So that whosoever shall eat the bread, or drink the cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty in respect of the body and of the blood of the Lord.
Paul gives this warning right after retelling how the Lord set up the supper. It lands on a church whose gatherings had turned disorderly. Older translations say "unworthily," and that word has frightened many readers away from the table. Does it describe the person coming, or the way they come?
The warning falls on conduct, not on the character of the one eating. Many readers have taken it the other way.
Paul condemns the way in which the supper was observed. Some people have misunderstood this text and have needlessly stayed away from the Lord's supper for years. They say, "I am not worthy to go; it says in the Bible I ought not to go." But they have not read the passage carefully. The verse does not speak about unworthy persons eating. It speaks about the unworthy way in which some people ate.
If personal fitness were the test, the table would stand empty.
If eating the Supper depended on personal worthiness, no one on earth could take part. No one is worthy in himself to share in the Lord's Supper. We are only worthy in this sense: Christ has taken us in our lost condition and cleansed us by His blood. That fitted us for His presence and gave us the right to take part in the Supper. This right is the result of what He has done for us, and not of any personal worthiness.
Why does careless handling of the bread and the cup count as guilt against Christ Himself?
Suppose someone threw dirt at my mother's picture, or treated it with contempt. He would be guilty in my eyes, not of disrespect to a mere painting, but to my mother, and I would greatly resent it. Now some in the church at Corinth were doing something like that. They were treating the Lord's Supper as a common meal, or worse. They did not recognise its sacred character. It was sacred for two reasons: because of what it represented, and because the Lord Himself set it up as a remembrance of Himself in death.
The problem at Corinth was not who came to the table, but how they came.
It is not a question of allowing unworthy persons to take part. Low as the Corinthians had sunk, they had not fallen that far. But they were in danger of reducing its observance to a form for themselves. They were in danger of taking part in the supper without exercise of soul — either about their own ways, or about the unspeakable love of the One who was reminding them of His death for them... To eat or drink it as an ordinary meal, or a common thing, without reflection or self-judgment, is to eat and drink "unworthily." And it is worse when a Christian does it. Of all men he should feel most what he owes the Lord.
A believer can fail the same way today, taking the Supper while going on in sin he will not judge.
It would show that he did not discern the Lord's body. He did not see in the death of the Lord the judgment of the evil he was committing, or the love that led the Lord to bear that judgment — though by eating the Supper he claimed to see both.
One writer weighs the Greek word for judgment, which older translations turned into "damnation."
The supper, then, was no common meal. To take part in it unworthily was no light matter. Whoever did so was guilty of the body and blood of the Lord — that is, liable to judgment because of the slight put on Him. Such a person ate and drank judgment to himself — judgment (krima), not damnation (katakrima). He did not discern the Lord's body, that is, what the bread stood for... Yet there was grace in the Lord's dealing with them. He dealt with them this way because they were true Christians, so that they would not be condemned with the world.
Paul's remedy is self-examination. Where is it meant to lead?
The Lord would have His own to come, but not with carelessness of spirit or levity... Still He invites all, even while He urges the testing of our ways. Self-judgment is with a view to coming, not to staying away.
Another writer wrote this to a reader who felt unfit to come.
The word says, "Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat." It does not say, "Let him absent himself." It is unjudged evil that affects the assembly. A person who habitually judges himself will never prove a hindrance to the assembly.
- Manner — The warning is not about unworthy people. It is about an unworthy way of eating: treating the memorial as a common meal, with no self-judgment.
- Memorial — The bread and cup stand for His body and blood. Contempt shown to them is contempt shown to Him, as dirt thrown at a portrait insults the person.
- Merit — No one qualifies by personal worthiness. The right to come rests on Christ, who cleansed us by His blood.
- Measure — The outcome is judgment, not damnation. The Lord chastens His own so they will not be condemned with the world.
- Move — Self-examination should bring you to the table, not keep you away. Paul tells the believer to examine himself and then eat.
But let a man prove himself, and thus eat of the bread, and drink of the cup.
Paul has just warned against taking the bread and the cup carelessly. Now he gives the remedy. It raises two questions Christians still ask. What am I looking for when I examine myself? And what should I do with what I find?
Paul is not asking you to hunt for proof that you belong to Christ. He is asking about the spirit in which you come to the table.
"Let a person examine himself," not to see whether he is a Christian, as some say. We should be sure of our salvation. But even then the Lord means us to search our hearts seriously and to question our souls every time, so that we see in what spirit and state we come to the Lord's Supper.
Notice what Paul does not offer as the outcome of the test: a straight choice between eating and staying away.
1 Corinthians 11 is not about the basic question of whether we take part. It is about the way we take part. After examining himself, a person is not left choosing between eating and staying away. The verse says, "and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup" (v. 28). The person in view is a believer who should, and indeed must, examine himself closely. Can he eat in a worthy manner? Or are there things in his walk that he must put right?
