What does it mean to take communion unworthily (1 Corinthians 11:27)?

Eating Unworthily

Be pleased to mark this word of the apostle very carefully, "Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." He condemns the way in which the supper was observed. Some persons 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 very carefully, because the verse does not speak about unworthy persons eating, but about the unworthy way in which some persons ate.

We come now to the solemn words of the apostle as to eating and drinking the Supper unworthily. "Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation (judgment-original) to himself, not discerning the Lord's body" (I Cor. 11: 27-29).

If we bear in mind what has already been before us about the disorder amongst the Corinthians as to the Lord's Supper, it will help us to see that the eating and drinking unworthily which the apostle speaks of here, does not refer to the worthiness or otherwise of the persons, but to the unworthy manner in which they had been eating the Lord's Supper. If eating the Supper depended upon personal worthiness, no one on earth could partake, for no one is worthy in himself to partake of the Lord's Supper. We are only worthy in the sense that Christ has taken us in our lost condition, cleansed us by His blood, and thereby fitted us for His presence and given us the right to partake of the Supper. This right is the result of what He has done for us and not of any personal worthiness.

"Wherefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily† shall be guilty as to the body and the‡ blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he that eats and drinks§ eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the body.|| For this cause many [are] weak and sickly among you, and pretty many are falling asleep. But if we were discerning ourselves, we should not be judged; but when judged we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when coming together to eat, wait for each other. If†† any one is hungry, let him eat at home, that ye may not come together for judgment. But the rest will I arrange when I come." (Vers. 27-34.)

But the more precious the Lord's supper is, as the gathering of christian affection to a focus in the remembrance of His death, the greater the danger, if the heart be careless, or the conscience not before God. It is not a question of allowing unworthy persons to communicate. Low as the Corinthians might be through their unjudged carnal thoughts and worldly desires, they had not fallen so grievously as that; they had not yet learned to make excuses for admitting the unrenewed and open enemies of the Lord to His table. But they were in danger of reducing its observance to a form for themselves, of partaking in the supper without exercise of soul, either as to their own ways, or as to His unspeakable love who was thus reminding them of His death for them. Hence the solemn admonition of the apostle, "Wherefore whosoever eats the bread (for the added emphasis of the common text is uncalled for) or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord." 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 the more so because it is a Christian who does so; for of all men he should feel most what he owes the Lord, and what the Lord expressly brings to his remembrance at that serious moment. It is to be guilty of an offence, not merely against Himself in general, but in respect of His body and His blood, if he treat their memorials with indifference. There meet together the extremity of our need and guilt, the fulness of suffering in Christ, the deepest possible judgment of sin, yet withal grace to the uttermost, leaving not a sin unforgiven: what facts, feelings, motives, results, surround the cross of the Lord Jesus! For this reason it appeals, as nothing else can, to the believer's heart as well as to his conscience, and therefore does the apostle censure and stigmatize the Corinthians' fault so strongly. How much for their and our profit!

"But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he that eats and drinks eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the body." Grace is thus maintained, but through righteousness, as ever. Each is to put himself to the proof, and so to eat and drink. The Lord would have His own to come, but not with negligence of spirit or levity; this were to be a party both to His own dishonour, and the deeper evil of his followers. Still He invites all, if He urges the trying of our ways. Self-judgment is with a view to coming, not to staying away. For it is a question of those whom grace counts worthy; whatever their past or personal unworthiness, they are washed, they are sanctified, they are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. Having the Spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind, they are assumed to be in peace with God, and delivered from the law of sin; they are contemplated as jealous for the Lord's glory, and hating what grieves the Holy Spirit of God, whereby they are sealed unto the day of redemption.

It is not supposed that they could persevere in evil that they discover themselves exposed to, or that they confess sin in which they begin again to indulge, as if God were mocked by an acknowledgment which would thus aggravate their wickedness. Grace strengthens the man who tries himself with integrity, and it emboldens him to come. Where there is lightness on the other hand, the Lord shows Himself there to judge. "For he that eats and drinks (most add "unworthily," but the most ancient omit) eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the body," that is, the Lord's body, as the mass add, in both cases needlessly, though right enough for the sense which is implied. To bring in the church would falsify the thought: the wrong was forgetfulness of the Lord's self-sacrificing love. He instituted the supper to remind us of it continually.

Suppose someone threw dirt at my mother's picture, or treated it with disdain, he would be guilty in my eyes, not of disrespect to a mere painting, but to my mother, and I should greatly resent it. Now some in the church at Corinth were doing what was analogous to that; they were treating the Lord's Supper as a common meal, or worse. They did not recognise its sacred character, sacred for two reasons, because of what it represented, and because the Lord Himself instituted it for a remembrance of Himself in death. They were each gratifying his own appetite and behaving in a way that would have disgraced their own houses, as this chapter shows, and by their conduct they were guilty of gross disrespect in regard to the body and blood of the Lord, in which He is set before us in the most moving way in which we can think of Him, even as dead for us.

We cannot imagine such conduct as theirs taking place now, for the Lord's Supper is eaten now in an orderly way and with more or less reverence. God grant that it may be with more reverence and greater reality. But has the passage no application to us? We believe it has. If a man who partook of the Supper were going on in an unjudged sinful course, indifferent to the fact that the Lord died for the very sins he is committing with such lightness, it would show that he was insensible to the reason of that death, that he cared little for its deep meaning, that the bread and wine were to him like the canvas and paint of the portrait. It would show that he did not discern the Lord's body, that he did not see in the death of the Lord the judgment of the evil that he was committing, or the love that led the Lord to bear that judgment; though by eating the Supper he professed to see both. Such a one would be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, and would have no need to be surprised if he were judged of the Lord for his indifference to what is due to the Lord.

