Sat 1 Feb

Reading

1 Corinthians 11:23–34—Let a Person Examine Himself

Notes

Verse 28 is viewed by some as affirmation that self-examination is all that is needed for one to come to the Lord’s Supper. The sense is, “If I have examined myself and come to the conclusion that I am coming in a worthy manner, then no one should stop me, or have any other say in the matter.”

Both the immediate and the whole-book context suggest that is not what the Holy Spirit is saying through Paul. How’s that??

• The instruction is in a book written to the assembled church—the church of God in Corinth. (1 Corinthians 1:2)
• The instruction is in a book where the disunity of the body of Christ is a major concern of Paul. (see 1 Corinthians 1:10ff, 3:1ff)
• The more immediate context is dealing with the disunity of the Corinthians in the Lord’s Supper (see 1 Corinthians 10:16-17, 11:17-22, 33-34).
• In this context, the ambiguity in v. 29 of the term “the Body” (Christ’s physical body, broken for believers—or Christ’s body, the Church) is at least open to the understanding that the discerning in self-examination has some close relationship to the body as the church. Clearly a professing Christian who is unwilling to be a member of a local church is not discerning Christ’s body, the church, rightly.

So, every Christian should 1) be a member of Jesus’s church, 2) known to the elders of the church serving communion, and 3) examine themselves to be sure they are trusting Christ.

Questions

1. Who is Corinthians written to?
2. What serious problem existed in this church?
3. How are we to examine ourselves to come to communion?
4. 

Praise

Psalm 23b, 119r

Prayer

1. Give thanks for the body and blood of Jesus.
2. Pray for the reading and preaching of God’s word tomorrow.
3. Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.