For as you eat, each of you goes ahead without sharing his meal. While one remains hungry, another gets drunk.
Parallel translations
- WEB For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken.
- KJV For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.
- NKJV For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk.
- NASB for when you eat, each one takes his own supper first; and one goes hungry while another gets drunk.
- NLT For some of you hurry to eat your own meal without sharing with others. As a result, some go hungry while others get drunk.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
In their gatherings each one greedily ate his own meal, leaving some hungry while others got drunk. Selfishness shamed the poor and profaned the meal.
Overview
Paul exposes the scandal: the wealthier members feasted while the poor went without, destroying the shared character of the meal. What should have expressed unity in Christ instead exposed social divisions and self-indulgence. This abuse of the love feast and Supper directly contradicts the self-giving love of Christ that the meal proclaims.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Jude 1:12These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted.
- 2 Pet 2:13The harm they will suffer is the wages of their wickedness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deception as they feast with you.
- 1 Cor 10:16–18Is not the cup of blessing that we bless a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?
- 1 Cor 11:23–25For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread,
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Christ at the center
Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.
How 1 Corinthians 11:21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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