The supper, then, was no common meal. To partake of it unworthily was no light matter. He that did so was guilty of the body and blood of the Lord; i.e. liable to judgment because of the slight thus put upon Him. Such an one ate and drank judgment to himself (krima, not damnation, katakrima) from not discerning the Lord's body; i.e. what the bread signified. The Lord's body here has no reference to the Church; and Paul never called the Church by such a name. The Church is the body of Christ, not the body of the Lord. The Lord's body in our chapter is that of which the bread was the emblem, as He Himself had said, "This is my body." Hence the man's guilt consisted in treating the supper as an ordinary meal, not discerning in it that of which the elements were but figures. Now such conduct the Lord would not allow to go on unchecked. Self-judgment would indeed avert His judicial interference; but where that remained lacking, He Himself, the Lord, would, and had interposed. Weakness, sickness, and death had visited many of the Corinthian assembly for these grave scandals; but perhaps, till pointed out by the apostle, they were scarcely aware of the reason for these divine visitations upon them. Yet there was grace in them. Because they were really Christians the Lord dealt thus with them, that they should not be condemned with the world.*

Such then is the meaning of the supper; and, as you will perceive, the apostle gives us very solemn warnings against forgetfulness of its import. "Whosoever shall eat the bread, and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation [judgment] to himself, not discerning the Lord's body" (vv. 27-29). There is no question here of being ourselves worthy to partake of the Lord's Supper; but what the apostle deprecates is "partaking in an unworthy manner. Every Christian, unless some sin had excluded him, was worthy to partake, because he was a Christian. But a Christian might come to it without judging himself, or appreciating as he ought, that which the supper brought to his mind, and which Christ had connected with it. He did not discern the Lord's body; and he did not discern, did not judge, the evil in himself." And if he thus ate and drank, he would eat judgment to himself; i.e., he would bring down discipline upon himself; for the Lord judges His people, chastens them, that they should not be condemned with the world (v. 32). He had thus chastened the Corinthians for their careless ways — some with weakness, some with sickness, and some even with bodily death (v. 30). Hence the necessity of examining ourselves as to the manner in which we partake of the Lord's Supper, and of judging every thing which is thus discovered that is unsuited to the presence of the Lord; "for if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged" (v. 31) ; i.e., exercising self-judgment, we should not then be chastened of the Lord.

The apostle is not speaking of individual worthiness at all, but of the manner in which these saints conducted themselves when together. They were very careless and ignored what the bread meant and what the cup meant. They forgot the solemn realities that were expressed by the emblems, and partook of them as common, meaning less things. They did not discern in the bread the Lord's body and thus ate and drank unworthily and brought present judgment upon themselves.

The same danger remains for us today. We may carelessly partake of the Lord's Supper, not thinking of His body and His blood as we eat the bread and drink of the cup. Our thoughts may be of other things and not of the Lord whom we profess to remember. If we do not discern by faith His body, we eat unworthily and are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord since we treat their memorials with indifference. This is a solemn thought. It is not, as we have said before, that the bread becomes His body and the contents of the cup become His blood, but to faith they speak definitely of the broken body of Christ and of His shed blood. The question is: Are we really discerning by faith the Lord's body in the breaking of bread? Do we sometimes eat and drink of the Supper as an ordinary meal, or a common thing without reflection or self-judgment? Do we fail to realize His presence or fail to perceive that in the bread and the cup the Spirit would bring to our view His body which was given for us and His blood which was shed for us? If so, we are eating and drinking unworthily; we are eating and drinking judgment to ourselves and will bring down upon us the chastening hand of the Lord. "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world" (v. 30-32). Such are the serious consequences of eating and drinking the Lord's Supper unworthily. Since partaking of the Lord's Supper is a solemn matter, and since there is the possibility of eating and drinking in an unworthy manner with such serious consequences, one might tremble and shrink back from obeying the Savior's last request, "This do in remembrance of me." To do so would be to fall into another error and be disobedient to the Lord's command of love. In this respect verses 28 and 31 are an encouragement to us which we must not overlook. "But let a man examine (prove original) himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup . . . For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged."

(V. 27). Having reminded the brethren of the true character of the Supper, the Apostle returns to the scandals that existed in their midst, and warns them against partaking of the Supper in an unworthy manner. They were eating unworthily inasmuch as they were taking the Supper without judging their ways, and without discerning that of which the bread and the cup speak — the Lord's body and blood. They did not discern between an ordinary meal and that which was a memorial of the Lord's body given for us and His blood shed for us.

To you who have no doubts I speak now. Your danger is in coming to the Lord's Supper without adequately weighing your ways and state of heart. "Let a man examine himself," not to see whether he is a Christian, as some say. But, if assured of salvation as we should be, the Lord intends that there should be a solemn searching of heart, and challenging of the soul every time, with a view to our seeing in what spirit and state we are coming to the Lord's Supper. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily is guilty with respect to the body and blood of the Lord; for he falls into no small offence as to Christ who treats His Supper irreverently. Consequently the Lord does not fail to come in and vindicate the honour of His name thus set at naught, and to judge, as we see He did at Corinth.

A. "Discerning the body" has no reference to apprehending the church's unity or nature, but means exclusively distinguishing between any ordinary meal and that supper which brings before us the body of Christ given for us. It is the memorial of His death in it, which the apostle here urges, not our union with Him. Not to discern the (Lord's) body is to treat this supper as a common thing. It is profanation, not intelligence about the church's unity.