Let a Man Examine Himself

Going from a huge SBC church (sadly, I use that term loosely) where the Lord’s Supper is done maybe four times a year and moving to an incredible body of believers where we commune weekly with our Redeemer has had some significant effects on me and my thinking about sin and its results. For one thing, knowing that the Table awaits me each week causes a self-examination not only throughout the week, but also in a time of reflection and examination just prior to going up and partaking of the bread and ‘wine’ (another topic for another post). For another thing, I am more aware of my sin and the possible consequences that result from it. Let me explain a little what I mean by this second statement.

I have struggled all this week with a very sore throat, massive drainage (sorry for the graphic details), extreme stuffiness, a headache for the recordbooks, some body aches, a strained and weakened voice, and a fever (last night). All of this started late Monday night and has progressed through to today (Thursday). I am beginning to feel better, thank you, but this sickness got me to thinking. For the first time ever in my life I have asked myself whether or not this illness is the result of some sin on my part. I have honestly never considered that possibility before, and I attribute this new consideration to the fact that Pam and I have been observing the Lord’s Supper at RCC on a weekly basis since last March. One of the key things that is stressed by our pastor and elders prior to coming up to the Table is self-examination. Let’s look at the passage in question where Paul talks about this:

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 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. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. – 1 Cor. 11:26-32

Paul states that “eating and drinking without discerning the body” had resulted in many of those he was writing to being weak and ill, and some having actually died. The question here then is, what is meant by discerning the body? Does it mean that someone who has sinned during the week is not qualified to come to the Table? I sure hope not, for then I nor anyone else would be qualified to come. So, what does it mean? To answer that question I think we need to look at another phrase in the passage above: eating the bread and drinking the cup in an unworthy manner. What types of people can partake of the Lord’s Supper unworthily? John Gill outlines two groups that partake of the Table in an unworthy manner. He says this of anyone who comes, “no man is in himself worthy of such an ordinance, none but those whom Christ has made so by the implantation of his grace, and the imputation of his righteousness; and whom he, though unworthy in themselves, invites and encourages to come to this ordinance, and to eat and drink abundantly.”

First, there are the unregenerate…those who do not have the Spirit of Christ dwelling within them. Unbelievers always takes the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner. Gill says of this group, “they have no spiritual life in them, and therefore cannot eat and drink in a spiritual sense; they have no spiritual light, and therefore cannot discern the Lord’s body; they have no spiritual taste and relish, no spiritual hungerings and thirstings, nor any spiritual appetite, and can receive no spiritual nourishment, or have any spiritual communion with Christ.”

Second, there are people who come to the Table and eat of the bread and cup in an unworthy manner, but who are true believers. This is the group I am concerned with (obviously, seeing as I consider myself to be regenerate). Gill says of this group, “this bread and cup are ate and drank unworthily, when they are partook of to unworthy ends and purposes; as to qualify for any secular employment, and to gain any worldly advantage; or to be seen of men, and to be thought to be devotional and religious persons; or to commemorate anything besides Christ.”

In the past few days since getting ill, I have asked myself whether or not I came to my Savior’s Table in an unworthy manner. Did I do it to gain some unworthy gain or purpose, to gain some worldly advantage, or perhaps to be seen of men? Now, I honestly don’t know whether or not my sickness this week is due to my sin in relation to the manner in which I ate the bread and drank the cup this past Sunday (I am continuously running through that morning and my intentions over and over in my mind). But, this is the kind of examination we should all be doing before we observe Communion. I would like to think that my illness is not the result of me doing something unworthy before my God. But, it does make me stop and think and ponder my motivations for coming to the Table each week.

Lord, create in me a clean heart. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and see if there be any wicked way within me…