Offenses, Not Discerning the Lord’s Body, and Eating at the Lord’s Table Unworthily, 1 Corinthians 11.

Eating and drinking the Lord's Supper in an "unworthy way" in 1 Corinthians 11, in its full context, refers to partaking without a proper appreciation that those partaking with you are also members of the Body. It relates to the lack of a felt connection.

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The Lord’s Table, also known by other names in other denominations, actually has a great deal to do with the handling of offenses within the Body. Remember what the last post said about the spiritual analogy to leprosy–the main way in which unresolved offenses damage the Body and its members is by making members unable to “feel” their connections to each other and to the Body. This leads to other problems.

Recall that the purpose of the Lord’s Supper is to proclaim–to each other and to the world–the Lord’s death “until he comes,” and that the bread is a picture of Jesus’ body “broken” for us:

For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread. When he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me.” In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (WEB)

Next, compare this to what Paul wrote in the next about eating and drinking the Lord’s Supper in an “unworthy way:”

Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy way, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a person must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For the one who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not properly recognize the body.

1 Corinthians 11:27-29 (WEB) (emphasis added).

Obviously, partaking of the Lord’s Supper “in an unworthy way” is a very serious thing. People who do it “eats and drinks judgment” upon themselves. So we are to examine ourselves before taking the bread and cup, to be sure we are taking it worthily. And, whatever else can be said about it, eating at the Lord’ Table “unworthily” consists of not “properly recognizing” the “Body” of the Lord. This also implies that eating worthily–properly proclaiming what the Lord’s death was about–involves properly discerning his Body.

And what are the consequences of not properly discerning the Lord’s Body? What is the “judgment” that we can eat and drink on ourselves? Not properly discerning the Lord’s Body among us leads to accelerated illness and death of our individual physical bodies:

For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment to himself if he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body. For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep. For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn’t be judged. But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

1 Corinthians 11:29-32 (WEB).

So, it is a very serious thing!

A passage earlier in the chapter explains exactly what Paul was talking about when he said that many in Corinth did not properly discern the Lord’s Body:

18 For first of all, when you come together in the assembly, I hear that divisions exist among you, and I partly believe it. 19 For there also must be factions among you, that those who are approved may be revealed among you. 20 When therefore you assemble yourselves together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. 21 For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken. 22 What, don’t you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly and put them to shame who don’t have enough? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I don’t praise you.

1 Corinthians 11:18-22 (WEB)

The last two verses of the chapter amplify this:

So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, have him eat at home, so that you do not come together for judgment…

1 Corinthians 11:33-34 (WEB)

From this, it appears quite clearly that the problem Paul was addressing as the Corinthian believers’ behavior toward each other when they took the bread and the cup. They came to the Lord’s Table divided into factions. and, once they were there, partook in a way which shamed the poor among them. In this way–by not properly discerning that the poor believers were equal members of the Body with them–they failed to “properly recognize the Body” and ate unworthily. And God took this very seriously–some were sick and some had died as a result of the Lord’s discipline in the matter.

So the problem wasn’t “unconfessed sin” toward God, a failure to recognize that the elements actually became Jesus’ body and blood, or any of the other things commonly taught.

It was very specifically that their behavior revealed division in the body. Some of them obviously didn’t appreciate their connection to others in the Body. Thus, in taking the elements, they were not “proclaiming the Lord’s death” that made them into one Body. So this ties directly into the discussion of leprosy. Some members could not properly “feel” other members, and they therefore came together for judgment.

Of course, my reading of this passage, as an old fool, disagrees with that of every denomination and every other commentator I know of!

But it seems to make good sense of the verse about eating “unworthily” in its larger context.

Next: Moron Mutual Imprisonment: Binding and Loosing and Church Discipline are Parts of the Same Context, Matthew 18:15-20

Both Debtors in Matthew 18:21-35 Ended Up in Debtors’ Prison

Email me: Ian Johnson.