To Make Disciples Is to Transform Community

On the evening before His crucifixion …

Jesus gathered with his disciples—12 young Jewish men. They participated in a Passover meal that transitioned into the Lord’s Supper. In the context of this profound table fellowship, the Lord washed their feet and spoke challenging and reassuring words.

Within hours, one would betray Him, and the rest would flee in confusion and fear. Everything seemed to be a colossal failure.

And yet, within days, everything changed. Within months, a vibrant community committed to Jesus was growing. Within years, the world knew these Christians for good—the body of Christ—that can neither be silenced nor destroyed.

What transformed a few cowed followers into the Jesus community of men and women from every tribe, people, tongue, and nation? How can we experience this transformation today?

A Modest Proposal

I wrestled with settling on the last word of my title. Some of the options considered included worship, relationships, and boundaries. Community seemed right.  

As explained in a previous post, this series builds on Paul’s instruction that those ‘in Christ’ participate with the Spirit in His work of transforming them more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18).  

From the perspective of the initial Corinthian audience, how would they have known how to cooperate with the Spirit’s transforming work?

I hypothesize that they would look to Paul’s teaching about the Spirit—including the letters he wrote, which we know as 1st and 2nd Corinthians. They would learn who the Holy Spirit is and what He does as they identified clusters of “S/spirit” or pneum* words.  

So far, we have identified the following two clusters:

• Transforming how we think (1 Corinthians 2), 
• Transforming how we use our bodies (1 Corinthians 5-7). 

What is the next cluster?

A Modest Analysis

We are aided in our search by a notable literary marker in 1 Corinthians, signaling new sections. This marker is the Greek phrase peri de, which occurs six times and is rendered by “now concerning,” “now regarding,” or “now about.” One of these markers is at 8:1, and the next is at 12:1, so we will look at chapters 8-11 as one section.

As we read these four chapters, we might be somewhat disappointed that there are only four occurrences of pneum* words (9:11; 10:3, 4 twice). Before exploring this mini-cluster and its significance, let me point out another cluster of words regarding eating and drinking.

One Greek word for “to eat” (esthiō) occurs 27 times in 1 Corinthians—26 of those occurrences are in 1 Corinthians 8-11. 

Similarly, a verb for “to drink” (pinō) appears 14 times—13 of which are in our four chapters. 

Our section begins with eating food offered to idols and concludes with eating at the Lord’s Supper. Eating and drinking are vital themes in this section.

Let’s look at the structure of 1 Corinthians 8-11 to understand Paul’s message better.

A Modest Outline

Here is a simplified outline of these four chapters revolving around the issue of table fellowship:[1]

8:1-6               Challenging the “right” to eat based on knowledge.

8:7-13             Foregoing the “right” to eat out of concern for those who are “weaker.”

9:1-27             Paul’s example of putting the benefit of others above his “right” as an apostle.

10:1-13           Israel’s example as a warning.

10:14-11:1     Exclusive covenant loyalty (in love) to God.

11:2-16           Relationship of male and female in community (mutuality and respect).

11:17-34         Relationship of rich and poor in community at the Lord’s Supper (mutuality and respect).

Now, let’s focus on the subsection that includes our mini-cluster.

What is spiritual food and drink?

1 Corinthians 10:1-13 draws upon the narrative of the Israelites in the wilderness during the Exodus.

In 10:1-2, Paul relates how God was present in the Shekinah cloud/pillar. His empowering presence supernaturally dried up a pathway in the Red Sea and led the Israelites across in safety.

Then, in 10:3-4, we find our mini-cluster of pneum* words:

and all ate the same spiritual food;

and all drank the same spiritual drink,

for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them;

and the rock was Christ.

The “spiritual food” refers to the manna God supernaturally provided in the Wilderness (Exodus 16). The “spiritual drink” is the water supernaturally provided from a rock (Exodus 17:1-7), and the “spiritual rock” is the source of the water, and an analogy or type of Jesus Christ. The spiritual food, drink, and rock were all physical and tangible.

Three times, the word “spiritual” (pneumatikos) is used. Let’s remind ourselves of the biblical meaning of “spiritual.”

Gordon Fee writes that pneumatikos 

… carries its proper adjectival sense of “belonging to, or pertaining to the Spirit,” or perhaps in this case, “deriving from the Spirit,” emphasizing its divine origins.[2]

The food and drink in the wilderness were spiritual in that they were provided by the Spirit, God’s empowering presence. In eating and drinking God’s provisions, He was transforming this mass of Hebrew humanity into the community of Israel.

As for the Lord’s Supper, Fee continues,

… the food of the Table is the Spirit’s food in the sense that the Spirit, as the real presence, once more appropriates the provision of the cross to the one who eats by faith, in celebration with others.[3]

It seems that eating the Lord’s Supper together is one way in which we participate with the Spirit in His transforming work. 

Some Insights

In the barest of terms, here are three insights to put into action.

1.         Acknowledge the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit in your life and your Christian community’s life. If you have become inured to His presence and power, I recommend you read the book of Acts as if you were there.

2.         Discern if there is the presence of idols in your life and the life of your Christian community and take appropriate action. In modern Western terms, these idols might be physical or ideological, including prosperity, technology, and sexuality.

3.         Gratefully receive what God provides, including those in your community, their gifts and abilities, and engage in table fellowship with them.

We have only briefly explored one subsection of 1 Corinthians 8-11. Referencing our simplified outline (above), other issues remain to be examined, understood, and acted on in God’s empowering presence, including:

• Understanding that my freedom or “rights” must not be pressed to the detriment of others.
• Sensitivity in what disorders the faith of others and hinders their spiritual growth.
• Perception of where “I” need to forego my freedom for the benefit of others and the Gospel.
• Awareness of the potential that engaging in the table fellowship of other communities (e.g., Rotary and Masonic, political and religious, ideological and traditional) disrupts our love and loyalty for our Lord and each other.
• Honoring the biblical relationship of male and female within the community. Mutuality and respect mean they are equal, although not the same.
• Regular participation in the Lord’s Supper within the community. Mutuality and respect are needed so that no one is more privileged than another. I also wonder whether the Lord’s Supper is meant to be in the context of full table fellowship, not reduced to a symbolic and notional fragment of bread with a sip of wine.
• And more.

These are some ways we can participate with the Spirit in His transforming work of making us more and more like Jesus Christ.

Let me know what you think. You can contact me using this link.

BACK TO “To Make Disciples Is to Transform How We Use Our Bodies”

Notes: 
[1] Several commentaries were consulted for this outline including, Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1987); David E. Garland, 1 Corinthians (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003); and Anthony C. Thistleton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2000).
[2] Gordon D. Fee, God’s Empowering Presence (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994), 143.
[3] God’s Empowering Presence, 144.

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