Sermon Tone Analysis

“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.”[1]

"Whatever was he thinking?”

That is the question on the minds of many people who read of the fall of Eliot Spitzer the disgraced former governor of New York.

After deliberately destroying so many icons of Wall Street and so vigorously attacking prostitution in New York, to have himself spent over $80,000 on prostitutes in a ten month period leaves anyone perusing the news breathless.

Hard on the heels of the Spitzer revelation was the account detailing the downfall of Kwame Kilpatrick, the Mayor of Detroit, Michigan.

He is now charged with perjury—lying under oath—concerning a romantic relationship carried on with a former Chief of Staff.

Residents of this great city may well wonder, “What was he thinking?”

Now, in this previous week comes a report that the husband of United States Senator Debbie Stabenow was caught in a police raid cracking down on prostitution in the Detroit area.

He has been a prominent liberal radio broadcaster.

When I read this report, I could only ask, “What was he thinking?”

While news accounts of prominent individuals who act stupidly seize our attention, even more egregious actions are perpetuated among the professed people of God.

They treat the Body of Christ with contempt, all the while imagining that they are doing nothing wrong.

However, God is holy, and He takes seriously disrespect shown toward His Son’s Bride.

As an example of such disrespect, consider what was happening in the Church of God at Corinth when the Apostle Paul wrote his first letter to that congregation.

*Contempt for the Saviour* — This verse has occasioned a surprising number of refusals to participate in the Meal as people have confused the adverb used in this verse for an adjective.

Thus, I have often heard people refuse to partake of the Meal because they are “not worthy.”

While there are good reason why a person should not partake of the Meal, feelings is not one of them.

“Unworthy,” in our text, is an adverb?

Had Paul used an adjective, he would have spoken of the suitability of the individual who is approaching the Lord’s Table.

However, in using the adverb, attention is focused on the attitude of the individual as he or she approaches the Table.

The context substantiates this point.

The Corinthian Christians were being exposed as professing one thing with their mouths and revealing quite a different belief through their actions.

They would likely have given hearty assent to the concept of the church being the Body of Christ, but their actions denied this essential truth.

Before reviewing the precise actions that elicited this strong apostolic censure, let’s explore how God views a congregation.

In this letter, Paul develops a vigorous ecclesiology.

Early in the letter, he speaks of the church as a field.

In *1 Corinthians 3:6-9*, he writes, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labour.

For we are God’s fellow workers.

You are God’s field, God’s building.”

The verbal picture of the church as a field addresses that fact that all the plants that are planted in the field draw nutrients from a common source.

They receive the same sunlight, similar amounts of moisture.

And though it is possible, perhaps even likely, that an enemy will sow weeds among the good plants [see *Matthew 13:25*], the farmer will discourage His helpers from uprooting the weeds until the harvest is complete [see *Matthew 13:28-30*].

Paul’s emphasis was on the shared requirements for health and for growth.

He then changes the picture to that of a building.

“According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it.

Let each one take care how he builds upon it.

For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.

If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire” [*1 Corinthians 3:10-15*].

Comparing a congregation to a building leads us to understand that no single portion of the building is more important than another, save for the foundation.

Walls are important to permit shelter, and doors and windows permit entrance and egress and light.

The roof protects from the elements, but neither the walls nor the roof will be supported if there is a flawed foundation.

Paul clearly states that the only acceptable foundation is Jesus Christ.

Denominational affiliation, worship structure, missionary endeavour—all alike is doomed to failure if the foundation is wrong.

So, when the Apostle speaks of a congregation as a building, we understand that he is directing us to review the foundation.

Nevertheless, his word picture reminds us of the integrated nature of each member within the building.

Then, closely following the imagery of a building that he has just introduced, Paul asks, “Do you not know that you [plural] are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you [plural]?

If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him.

For God’s temple is holy, and you [plural] are that temple” [*1 Corinthians 3:16, 17*].

This concept of the church as the Temple of God is iterated when Paul challenges these same Corinthians by asking, “What agreement has the Temple of God with idols” [*2 Corinthians 6:16*]?

He makes a similar reference in *Ephesians 2:19-22*, when he writes, “You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

Here, he also introduces the thought that a church is the “household of God.”

This imagery is echoed in *Colossians 2:7*.

To be certain, the Apostle will speak of the individual Christian as a Temple of the Holy Spirit, but a congregation of Christ the Lord is a Holy Temple where the Spirit of God dwells.

Whenever the people of God act in unity and express the harmony of the Spirit, they are revealing that God is at work among them.

However, when they bite and devour one another, they are demonstrating quite a different spirit controlling them—they are already defeated.

Without the unity of the Spirit, a church is just a religious organisation.

The concept of a congregation as a Temple of God reminds us that worship is the natural result of God dwelling with His people.

The absence of harmony, the presence of rage and attack, is effective evidence that such a group is no longer a Temple of God; there can be no worship within such a structure.

However, in the pages of the New Testament, the Apostle Paul is the primary proponent of the concept of a congregation as the Body of Christ.

In *1 Corinthians 10:16, 17* he introduces the concept by challenging the Corinthians to think.

“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?

The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”

Participating at the Lord’s Table testifies that the body is healthy because each part functions for the welfare of the whole body.

The Apostle appeals to the Roman Christians to actively live out the concept of life as the Body of Christ when we writes, “By the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness” [*Romans 12:3-8*].

Here, Paul teaches that a congregation is not a political or social entity, but rather it is a living Body.

This point of view certainly flies in the face of modern ecclesiastical concepts.

The thought of the church as political entity is the stepchild of contemporary governmental regulations to which the churches have submitted; and the social concept has been strengthened through the segregation of the churches of our Lord into racial and cultural enclaves.

The political expression of the modern church soon predominates and grows more prominent than the social aspect because there is no biblical mooring for social interaction.

Friendships divorced from biblical authority tend to become cliques.

Our self-centred society leads us to mistake cliques for fellowship and soon our churches are reduced to political entities.

Because modern Christians appear more focused on political goals—controlling the “direction” of the congregation or keeping the pastoral staff under their thumbs—such religious organisations sacrifice the power of God for transient expediency.

Each part of the Body God has created has a vital role to play for the benefit of the whole.

There is no room for rugged individualism at the expense of the whole Body.

Each member is responsible to work to build every other member.

This is accomplished as each one exercises the gifts God has entrusted to them and as they maintain the unity of the Spirit.

The theme of unity as the Body of Christ is echoed in *Ephesians 4:1-7*.

“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”

We are saved to serve.

The sphere of our service is the Body of Christ.

Because it is the Body of Christ, and because our life is hidden in Him, we are extremely foolish if we harm or even destroy that Body.

Instead, we are responsible to do all that is humanly possible to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

We are to understand that God is ruling over us instead of allowing ourselves to attempt to take control and run things as we think best.

We are to act with humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.

Paul continues his review of the local congregation as the Body of Christ when he writes, “He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” [*Ephesians 4:11-16*].

In *1 Corinthians 12:14-27*, Paul provides an extensive concept of how the church should function.

In this passage, he gives a thorough review of congregational body life.

He compares each member of the Body to various parts of the human body.

Thus each member plays a role in ensuring the health of the entire Body; and just as no part can be injured without hurting the entire body, so no member of the congregation can be injured without harm to the entire body.

He teaches an integrated wholeness that results in health and strength for the Body.