"Discerning the body" and Lord's Supper judgement
Does 1 Corinthians 11 really say that you shouldn't eat the Lord's Supper if you have any sin?
1 Corinthians 11:17-34 is one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted Biblical passages. This happens because most pastors and interpreters ignore one of the most fundamental rules of interpretation—context—and focus on a few verses out of the entire passage, namely vv. 27-29:
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.
Just what is this “unworthy manner” Paul refers to? Most interpreters say it means that if you have any kind of sin in your life, you should refrain from participating in the Supper.
That’s not what Paul is saying here. The “therefore” is a clue that this is a conclusion to something that comes before it. All we have to do is read the rest of the context, where he explains it clearly.
Paul was dealing with a specific situation in the Corinthian church, not with the question of whether anyone who has any sin should eat the Lord’s Supper. Verses 17-22 describe the problem:
But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
To understand this, we have to know that the Lord’s Supper was not a metaphor. The early church did not sit in rows of pews or chairs and eat a tiny wafer and drink a sip of grape juice in contemplative silence. Rather, it was an actual meal they ate together.
It appears that in the Corinthian church, there were divisions among the more well-to-do, who were able to bring adequate food and wine for themselves to church, and the poor who had little or nothing. The “haves”, rather than waiting for the “have nots” and sharing their bounty, were selfishly and rudely stuffing themselves and getting drunk while poorer members went without.
Paul says that this is not the Lord’s Supper. Why? Because this manner of eating the Supper goes completely against everything that Jesus taught and modelled for his disciples, how he taught us to behave toward one another, and the purpose of his death.
In Jesus’ last meeting with his disciples before the cross, when he instituted the Supper, he took on the role of a slave by humbly washing his disciples’ feet. He said to them: “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” (John 13:14) He later said: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12) and prayed for us “that [those who will believe in me] may all be one” (John 17:20).
The Corinthians’ behaviour was a gross violation of Jesus’ desire for unity, love, and mutual service in the church, and thus what they were celebrating was not actually the “Lord’s” Supper, even if they called it that.
I find it fascinating that Paul describes this sin as “eat[ing] and drink[ing] without discerning the body” (v. 29). What does he mean by this? There are two “bodies” in this passage, both the literal body of Christ which was broken for us, and his metaphorical body, which is us, the church, the gathered group of those who have been redeemed by his blood and filled with his Spirit. Christ’s blood was shed and his body was broken in order to form this second body:
And he [God the Father] put all things under his [Jesus’] feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:22-23)
Believers being the “body of Jesus” is a pretty weird metaphor, which those of us who have been around the church long enough probably don’t properly appreciate. What does it mean to be the “body” of someone who is in heaven?
It means we are the embodiment of Jesus on this earth, particularly together. We are meant to be filled with his Spirit, doing the same things that Jesus did when he was here on earth, fulfilling his mission until he comes. We are Jesus, in a very real sense, his acting body which is meant to be directed by him, the Head. Thus when believers act selfishly and allow divisions and disunity to fracture the church, they are destroying Christ’s body. We cannot be Jesus to the world if we are not living in harmony and love with one another. It is impossible for a body which is lying in pieces or cutting some of its members to be healthy and active.
This is what Paul means by “not discerning the body” and by saying that what the Corinthians were eating was not the Lord’s Supper.1
But what about us? Is it possible that we are also not actually eating the Lord’s Supper?
Yes, it is. If we are acting proudly, if we are excluding believers who are poor or awkward or single or “not good enough”, if we are taking part in gossip and division and dissension, if we are allowing unrebuked and unforgiven offenses to rankle rather than dealing with them openly and humbly with the offender, if we are creating “cliques” of insiders in the church, if we are hoarding what we have rather than sharing with those in need—all this and more can mean we are not really eating the supper of the humble and loving Lord Jesus, even if we are taking part in the religious ritual called the Lord’s Supper.
But I wonder if more than that, if our very manner of eating the “Lord’s Supper” means we are not actually eating the Lord’s Supper. As previously mentioned, it was originally a meal, eaten around a table together. It has degenerated to a sip of grape juice and a tiny wafer, eaten in silence alone with heads bowed and eyes closed contemplatively, ignoring the people around us.
Paul indicates that the Lord’s Supper is meant to both commemorate what Jesus did for us, and unite the body of believers he created by his death and resurrection. He makes this explicit in 1 Corinthians 10:17: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”
Today, we celebrate only the first meaning of the Lord’s Supper and ignore the second.
What about general sin? If someone has any sin in their life or isn’t a believer, is it true that they should not eat the Lord’s Supper?
I don’t think so. There’s nowhere in Scripture that says this. It seems that the early church acknowledged the fact that their gatherings, including the Supper, would be a mixed bunch, and says nothing about filtering access.2 Jude mentions false teachers who are “hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves” (Jude 12). Jesus himself fed Judas a bite of bread dipped in wine at the first Lord’s Supper (John 13:26).
Of course if you have known, unrepented sin in your life, you should deal with it. But Paul is not saying in this passage, at least, that it means you should not eat the Lord’s Supper. Interestingly, he doesn’t even tell the Corinthians that they should not eat it, rather that they should “examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (v. 28).
Not taking the Lord’s Supper would be doubling the sin; it would be saying both that you don’t repent of your haughty and divisive attitudes, and that you don’t care to be part of the body. The Lord’s Supper is meant to both portray and renew the unity of Christ’s body, as well as commemorate his death. Examine yourself for any of these actions or attitudes in yourself toward your brothers and sisters in Christ, repent, seek to love, serve, share with the needy and put others before yourself, and then you will truly be eating the LORD’s Supper.
This has strong echoes of Isaiah 58, where God decries the Israelites’ religious fasting while engaging in open wickedness. He says:
“Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,
and oppress all your workers.
Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to hit with a wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day
will not make your voice to be heard on high.
….
“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?” (Isaiah 58:3-4, 6-7)
Scripture does indicate that the church is to cast out those who persist in serious, unrepentant sin after several failed attempts to bring them to repentance (see, e.g., 1 Corinthians 5). This would, of course, mean they would not be participating in any meetings, including the Lord’s Supper.