Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Corinthians 11:34

"If any man is hungry, let him eat at home; that your coming together be not unto judgment. And the rest will I set in order whensoever I come." — 1 Corinthians 11:34 (ASV)

The rest—or, literally, the remaining matters—doubtless refers to some other details connected with the charity-feasts.

From what has been said, we gather the following outline of the method of celebrating the Lord’s Supper in the Apostolic Church. It was a common practice among the Greeks at this time to hold a feast called eranos, to which all contributed and of which all partook. A similar practice soon developed in the Christian communities, where these gatherings were called agapæ, or “charity-feasts.”

At these gatherings, the Lord’s Supper was celebrated—probably at first daily, and afterwards weekly. It consisted of two parts: a loaf broken and distributed during the meal, and a cup shared by all present after it. This bread and this cup were distinguished from the meal itself by the solemn declaration over them of the fact of the institution (1 Corinthians 11:26).

The entire feast, however, had a solemnity and sanctity imparted to it by the eucharistic acts that accompanied it. While this bread and this wine constituted the “Supper of the Lord,” the entire “charity-feast” became consecrated by it as a “Lord’s Supper” (1 Corinthians 11:20), the phrase being similar to “Lord’s day” (Revelation 1:10).

To it, the fellow believers came, not as individuals, but as members of the body of Christ. This gathering of the Church was His body present on earth; the sacramental bread and wine were symbols of His physical body, which had been on earth and had been given for them.

To the charity-feast, the rich brought from their abundance, the poor from their poverty. But once they assembled, everything was shared. However, the party spirit that raged outside soon invaded these sacred scenes.

The rich members ceased to discern in that gathering ‘the Body,’ and to discern themselves as ‘members of that Body.’ They regarded themselves as individuals, and the food they brought as their own. The poor were put to shame; some of them, arriving late, would remain hungry, while the rich had eaten and drunk to excess. Those who acted this way naturally incurred God’s judgments of sickness and death.

To correct this terrible evil and grave scandal, St. Paul reminds them of the solemnity of the act of Holy Communion—what it meant and how it was instituted. He reminds them how the whole feast was consecrated by having that eucharistic bread and wine combined with it, and he commands those who wanted simply to satisfy their natural hunger to do so at home before coming to the “Lord’s Supper.”

The two thoughts—of communion with Christ and communion with one another, and of the bread and wine being the medium of union with Him and the source of Christian unity—intersect and interlace. They are like the fine threads of a tapestry, so skillfully interwoven that you cannot distinguish them while you observe the image or scene they collectively create.

We might, with theological subtlety, separate them; but if we do, we will lose that loving image of the Holy Communion which the Apostle crafted in his teaching. It was an image on which he and the early Church gazed with tender adoration, and from which they drew the deepest nourishment for their spiritual life.

When I come.—There is no definite indication of an approaching visit in these words. They are quite general, meaning “whenever I come.”