1 Corinthians 11:27–34 — Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. 30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world. 33 So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. 34 If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you will not come together for judgment. The remaining matters I will arrange when I come.
One thing that should be clear from our most recent meditations is that we must never come to the Lord's Supper carelessly, or as a matter of routine. This is a holy meal. The bread and the wine are symbols of nothing less than the broken body and shed blood of Jesus. They speak of His suffering and death in the place of His people. They speak of the price that had to be paid if any of Adam's sinful and fallen race was to be rescued from an eternity of torment in hell.
But there are other things that we need to be aware of as we approach the Table, as we have seen. We need to be conscious (and as certain as possible) that we ourselves are partakers in the benefits of Christ's sacrifice. We need to search and sift through the dark recesses of our hearts and see whether there is any idol there, competing for our thoughts and affections when all should be given to Jesus. We need to determine if there is any sin that is not confessed and forgiven between ourselves and other members of the church.
Paul says we need to "judge the body rightly." In the context of the passage above, we do not understand him to be talking of the bread in the meal representing to us the body of Christ. Why not? Up to this point, Paul has talked always of both eating and drinking, of both the bread and of the wine. In contrast, in verse 29 he talks only of the body and makes no mention the blood. What does he mean, then, when he says we must "judge the body rightly?" Note that he begins verse 31 saying "But if we judged ourselves rightly....." In other words, the body we have to discern, evaluate rightly, make a correct judgment about in this context is ourselves, the local church, as the body of Christ - those gathering together at the Table to eat the Supper.
The Corinthians had not judged the body rightly in the way they participated in the meal. Their behavior was in direct contradiction of much of what the Bible teaches is true of the church, the body of Christ. It was as though they did not really understand what it meant to be His body, to be joined to each other in Christ. Their conduct was un-Christian. They treated holy things as unholy, behaved selfishly and showed no love for those with whom they were (according to Scripture) bound together in love in the Lord Jesus.
That is why you can sense how appalled Paul is as he writes this part of the letter. He had carefully discharged his office as Apostle, passing on to the Corinthians instructions concerning the celebration of the Lord's Supper that he had received directly from Jesus Himself - but look what the Corinthian's supper had become! How dared they take such sacred things and so sully them! No wonder they had fallen under discipline from the Lord!
We return, then, to what we said at the beginning of this meditation. Let us never, never, come to the Table in an unthinking manner. May we never be blind to all that is before us on the Table, nor to the company of the Redeemed with whom we eat the meal - those to whom we have been joined in bonds of love and fellowship that are closer than the ties of mere human family.
As we grow in our "right judgement of the body," we will also understand that it was to fashion a body for Himself that Jesus laid down His life. Jesus' body was broken, and His blood poured out, so that weak and foolish, poor, wretched and blind sinners like us could be saved and fashioned into a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. What a privilege to be present at the Table as the body of the Lord, when the Head Himself is there to commune with us. Let us strive in the future to be more discerning of these realities when we take the Supper!
