draw us together rather than push us apart. We are all partakers. Not one of us has arrived here on our own merit. We haven’t earned it. We are identified with Jesus in His life, and His death, and His resurrection. It unites us across all barriers. It is the picture in Revelation that says, “9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10)

Communion makes the statement: “These are my people. And nothing comes between us.”

THE OBJECT OF THE LOVE FEAST

This is a family meal. Christ has taken us all in — in all our diversity, in all our stories, in all our sinfulness, in all of our sufferings. Because there is only one true bread from heaven, all who believe in him are one body, eating and drinking spiritually from one great shared hope.

How much greater, then, is the new covenant family meal that celebrates the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins? How much greater that God does not dwell in a temple far away, but instead indwells us as his temple so that when we come to the Table, Christ is with us by his Spirit? How much greater that we are not joined by circumcision into a physical, temporary nation, but instead joined by the blood of Christ into a spiritual, eternal family?

30 If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? 31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 32 Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, 33 just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.

The Lord's Supper is precious beyond words as a gift from Jesus to his church not only as a reminder of his death for us, but also as an occasion when he draws near to nourish our intimacy with him and strengthen us by his shed blood and his body–by his presence.

In communion we make the firm declaration, “Jesus is my God”. Jesus is my God, and whatever He says goes. All that I am belongs to Him. All that I do is done for Him. Jesus is my God and whatever He says goes.

Do you see that? Do you feel that? To be a disciple means to love God with ALL. Do you see how your occupation is there to serve and glorify God? All that I am belongs to Him. All that I do is done for Him. Jesus is my God and whatever He says goes.

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These are the statements we make every week as we eat this bread and drink from this cup. This is my story. This is who I am. Everything else is a lie. These are my people. And nothing comes between us. Jesus is my God. Whatever he says goes.

These are the confessions we live by as the family of God.