As a kid, I loved church potlucks. Being in the Ozarks, someone always brought fried chicken, someone always brought jello with fruit (which I considered then, and still today, a salad), and most everyone brought a dessert. A plate full of fried chicken and jello salad laid the foundation for a similar-sized plate of desserts. That holy bliss of fats and sugars hangs in my memory.

The church members in Corinth also joined together for shared meals, but they apparently didn’t get any training on potlucks. When together, instead of sharing their food equally, the rich took more and the poor received less. Some even went home hungry—hard to imagine at a church potluck.

Paul hammered the selfish church members—you despise the Church of God by humiliating those who have nothing. Paul seemed frustrated and embarrassed for the less privileged members.

As I read 1 Corinthians, a theme emerges. As Paul instructs this young church, he continually labors to move the members of the body from getting to giving.

Perhaps the most fundamental and profound step of living out our Christian faith involves moving from getting to giving. Do I look to my faith only for what I receive, or do I also look to serve others? Do I reach out and meet someone obviously new at church, or do I slip by with a nod? Do I respond to appeals for help, or assume someone else on the email thread will take care of it?

Getting to Giving. The crux of discipleship.

So I must ask myself—would I share my heaping plates of fried chicken and jello salad and desserts? As a junior high boy, no chance. But as an adult, and hopefully more mature follower of Jesus, I believe I would.

Maybe.

1 Corinthians 11 in week thirty-six of reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Tim Cooper