1 Corinthians 11:30–31

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

To "judge" oneself is not the same word as to be "judged" by the Lord. It is the same word used in 1 Corinthians 11:29, "discerning the Lord's body." So our task is not only to judge an evil we have committed. It is to discern our condition, as the light shows it up — and God Himself is in the light — while we walk in that light. This prevents our falling into evil in act or in thought.

To judge the open sin is easy. It gives me no assurance at all that I will avoid it in future, and no sign in itself of recovered spirituality. "But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged." To judge our sins and to judge ourselves are two different things. To judge ourselves, we must have distinguished and judged the state that the sins only come out of. That state is the root. Leave it in place, and fresh fruit will surely grow.

We never get right by only judging this or that outbreak; we should always search out the cause... Judging ourselves does not mean pronouncing judgment on one particular fault. It means judging the real cause, and not just the occasions. That is the Christian way of judging. It does not deal with the surface, but with what lies underneath: the roots we can hardly see behind the acts that anyone can see.

If they discerned the evil at work inside them, they would avoid not only its outward appearance, but His chastening too. If they fail to judge themselves, He does not fail in watchful care, and He deals with them. Even that judgment flows from His love. It takes the shape of chastening, so that they may not perish in the condemnation still to fall on the guilty world. The Lord's express aim in sending these bodily sufferings now is that His failing saints may escape damnation.

The people of Israel were not examining themselves to see whether they were Israelites, since that was their birth condition. Nor do we examine ourselves to discover whether we are children of God. That was settled forever when we were born of God by faith in Christ Jesus. But an Israelite who had touched something defiling carried uncleanness on him. He had to be cleansed from it and made clean before he ate of the peace offering. In the same way, we have to be clean when we come to the Lord's table.

First of all, we should judge ourselves. Self-judgment is not comparing ourselves with even the most godly believer we know. It is comparing ourselves with Christ. And if we really do that, we will have no wish to judge where we should not.

In our experience, Christians who are hard on their fellow Christians are the ones who do not judge themselves in their own lives. Those who are tender and gracious, and yet faithful, are the ones who truly judge themselves in God's presence.