What did the Corinthians do before taking communion in 1 Corinthians 11?
Before the official Lord’s Communion of unleavened bread and the cup, the Corinthians held a potluck supper. Because the congregation included slaves, wealthy merchants, and a cross-section of society, that meal exposed social and economic disparities, and Paul upbraided them for abusing the Lord’s Supper.
Les explains that in 1 Corinthians 11 the Corinthians were abusing the Lord’s Supper, so Paul had to upbraid them. Before they would actually have what we would call the official Lord’s Communion table of the unleavened bread and the wine or the cup, they would have a potluck supper. The Corinthian believers were a makeup of a few Jews, more than likely more Gentiles, but from the whole strata of society—slaves, bond slaves, and wealthy merchant men who probably had ships out at sea, with Corinth as their home bay. So there was a whole cross-section of society within that little congregation. When they had a potluck supper, people are people and haven’t changed. Les notes that even today at a potluck, whether at church or a golf club, the bottom echelon people bring what they can afford—the more mundane, cheaper things.