📖WEB · 1 Corinthians 11:21
What does 1 Corinthians 11:21 mean?
"For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken."
— 1 Corinthians 11:21 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
For first of all, when you come together in the assembly, I hear that divisions exist among you, and I partly believe it.
For there also must be factions among you, that those who are approved may be revealed among you.
When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.
For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken.
What, don’t you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly, and put them to shame who don’t have enough? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I don’t praise you.
For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread.
When he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me.”
Explanation
Paul is describing a scandalous scene that had developed in the Corinthian church's gatherings. When believers came together for what was meant to be a shared meal culminating in the Lord's Supper, some members were rushing ahead to eat their own food without waiting for or sharing with others. The result was a stark and shameful contrast: some in the congregation were left hungry while others had eaten and drunk to excess. Rather than a unified meal reflecting the body of Christ,
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