Big Healing Book - 1 Corinthians 11:27-32

1 Corinthians 11:27-32:

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 to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
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.

Notes on 1 Corinthians 11:27-32:

This doesn’t mean what many people think it does. Many people are afraid to partake of the Lord’s Supper because of a misunderstanding about the word unworthily. It means in an unworthy manner, not in an unworthy state. You aren’t in an unworthy state if you’re born again, anyway, but many churches have no revelation of that either. God will not strike you with sickness or premature death if there is sin in your life when you receive the Lord’s Supper, which is a good thing because there IS sin in your life and in the lives of everyone else who receives the Lord’s Supper! The only time judgment could fall on you relating to the Lord’s Supper is if you steal other people’s elements so that they can’t obey Jesus themselves by partaking of them, or otherwise show gross contempt for Christ’s body when this should be a time that inspires unity.

This has nothing to do with unbelievers being judged for taking communion. If it did, some ritualistic “churches” would have mass fatalities! It is clear in the verses that follow that the judgment came on believers who were pigging out on the communion elements. They were warned to stop doing it lest they come together for condemnation.

1 Corinthians 11:33-34:
Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.
And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come.

Also, the idea was to stop Christians from being “condemned with the world.” If these comments were addressed to unbelievers, they WERE the world and were already under condemnation (John 3:18).

“Not discerning the Lord’s body” would seem to refer to the Church, because if it referred to the elements themselves, it seems that Paul would have to have said, “Not discerning the Lord’s body and blood.” Besides, the elements are not LITERALLY the Lord’s body and blood (despite some groups that teach “transubstantiation,” meaning that the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Jesus – which is NEVER stated in Scripture), so you don’t literally see the Lord’s body; you see a SYMBOL of the Lord’s broken body.

Even then, it is true that failure to understand that Jesus’ body was broken can result in staying sick. So taking communion lightly is taking lightly a symbol of the provision for your healing, which can result in you staying sick. However, in the passage above, it seems that they became sick as judgment as opposed to staying sick with sicknesses that originally had nothing to do with judgment. Good people read this both ways and it’s not a life-or-death issue, but I’m satisfied with my take on it.

While the chastening that went on might make it seem on the surface that God was reacting in anger to the Corinthians, the passage ends by saying that His judgment was to avoid having them be condemned with the world. If these people were not taken out, they could have continued down a path that would have led them away from Christ completely. The ones who were simply made sick were being sternly warned to get off a path that would hurt them.