Examining Self-Examination Within A Group of Other-Examiners

This is the study page for the Thursday Night Bible Study meeting September 18 to study the rest of 1 Corinthians 11.  It's taken about 2 weeks to finally get to this passage, but I believe we can finally get some of this covered.  It's important stuff.

Read through the whole chapter again at least once.  Then focus on verses 17 through the end.  This is specifically about the Lord's Supper/Communion and the problems with their practice.  The exact details are sketchy, so read carefully.  Try and get a sense of what was happening when they practiced the Supper.  Pay specific attention to differences from the way we practice today.

After you've read through the passage several times, jotting down your own observations and questions to bring to the group, read through again with the questions below:

• Switching gears, he says, 'But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you...'  What instruction, the one he concluded, or the one coming up?  And if the one concluded, why would he start it with a statement that seems to imply he does praise them?  If the one coming up, then what do you make of the 'praise' in verse 2?
• Read 1 Corinthians 1:10 and 11.  Why do you think Paul would put 'in part' about his belief of 'divisions' when he's already covered some of them?  What might that mean for this particular issue?
• After criticizing their 'divisions' at the beginning of the letter, he now claims they are necessary?  What do you think he means by that?
• In their practice of the Lord's Supper, Paul says it has stopped being the Lord's Supper.  Why do you think that would be the case?
• Paul describes what they are doing in verses 21 and 22.  How would you describe what they are doing?  For instance, where do you think this happens?  Try, as best as you can, to remove your own 21st Century practice out of the mix, and imagine what is happening.
• Paul repeats for them what he had delivered to them when he was there.  Where does he say he got it?  What do you think he means by 'I received from the Lord...' since he wasn't a disciple of Jesus?
• Paul uses a word 'remembrance' in his quotes of Jesus in verses 24 and 25. Look it up here.  What do you think could be another or even better English word choice?
• What do you think about Paul's point of the Lord's Supper in verse 26?  Is that what it's all about to you?
• What is Paul's claim that to eat the Lord's Supper in an 'unworthy manner' is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord tied back to?  Why does that make you guilty of the body and blood of the Lord?
• Look up the word, 'examine' here.  What other English words would work well here?
• What do you think you should be looking for in this examination?
• What are the consequences for not examining yourself as you take the Lord's Supper?
• Considering the consequences, what do you make of verse 32?  Do you think Paul is saying it's for our own good when we die because we take the Lord's Supper unworthily?
• Paul applies this to the specific practice in Corinth in verses 33 and 34.  How do you think we should apply it in our worship?

That should/may keep us occupied for an hour.  After this it's on to expression of 'gifts'.  Hopefully this will enlighten us about our own practice since this is a very common practice among modern churches, where gifts are more controversial than common.