Social Meals

Welcome to Midway Church of Christ

Frank Jamerson

Paul told the Corinthians: “What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you… But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come” (1 Cor. 11:22,34).

In studying this chapter for our Bible classes, I read some interesting comments from denominational preachers. John Calvin wrote: “We know what the church ought to meet together to do; to hear teaching; to pour out prayers and sing hymns to God; to celebrate the mysteries (the Lord’s supper,fj) to make confession of our faith; to take part in religious rites and other godly exercises. Anything else that is done there is out of place. Each person has a home of his own, which is intended for him to eat in and drink in; it is therefore improper to do these things in the gathering for worship” (The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, p. 241).

Albert Barnes commented on 1 Cor. 11:22: “This whole verse is designed to convey the language of severe rebuke for having so grossly perverted the design of the Lord’s supper. Do you not know that the church of God is not designed to be a place of feasting and revelry; nor even a place to partake of your ordinary meals? Can it be, that you will come to the places of public worship, and make them the scenes of feasting and riot? Even on the assumption that there had been no disorder; yet on every account it was grossly irregular and disorderly to make the place of public worship a place for a festival entertainment.”

Adam Clarke wrote: “They should have taken their ordinary meal at home, and have come together in the church to celebrate the Lord’s Supper...Let him not come to the house of God to eat an ordinary meal, let him eat at home—take that in his own house which is necessary for the support of his body before he comes to that sacred repast (eating,fj), where he should have the feeding of his soul alone in view.”

Not many years ago, nearly all gospel preachers taught the same. N.B. Hardeman said: “it is not the work of the church to furnish entertainment for the members. And yet many churches have drifted into such an effort. They enlarge their basements, put in all kinds of gymnastic apparatus, and make every sort of an appeal to the young people of the congregation. I have never read anything in the Bible that indicated to me that such was a part of the work of the church. I am wholly ignorant of any Scripture that even points in that direction” (Hardeman’s Tabernacle Sermons, Vol. 5, p. 50; 1942). The Bible has not changed since 1942!