Case Study: The Corinthian Church and the Lord's Table

The ultimate goal of this series on Sacred Space is practical rather than theological or biblical. That is to say, the goal is the reformation of the daily practice of God's people arising from the transformation of their understanding. One cannot live the Christian life if he doesn't understand what it means to be a Christian, and the latter understanding depends upon discerning what God has accomplished and inaugurated in His Son. A Christian cannot, with integrity and authenticity, live out his identity unless and until he knows who he is in Christ. In this respect, the Corinthian observance of the Lord's Table provides a powerful case study of what the life of a Christian congregation will look like when its members lose (or have never had) the true sense of what it means to be joined to Christ as Living Head. All of the problems at Corinth were symptomatic of this fundamental "disconnect," and their way of thinking about and celebrating the Lord's Table was no exception. By coming to discern the real issues at Corinth, the Christian will be able to move beyond the all-too-common (and tragic) conclusion that the Corinthian errors regarding the Table were merely social and behavioral.