Where In The Bible Will I Find:

Christians Eating In The Church Building?

The New Testament has little to say about church buildings, because in the first century the church usually assembled in private homes or in places made available, or possible, by, probably some member of the church. Poverty, persecution, frequent expulsion from the land made owning a church building inadvisable if not impossible. A church building is an expedient; it is no more required than the automobile in which most of us use to attend church services.

The Lord's commands are directed to us as members of His family on how we are to conduct ourselves during the worship, and in carrying out the Lord's Day services. Paul wrote a reprimand to the church of Christ at Corinth because of their misuse of the Lord's Supper, NOT because of the building in which they were assembled, but because of their departure from, or their improper observance of the Lord's Supper.

Its original design had largely been lost sight of, the emblems no longer signified in full what the Lord intended; and to the bread (representative of His body), and the fruit of the vine (which portrayed His shed blood) they had added other items of food and had turned the Memorial Supper into a common and ordinary meal. Such disorder had robbed the table of its meaning, and evidenced the fact that those who were thus participating were without spiritual discernment (I Cor. 11:20-34).

Paul's reprimand had nothing to do with the building in which they were assembled, in fact, it could well have been in the private home of one of the members. He reminded them that the mingling of a common meal with the Lord's Supper was wrong and that the usual and common place to eat food is at home and not in the worship service. It is a misuse of Paul's statement in I Corinthians 11:34, to apply it to meals in the church building for it is not proper exegesis to lift a statement from its context and apply it in a sense not intended by the sacred writer.

Eating a meal in the church building at times when worship services are not in process, is no where condemned in the Holy Word of God. Those who oppose eating in the church building at any time on the basis of I Corinthians 11:34 violates their belief every time they eat in a restaurant, on a picnic table in the park, or in another member's home, as in none of these instances would one be eating "at home."

It should be obvious to everyone that such was not the intent of the Holy Spirit's statement. Peter makes it very clear that the Lord's house is not made up of wood, brick, or stones, but with God loving, obedient people which are "...a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people ... but are now the people of God..." (I Peter 2:5-10). God is concerned with His people, their worship and their obedience to Him. Where they gather to worship, whether it be a private home, or in a building built for that purpose, it is not important, or holy, only His people are holy (I Peter 1:16).