What were the Corinthians doing wrong at their church fellowship meals?
At the church fellowship meals, the Corinthians were abusing the potluck by being gluttonous, drinking to the point of drunkenness, and flaunting expensive gourmet food before poorer members. They shamed those who had not and despised the Church of God, so Paul told them to eat at home if they could not do it rightly.
Les explains that this passage is not about the elements of the Lord's table but about their potluck dinners. The Corinthians were coming in and being gluttonous at the food, and they were actually drinking so much that they became drunk. Paul was shocked and upset, asking, "Have you not houses to eat and to drink in?" He told them that if they could not do it right, then eat at home and not try to bring that into the church environment. Especially to the wealthier people, Paul said, "How dare you flaunt your wealth by bringing all this expensive gourmet food when you know that there are other people at slave level and so forth" who cannot afford things like this. So Paul says, "Cut it out. Quit it." He could not praise them, because this was not the way it should be done.