17 In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. 18 In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. 19 No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. 20 So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, 21 for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. 22 Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter! -1 Corinthians 11:17-22
We need to care for the WHOLE church. For those of you who attend church, when you go there’s always like your own clique that you chill with and that you’re comfortable with. Same thing with Harvesters. When we were meeting in-person, people would sit next to their friends and so forth. There’s nothing wrong with having friends that you are close to. But, the Bible does tell us that we need to be concerned not just for our friends but for everyone who is part of our faith family.
In this passage, the Apostle Paul was concerned about the cliques that have formed in the church that were not getting along. A lot of those cliques were based upon wealth. So the wealthy people would get together to eat while ignoring or living out Christians who were poorer and didn’t have an abundance of food. Paul is calling the wealthy Christians out saying this is messed up. We can’t just be concerned about ourselves and our clique, we need to love and care for every person in the church.
Likewise, in Harvesters, we can’t just care for our friends. Every person who is part of the Harvesters family should be important to you. This doesn’t mean we’re going to be best friends with everyone at Harvesters, but it does mean that we have the mindset of wanting to connect and reach out to other members that we may not be as familiar with. It’s an attitude and a frame of mind.
At church or at Harvesters, do you just stick with your own group or do you make an effort to try to get to know someone that you may not know that well? Are you sticking with your own clique or are you reaching out?
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