[color:"0000FF"] -- 1Cor 11:29. for he who is eating and drinking unworthily, judgment to himself he doth eat and drink--not discerning the body of the Lord.[/color]


The standard reading of this passage requires each participant of the Lord's Supper to be introspective, confessing any residual sin, having a quiet examination of the heart, and keeping somber reflection on the sobriety of the event. Thus, the mood of the church has mirrored that of a wake.

The problem Paul addresses in Corinth was that the "haves" were eating the Supper and the "have nots" could not join them. By the time the poor finally arrived there was close to nothing left to eat. As a result, "one is hungry and another is drunk" (11:21). This behavior was tantamount to "despising the church of God and shaming those who have nothing (v 22). It is out of this that Paul says, "Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord" (v. 27).

The "unworthy manner" in verse 27 refers to the manner of eating not the state of the eater. In other words, Paul is not saying one comes under judgment for eating the Supper while in an unworthy state. He's saying rather that judgment comes by eating the Supper in an unworthy way; in context, by illegitimately excluding the poor from the Supper, who are, after all, part of the "body" of Christ represented by the "one loaf" (1Cor 10:16-17).

In the words of 11:29, such a person "does not judge the body rightly"; that is to say, he judges the "have nots" in the body of Christ as unimportant. The "body" (soma) also refers to the both the bread and the Church as the "body" of Christ.

No one in Corinth died for eating the Supper without first confessing their sins or for eating it in an unworthy state. Fact is, you are NOT worthy to partake of the Supper, no one is. We are called to the Supper on account of Christ making us accepted, all in spite of our unworthy state.

The reason the Corinthians were dying was because they were excluding part of the body of Christ (the poor) from partaking of the body of Christ (the bread), and were "eating and drinking judgment" to themselves. Paul's command that a man "examine himself" when partaking of the Supper is intended to prevent the church from excluding members of Christ's body from partaking, it was never meant to eradicate the inherent joy of the Supper as recorded in Acts 2:46.

Acts 2:46
-- 46. And continuing with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they shared food [color:"0000FF"]with gladness[/color] and simplicity of heart.

john

...be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.