The true meaning of "Let a man first examine himself..."

As Christians many of you may have grown up with the traditional 1^st Sunday ritual of taking communion to remember that Christ died for our sins; drinking of red juice or wine to remember that His blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins and eating a wafer, or unleavened piece of bread to remind us of His body was beaten so that our bodies may be whole. The ritual of siting the scripture found in 1 Corinthians 11:27-30 was also a part of the sacred ritual as well; “Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.”

Through the years Christians have read this scripture and misunderstood it in this manner; they believed that to partake of Holy Communion in an “unworthy manner” meant to take communion while you knowingly sinned over the last month.  

The true meaning of 1 Corinthians 11:27-30 is this; to partake in an “unworthy manner” does not refer to you partaking as an unworthy person, because you have sinned. The Bible says in Romans 3:23, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, that’s right ALL; and if this scripture is true, then no one would be taking communion.

A lot of church’s teach that there is open sin and hidden sin, or big sin and little sin. Does this sound as ridiculous to you as it does to me? A sin is a sin, there is no little or big, open or hidden in the eyes of God, gluttony is just as bad as adultery, but thank God He died for all of our sins past, present and future, big, little, open, and hidden.

Let’s be real, Christ died for unworthy people, why would He exclude them from His love and grace now? To take unworthily is not about examining yourself for sins and feeling unworthy because of what you have done; stop making this walk of faith about your faith in yourself to do what is right, if we could do what was right we wouldn’t need Him in the first place. It’s about your faith in God and what He has done for you! I am not saying we shouldn’t have a heart of repentance, but this is not the true meaning of this scripture.  

What this verse is really talking about when it says “the manner in which you partake” is in the early church people were failing to discern that the bread which they held in their hands was the body of Christ that was beaten so that their body would be healed. There were believers in those days who were just eating the bread because they were hungry, they weren’t understanding the true meaning and purpose of the ritual, they just ate the bread as a means to a snack, for lack of better terms, or to some, a means to a meal or they weren’t cognizant of the Holy meaning behind what they were doing. The “unworthy” part of the scripture and the “examining of yourself” part, means to make sure you know the reason you are partaking in communion, which is to remember that Christ shed blood for the forgiveness of our sins, and that His body was beaten so that ours may be whole!

So the next time you take communion remember to focus and concentrate on Christ and what He has done for you, take your mind off yourself and your sins, have faith in Christ, and not yourself, and watch your heart began to open up to RECEIVE HIS LOVE AND GRACE more FREELY!

Forever In His Grace!

Toinette Neube