The Healing Power in Communion

The Words That Get Misused

"Unworthily" Is Not About Being Good Enough

This is the most misused phrase in the passage, and it has driven people away from the table for centuries.

"Whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:27).

The adverb is anaxiōs — in an unworthy manner. It describes how you come, not who you are.

If it meant "who you are," no one could ever come, because no one is worthy. The word qualifies the manner of approach: carelessly, casually, unthinkingly, or — as the context makes clear — in a way that ignores the body, both His and your brothers'.

You do not clean up to come to the table. You come to the table because you need what is on it.

"Damnation" Is Not Hell

The word is krima — judgment, a verdict, an assessment. Not katakrima, condemnation (the word Paul uses in Romans 8:1, "no condemnation").

So Paul says: eating in an undiscerning manner brings judgment on yourself. And then, three verses later, he defines what kind of judgment he means: "But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world" (1 Corinthians 11:32).

Chastening, not condemnation. That is a father's discipline, aimed at correction, and Paul says its purpose is that you not be condemned with the world.

"Not Discerning the Lord's Body"

Now the heart of it. "Not discerning" is mē diakrinōn — not distinguishing, not making a distinction, not judging rightly.

So what is being missed? The Greek allows two readings, and the context supports both together.

First, the Lord's body — the bread represents the body given, and a person who eats it as though it were a snack has not discerned what he is holding.

Second — and this is the reading the whole passage pushes toward — the church as His body. Look at what Paul has just said: "When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper: for in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken" (1 Corinthians 11:20–21).

The Corinthians were eating in factions, letting the poor go hungry while others gorged. They were not discerning the body made of people standing in the room with them.

The two readings are not rivals. The bread and the people are both His body, and the failure to see either is the same failure.

Why Some Were Sick

Which brings the sentence that ought to make every church sit up.

"For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep" (1 Corinthians 11:30).

Astheneis — weak. Arrōstoi — sickly, infirm. Koimōntai — sleep, the New Testament's ordinary word for a believer's death.

Paul says these conditions were in the congregation for a cause, and the cause was the manner in which they came to the table. That is not a comfortable verse, and it is a verse about the church, not merely the individual.

What This Does Not Mean

And here the honesty law requires care, because this passage has wounded a great many people.

It does not mean every sick believer is under judgment for a careless communion. Paul is describing a specific disorder in a specific church, and turning it into a general diagnosis is exactly the error this series has warned against.

It does not mean you must be fasting, weeping, or freshly sinless to come. The table is for the hungry, and "worthy" reception means discerning, not deserving.

And it does not mean that a person who died is "asleep" because he ate wrong. Paul is making a point about a church that had stopped taking the meal seriously; he is not issuing certificates of blame at funerals.

What the Table Actually Is

So the positive account. What did Jesus give at the supper?

"Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me" (1 Corinthians 11:24).

And Paul draws the conclusion two chapters earlier: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?" (1 Corinthians 10:16).

The word is koinōnia — participation, sharing, common life. Communion With the Holy Spirit is what the meal is called, and it is the same word.

So the bread is not a picture of a past event. It is a participation in a present body. Every time the church breaks bread, it is not admiring a memorial; it is taking hold of a Person.

Jesus' Own Claim

And Jesus was blunt about the eating, in a way that lost Him a crowd.

"I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever... For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him" (John 6:51, 55–56).

The word for "dwelleth" is menei — abides, remains.

A crowd left over that saying. They understood Him to be offering more than a metaphor, even if they could not say how.

The Body That Was Broken

And there is one more connection that makes this a healing teaching rather than a warning.

"This is my body, which is broken for you." The word is klōmenon. And in the same night, His body was broken — scourged, pierced, abused.

Isaiah said, "with his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5). Peter said the same thing in the past tense, "by whose stripes ye were healed" (1 Peter 2:24).

So the bread is the distribution of the very body that purchased healing, and coming to it without discernment is coming to a remedy and asking for a snack.

The Family Meal

One illustration, because this passage is about a meal and a plain meal is the best way to see it.

Picture a family supper where everyone understands what it is. The father has been away; the food is the celebration of his return. There is bread on the table, and everyone eats it knowing what it cost.

Now picture another table. Same food, same room, but people grab what they can, a child is left hungry in the corner, and nobody looks at the father. The bread is identical. The meal is not.

That is the difference between diakrinōn and its absence. It is not about the bread; it is about knowing what you are doing while you eat it — and who else is at the table.

How to Come Worthily

So the practical instruction, and note how ordinary it is.

Examine yourself — the word in verse 28 is dokimazetō, to test, to prove, as you would test metal. Not a search for perfection; an honest look.

Discern the body — know what you are holding, and see who is beside you. The two discernments are one act.

Give thanks — the accounts all say He gave thanks before He broke it. That is why some traditions call it the Eucharist. Gratitude is not the posture that earns the table; it is the posture that recognises it.

And take the life in it. If the meal is a participation in His body and His blood, then coming with a body in need and taking it as though nothing is being given is the very error Paul is correcting. Faith and wisdom work together here too: the table does not cancel the doctor's appointment, and the appointment does not cancel the table. Divine Wholeness is on the table; the failure was in the eating.

What This Means for You

1. Change what you think the bread means. Not a memorial to a death, but a distribution of a life. The Blood of Jesus in the cup is the covenant in force.

2. Come to it hungry, not clean. You are not qualifying. You are eating.

3. Look around while you eat. Part of discerning the body is seeing the person in the next chair. A meal eaten alone in a crowd has missed the meal.

4. Examine, but do not interrogate. Test your conduct; do not cross-examine your soul until you are afraid to eat anything at all.

5. Then bring your body to the table. If healing was purchased in His body, then a sick believer at a supper that declares His body has a reason to eat with expectation.

Putting It to Work This Week

• Read 1 Corinthians 11:17–34
• Read John 6:48–58
• Say what you are taking
• Pray for one person at church who is sickly, by name.