Scripture
Vs 2 Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.
Vs 17 But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse.
Vs 18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you.
Vs 23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you,
Vs 24 … “Do this in remembrance of me.”
Observation
Paul begins here by praising the church for remembering well.
They have remembered well Paul & holding to his teaching.
Then he tells the church he had no praise for them in another matter …
That other matter was for not remembering well.
Not remembering well how to receive the Lord’s Supper.
Something we are to do “in remembrance of Christ.”
It seems in this chapter remembering is something of a theme & important for us to keep literally … in mind.
Why?… Because Paul tells the church it is actually doing more harm than good in their meeting!
Wow! What a charge!
More harm than good in the gathering of one of the first churches.
Application
I often feel like today we tend to almost romanticize the early church.
I even find myself thinking sometimes, “If we could just get back to how the body of Christ was “back then” … In the first days.”
The problem with that … It was still a group of flawed human beings meeting together.
The problems of the modern church gatherings it seems aren’t necessarily all that modern.
Doing more harm than good has been a constant risk as long as the church is made up of human beings.
So, what’s Paul’s recommendation? …
Remember! & Constant Remembering!
That’s what gets us out of our own head & into truth.
“Truth” is what Paul tells us to remember ….
The truth of his teaching … Which he says he received where?
Not from his own thoughts … But directly from The Lord!
The Lord’s Supper is an ultimate “equalizer” of people!
To use it as a creator of division among the church is literally “anti-gospel”!
“Lord keep me in your judgement” …
What an odd prayer I admit … But Paul tells us here it is God’s judgement that disciplines us …
And keeps us from condemnation.
Prayer
Lord keep me in your judgement …
And keep me from my own ideas of truth ….
Keep me in your truth …
In Jesus name,
Amen