1Cor 11:33-34 - X-Ray Vision

33-34 So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another— 34 if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home—so that when you come together it will not be for judgment. About the other things I will give directions when I come.


So Paul does not have X-ray vision in to the hearts and minds of his hearers. He calls them all "brothers." He does not know infallibly which of his hearers within the church assembly are true saints. What he does know is that the discerner of hearts is the Word of God. So he admonishes and encourages. He illustrates what is wrong belief and what is wrong behaviour and lets the Word and the Spirit work through those communications. He trusts God to do what only God can do - to save and sanctify His people by means of the hearing of the Word and the regeneration and sanctification of the Spirit.

Ultimately, under admonishment and right teaching with exhortation, the true children will be transformed. They will hear and heed the voice of Christ their Saviour because His sheep do hear His voice. He calls them by name and they hear and they come to Him. And ultimately, the false professors - the tares, the goats - will harden themselves and add to their own condemnation. In both instances, God is glorified. In the one, He is the prime source of the obedience of faith and in the other, men themselves choose to abide under the condemnation of rebellion and disobedience.

Paul, having laid out the right course of behaviour in public worship (specifically with regard to the Lord’s Supper) lets the teaching fall upon the congregation. His motivation is God’s motivation - that they be not condemned. But if they are condemned they will have only themselves to blame. The greater the light - the greater responsibility.

This community obviously had many other questions. One surmises that Paul has dealt with the most urgent in this letter, thought it may be that other matters were more complex, needing a person to person interface. It was a lack of order that was most apparent - a lack resulting in part from wrong understanding or ignorance, and in part from disobedient practice. Ignorance and disobedience are both still serious matters that the leadership in the church must strive to correct, just as Paul did.