New Testament in a Year

¹⁷ I have no praise for you as I instruct you in the following matter: When you gather, it results in more harm than good. ¹⁸ In the first place, I hear that when you gather as a church you split up into opposing groups. I believe some of what I hear. ¹⁹ Factions have to exist in order to make it clear who the genuine believers among you are.

²⁰ When you gather in the same place, you can’t possibly be eating the Lord’s Supper. ²¹ Each of you eats his own supper ⌞without waiting for each other⌟. So one person goes hungry and another gets drunk. ²² Don’t you have homes in which to eat and drink? Do you despise God’s church and embarrass people who don’t have anything to eat? What can I say to you? Should I praise you? I won’t praise you for this. ²³ After all, I passed on to you what I had received from the Lord.

On the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread ²⁴ and spoke a prayer of thanksgiving. He broke the bread and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.” ²⁵ When supper was over, he did the same with the cup. He said, “This cup is the new promise ^[a] made with my blood. Every time you drink from it, do it to remember me.” ²⁶ Every time you eat this bread and drink from this cup, you tell about the Lord’s death until he comes.

²⁷ Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks from the Lord’s cup in an improper way will be held responsible for the Lord’s body and blood. ²⁸ With this in mind, individuals must determine whether what they are doing is proper when they eat the bread and drink from the cup. ²⁹ Anyone who eats and drinks is eating and drinking a judgment against himself when he doesn’t recognize the Lord’s body.

³⁰ This is the reason why many of you are weak and sick and quite a number ⌞of you⌟ have died. ³¹ If we were judging ourselves correctly, we would not be judged. ³² But when the Lord judges us, he disciplines us so that we won’t be condemned along with the rest of the world.

³³ Therefore, brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, wait for each other. ³⁴ Whoever is hungry should eat at home so that you don’t have a gathering that brings judgment on you.

I will give directions concerning the other matters when I come.