Abuses at the Lord’s Supper

¹⁷ Now in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse.¹⁸For, to begin with, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you; and to some extent I believe it.¹⁹Indeed, there have to be factions among you, for only so will it become clear who among you are genuine.²⁰When you come together, it is not really to eat the Lord’s supper.²¹For when the time comes to eat, each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk.²²What! Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you show contempt for the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I commend you? In this matter I do not commend you!

The Institution of the Lord’s Supper

²³ For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread,²⁴and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’²⁵In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’²⁶For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Partaking of the Supper Unworthily

²⁷ Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.²⁸Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup.²⁹For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgement against themselves.³⁰For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. ³¹But if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged.³²But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. ³³ So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.³⁴If you are hungry, eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not be for your condemnation. About the other things I will give instructions when I come.

The Collection for Christians at Jerusalem

⁹Now it is not necessary for me to write to you about the ministry to the saints,²for I know your eagerness, which is the subject of my boasting about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year; and your zeal has stirred up most of them.³But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you may not prove to have been empty in this case, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be;⁴otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated—to say nothing of you—in this undertaking. ⁵So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you, and arrange in advance for this bountiful gift that you have promised, so that it may be ready as a voluntary gift and not as an extortion. ⁶ The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.⁷Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.⁸And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.⁹As it is written,‘He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor;   his righteousness endures for ever.’