The little word "so" ties the two halves together. The believer tests himself and then comes. His right to come never rested on his own record.
Each one is to put himself to the test, and so eat and drink. The Lord wants His own to come, but not carelessly or lightly... He still invites everyone, even as He presses us to examine our ways. Self-judgment aims at coming, not at staying away. For these are people whom grace counts worthy. Whatever their past, whatever their own unworthiness, they have been washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Some avoid the exercise because they expect it to disqualify them. The verse answers that fear directly.
But some may say: I dare not examine myself. If I did, I would find such shocking things that I could not go to the Lord's table, because I would find myself so unfit. That is not what we find here... When self-examination puts us in the searching light of God's most holy presence, we will uncover much that we grieve over before the Lord. But should we stay away from His supper because of that? Certainly not. We judge ourselves, we condemn in His sight everything we have found that is against His mind, and then we eat. And so these precious words follow: "But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged" (v. 31).
Others stay away because of someone else's failure. That reasoning collapses on inspection:
Another person's fault should not keep me away. If it is a good reason for one person to stay away, it ought to stop everyone. Is the Lord to be forgotten because somebody deserves blame? Deal with the person at fault as Scripture directs, by rebuke or otherwise. But my place is to "do this in remembrance of Christ."
The examining is preparation. It is not something to do while the bread goes round.
This does not mean that while I sit at the Lord's table I should look into my own heart. That would be a poor, miserable occupation. I can do that at home. A person ought to examine or test himself. That means judging himself over what he has done and what he is capable of doing. We may be so pleased with ourselves that we forget how easily we go wrong without God's grace.
Paul says examine himself — the person, not just a list of failures.
Remember this. The Table is spread on the ground of finished redemption, but we are to gather round it in the power of personal holiness. Personal holiness does not save us, but we are saved to it — as Christians, grace gives us the right to take part, yet we must examine and judge not merely our ways, but ourselves. Christ was judged for our sins on the cross, and we are urged to judge ourselves, and then proclaim His death. We believe this holy work of self-judgment is deep, earnest and habitual. It is not a formal, wordy confession of the lips on Sunday morning, covering the sins and follies of the past week, soon followed by the sins and follies of the next.
- Examine — the question. Not "am I a Christian?" but "in what spirit and state am I coming?"
- Examine — the depth. Judge yourself, not just your ways. Make it a habit, not a Sunday-morning formality.
- Examine — the place. Do it at home beforehand; the table is for remembering Him, not for staring inward.
- And so eat — the direction. The verse never offers "examine and stay away." Self-judgment aims at coming.
- And so eat — the ground. You are fit because you have been washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. Neither your own faults nor another's cancel the invitation.
For [the] eater and drinker eats and drinks judgment to himself, not distinguishing the body.
In the verse before, Paul warns that eating or drinking in an unworthy way makes a person guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Here he names that unworthiness — a failure to discern the body — and that raises two questions: what judgment does he mean, and what is the "body"?
Older English versions translated the word here as "damnation." That one choice has frightened believers away from the table for generations. Commentators say plainly that the word means something else.
The translators have brought in a word and an idea of their own, and it is plainly wrong. They dared to say that "the one who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks damnation to himself." It is not true. God says, "he eats and drinks judgment to himself."
The "body" here is not the church. It is what the bread stands for: the Lord's own body given in death. To discern it is to tell this meal apart from any other.
"Discerning the body" has no reference to grasping the church's unity or nature. It means only distinguishing between an ordinary meal and that supper which brings before us the body of Christ given for us. It is the memorial of His death that the apostle presses here, not our union with Him. Not to discern the (Lord's) body is to treat this supper as a common thing.
Discerning is not a mental exercise about symbols. It is faith feeding on a Person.
I discern then the body of the Lord — but the body of the Lord given, His blood shed, His death! It is not an ordinary meal, or a simple act of remembrance, if you like. It is an institution Christ has given to His own. They are not meant to find in the elements anything other than the bread and the fruit of the vine. But their faith may feed on Jesus in the sweetest way, by the power of the Holy Spirit — on what He has been for them when He died on the cross.
Many read this verse as a test of personal fitness and conclude they are disqualified.
People usually apply the word "unworthily" here to the persons doing the act, when it refers to the way the act is done. The apostle never doubted that the Corinthians were Christians. He looked on them as saints, and as saints he urged them to keep the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner. He never raises the question of anyone but true Christians being there.
The remedy Paul gives is to examine yourself and then eat.
This does not mean that when I am sitting at the Lord's table I am to look into my own heart, which would be a poor, wretched occupation. I can do that at home. A person ought to examine or prove himself. It means judging himself about what he has done and what he is capable of doing… So, "let a person examine himself" — and not stay away, but come and eat of this bread and drink of this cup.
