CHRISTIANS DIDN’T ACT LIKE CHRISTIANS even in the early years of the church.
When it comes to rude behavior, first-generation Christians could match just about any modern-day jerk of a Christian.
I’m taking a few days off, but I thought I’d leave you with a little quote from Paul. He’s writing to Christians in the troublesome church at Corinth, a Greek city near Athens.
One of the problems he tackles is Communion—the way the people celebrated the Lord’s Supper.
It’s hard to know exactly what was going on, but it’s clear that their version of Communion wasn’t a thing like the ritual we celebrate today. Not at all.
It actually seemed more like our Sunday potluck—or maybe an indoor picnic, since each family ate what they brought. No sharing.
Rich folks ate what rich folks eat.
Poor folks listened to their stomachs growl.
Paul offered some corrective advice, in the spirit and tone of a ticked-off dad.
Paul writes loud
“One of your problems is that you’re not honoring the Lord with the way you conduct the Lord’s Supper.
You’ve turned it into a picnic. When it comes time to eat, everyone eats whatever they brought for themselves. Some go hungry. Others get drunk.
What in the world is going on with you? Don’t you have homes where you can eat whatever you like? Are you deliberately trying to shame the church by humiliating poor folks who have nothing? What am I supposed to say about this? What do you want me to say? Should I give you a big Amen? Fat chance” (1 Corinthians 11:20-22 Casual English Bible).
After that verbal spanking, Paul tells them how to get it right.
Casual English Bible update
I haven’t posted this passage to the beta edition of the Casual English Bible yet. I’m still working on paraphrasing 1, 2 Corinthians, and producing an accompanying leader’s guide and atlas for small-group Bible studies.
I expect to finish these two letters of Paul in a few weeks, and then take them live.
In the meantime, I’ve already posted all of Paul’s other letters except Romans, which I’ll work on next.
I’ve also posted Genesis, Luke, and Acts. All the books have a leader’s guide and an atlas, except the 50-chapter book of Genesis. I’ll get to that one soon. I’ve already written the leader’s guide for all 50 chapters, but I still need to create maps for the Genesis atlas.
My plan is to finish the leader’s guide for 1, 2 Corinthians, then create the atlas maps for that book and for Genesis—all in one swoop.
After that, onto Romans. Then, with most of the New Testament already finished, I’ll wrap up the remaining books.
I’ll save Revelation for last and hope that Jesus comes before I have to try to paraphrase that wild book into casual English.
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