First Corinthians 10:16 teaches that the cup and bread of the Lord’s Supper are a real sharing in the blood and body of Christ, not merely symbols with no connection to him. Paul asks two rhetorical questions that assume the answer is yes, and he uses them to warn the Corinthian believers away from idol feasts. The letter is from the apostle Paul to the church he founded in Corinth.
The cup of blessing which we bless, isn’t it a sharing of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, isn’t it a sharing of the body of Christ?
1 Corinthians 10:16 (WEB)
What 1 Corinthians 10:16 Means
Paul begins with “the cup of blessing which we bless.” This is the third cup of the Passover meal, the one over which a blessing was spoken, and Christian believers had taken it up as the cup of the Lord’s Supper. The word “blessing” points to thanksgiving: the cup is received with gratitude and prayer, not treated as an ordinary drink.
The key phrase is “a sharing of.” The Greek word is koinonia, which means fellowship, partnership, or common participation. Paul is saying that when believers drink from the cup and eat the bread, they are taking part in Christ himself, joined to his sacrifice and to one another. The verse does not explain how that sharing happens, whether through a change in the elements or in the worshiper, and it does not settle the debates Christians have had about the Lord’s Supper since the Reformation. It establishes that the meal is more than a memorial of something distant.
The Context of 1 Corinthians 10:16
First Corinthians was written by Paul to a church full of pressures. Corinth was a bustling port city with many temples, and meat sold in the markets had often been offered to pagan gods. Some believers felt free to eat such meat and to attend dinners in idol temples, reasoning that idols were nothing. Paul agrees that an idol is nothing in itself, but he insists that participating in the worship of demons is a different matter, and he uses the Lord’s Supper as the decisive argument.
Just before verse 16, Paul promises that God provides a way of escape from temptation and tells his readers to flee from idolatry. Just after it, he compares the church to the sacrificial feasts of Israel, where eating the sacrifice meant sharing in the altar. Read in this setting, the verse is not a freestanding statement about the sacrament. It is the foundation for an argument that a believer cannot share at the table of Christ and at the table of idols at the same time.
Key Phrases in 1 Corinthians 10:16
1 Corinthians 11:26
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
(WEB)
This verse follows the Lord’s Supper instructions and says that each time believers eat the bread and drink the cup, they proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. It shows the meal as both a sharing in Christ and a public declaration of his death and hope.
Luke 22:19-20
19 He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me.” 20 Likewise, he took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
(WEB)
Here Jesus institutes the bread and cup at the Last Supper, giving the words that Paul later passes on. Reading it alongside verse 16 shows that the sharing Paul describes flows directly from the body and blood Jesus gave for his disciples.
A Short Prayer From 1 Corinthians 10:16
Lord Jesus, when I take the bread and the cup, help me remember that I am sharing in your body and your blood. Let my heart be grateful for the life you gave for me, and let me not come to your table divided or half-hearted. Draw me closer to you and to the people you have placed beside me in your church. Keep me from the things that would pull me away from you, and make my worship sincere in everything I do. Amen.