Careless remembering on Sunday grows out of what filled the heart during the week.
What we are during the week we will be while at the Lord's table. What our heart has been occupied with throughout the past six days it will also be occupied with on the first day of the week while at His table. If we have been careless and indifferent toward the Lord during the week, we are bound to be careless and indifferent toward Him at His table. We will fail to discern His body and His blood in the true sense in the emblems of the Supper. So we will eat and drink judgment to ourselves.
At Corinth this judgment had already begun.
There were many weak and sick among them, and a good many had died. So the judgment of the Lord had to be on them — not because they were not His own, but because they were. As the apostle says, when we are judged in this way we are disciplined by the Lord, so that we may not be condemned along with the world. He draws the sharpest line between this present judgment and the judgment to come. Yet this present judgment is a most serious and awful thing. Love inflicts it — a love which, because it is holy and because it is love, must inflict what is painful to inflict.
- Judgment. The word is judgment, not damnation. It is the Lord dealing with His own now, not the sentence that falls on the world.
- Discern. To discern the body is to tell this bread apart from common food, seeing in it the Lord's body given in death.
- Manner. The unworthiness lies in how a believer eats, not in whether he is good enough to eat.
- Examine. Judge yourself first, and the Lord need not judge you. This test sends you to the table, not away from it.
- Chastening. Where self-judgment is missing, love steps in to correct, so that His people are not condemned with the world.
On this account many among you [are] weak and infirm, and a good many are fallen asleep.
Paul has just described a Lord's Supper at Corinth taken in an unworthy manner. Now he points to the result sitting in front of the church: weakness, illness and death. The verse raises a hard question. Can God lay His hand on His own children over the way they come to His table?
Paul's link is not vague. He traces the sickness back to one failure at the table: treating the memorial as an ordinary meal.
Suppose the true and holy aim of the Lord's supper is treated lightly. Suppose the one taking part does not discern the body — that is, he does not tell the difference between the memorial of Christ and an ordinary meal. Here the Spirit teaches us that such a person eats and drinks judgment as a present thing. He brings on himself the chastening hand of the Lord, in defence of His honour and His love. If people saw the evil at work inside them, they would avoid not only its outbreak in their conduct, but His chastening too.
One principle stands behind the verse. God rules His own household now, and He deals with what goes on in it.
Many had become sick and weak, and many had fallen asleep, that is, had died. The issue is not whether a person is worthy to take part, but that he takes part in an unworthy way. Every Christian was worthy to take part simply because he was a Christian, unless some sin had shut him out. But a Christian might come to it without judging himself... It is the government of God in the hands of the Lord who judges His own house: an important and too much forgotten truth.
Some have argued that the weak and sick people here were not the ones under discipline. One writer answers that claim.
These persons had failed to judge themselves, failed to discern the Lord's body in the broken bread. They had eaten in an unworthy manner, though they were true Christians. So God, ruling His own house, had to chasten them with sickness, even to death. That way they would not be condemned with the world... surely no father would think of chastening a good child for the sin of a bad one.
Paul's choice of word matters. He does not say these people perished; he says they fell asleep — and that word carries its own verdict about where they went.
The word "sleep" is used of death only when a believer is meant. The whole passage tells us that those who were put to sleep in Jesus were believers. The point was this: they were taken to heaven because they were accepted. They were taken from earth because they were NOT acceptable.
A question naturally follows. Is there one particular sin behind these deaths?
Sometimes perplexed souls ask, "What is the particular sin that leads to death?" No particular sin at all. Two believers may go wrong in the same way. Yet the Lord weighs all the circumstances. He may lay one on a sick bed and take the other out of the world. There is no question of the salvation of the soul in these dealings; it is divine chastening.
This verse must not become a rule for reading every sickbed. Scripture shows God using affliction for more than one purpose.
In the light of the New Testament, chastening may be sent for retribution, as we see in 1 Corinthians 11:30. But it may not be. Look at Paul's case — 2 Corinthians 12:7. There the thorn in the flesh was preventive, to keep him from becoming proud and falling. Yet again, it may be neither retributive nor preventive but educational, as Hebrews 12 shows.
- Cause. One thing lay behind the weakness, illness and deaths at Corinth. Believers took the memorial of Christ as an ordinary meal, without judging themselves.
- Hand. What follows is not vengeance. It is God's government of His own house, the Lord judging His household now — a truth writers call important and too easily forgotten.
- Home. "Sleep" is the word used only of believers. They were accepted in Christ, so they went to heaven. The Lord took them from earth because their lives were not acceptable.
- Escape. The chastening aims at rescue, not ruin. It falls on real Christians so they will not be condemned with the world. Judging yourself is the way to avoid it.
- Caution. Not every sickness is a rebuke. Suffering may correct, prevent, or teach — and the Lord may answer the same failure in two believers in two ways.