Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Corinthians · About this commentary
Let a Man Examine Himself
1 Corinthians 11:27-34
27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in a way unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. · WEB
Eating unworthily means failing to discern the body — and in this context the body being missed is the congregation sitting hungry across the room.
Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord's cup in a way unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord 1 Corinthians 11:27.
The adverb matters: in a way unworthy, describing the manner of eating rather than the worthiness of the eater. No one is worthy of this table, and the letter has already said what these people were before they were washed 1 Corinthians 6:11. What is condemned is a way of coming, and the way in question has been described in detail three verses earlier.
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup 1 Corinthians 11:28.
Self-examination is prescribed, and the instruction is and so let him eat — the examination sends a person to the table, not away from it. That is worth holding, since the passage has often been read as grounds for staying back. Paul's remedy for an unworthy manner is a corrected manner, not abstention.
For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment to himself if he doesn't discern the Lord's body 1 Corinthians 11:29.
And here the failure is finally named: doesn't discern the Lord's body. Given the argument this chapter is making, the body being missed is not only the crucified body signified in the bread but the body sitting in the room — the congregation that the one loaf constitutes 1 Corinthians 10:17 and that this letter calls the body of Christ outright in the next chapter 1 Corinthians 12:27. A man who can eat while a brother goes hungry has failed to perceive what is in front of him in both senses, and Scripture does not let the two come apart.
For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep 1 Corinthians 11:30.
A sobering claim, plainly stated and not elaborated: real physical consequences in that congregation, including deaths. Sleep is the letter's ordinary word for the death of believers, used repeatedly in the resurrection chapter 1 Corinthians 15:6 1 Corinthians 15:20 1 Corinthians 15:51 — so these are members who died in Christ, not people lost. The verse should not be generalized into a rule that illness indicates guilt, which the letter never suggests and Scripture elsewhere denies John 9:3.
But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world 1 Corinthians 11:32.
The interpretation of the previous verse, and it changes its color entirely. What happened was discipline, and its purpose was preservation — the same distinction drawn elsewhere between a father's correction and a verdict against outsiders Hebrews 12:6–11 Proverbs 3:11–12. Judgment inside the family is aimed at keeping people out of the judgment outside it.
Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another 1 Corinthians 11:33.
After all of that, the practical instruction is three words long. Wait for one another — the whole remedy for a chapter about weakness, sickness, judgment and the death of Christ is that the people who can arrive early should sit and wait for the people who cannot. Those who cannot wait should eat at home first 1 Corinthians 11:34. The theology is enormous and the required action is small, which is characteristic of this letter throughout.
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