“But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you.”

Paul was certainly thankful for what God had done in the Corinthian Christians’ lives in bringing them to salvation and the gifts He had given them (1 Cor. 1:4–9), but he was quite reserved in his praise for them. When it finally does come, eleven chapters later, his praise is measured, tempered—for what they remembered about his teaching, not about what they had doneabout it! In fact, praise for them comes exactly once in Paul’s writings, near the beginning of this chapter (1 Cor. 11:3).

However, here, fifteen verses later, he specifically says hedoes notpraise them for how their church meetings were conducted. In short, their Lord’s Supper meeting was an abomination, as he is about to unfold. There is an interesting connection here with the previous section, where women may have been flaunting their self-centered desire for beauty at the expense of others seeing God’s glory. Self-centeredness shows up in differing ways: that which was to symbolize unity (1 Cor. 10:16–17) had become emblematic of the deep divisions Paul had written about earlier. We shall see shortly that selfish behavior was central to what was wrong in their divisive practice of the Lord’s Supper. For many churches, this is difficult to understand because too often communion is relegated to a fifteen-minute add-on maybe once a month or quarter—the symbolism of unity is largely lost. But the picture emerges here of a regular time for fellowship around the emblems of communion with a sort of spiritual conversation going on in worship of the Lord. It is to be a time of drawing together closely with the Lord, humbling ourselves together in worship before Him, celebrating the core of our faith, that which brings us together (more in chapter 14).

One can imagine the tensions when individuals prayed or prophesied, using innuendoes carefully disguised as spiritual talk, all toward furthering their individual agendas and creating further strife.

Yet Paul, ever the optimist because of his unshakeable faith in the Lord’s sovereignty, saw the positive in these factions. Ultimately such divisions lead those of solid, Christ-like maturity who are “approved” by God to percolate to the top and become evident to the rest of Christians there. Conflict gives rise to demonstrated Christ-likeness, and the glory of our Lord will shine forth.

Lord, help me to rise above conflicts through my own growth in Christ-likeness.