1 Cor 11:27 (‘So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord’) has left many Christians under a cloud of condemnation and guilt. How can we ever know if we are taking Communion worthily? At times, this leads people so afraid of God’s wrath and judgment that they refuse to take the emblems of bread and wine.
One Bible commentator says “[There is a dangerous misconception that] people are ‘unworthy’ if they have any sin in their lives, or have committed sins during the past week. This in turn resulted in reading verse 28 personally and introspectively, so that the purpose of one’s self-examination was to become worthy of the Table, lest one come under judgment. The tragedy of such an interpretation for countless thousands, both in terms of a foreboding of the Table and guilt for perhaps having partaken unworthily, is incalculable.” (Fee)
We have to understand that whilst it is good to examine our hearts and confess our sins, we are then able to receive God’s forgiveness. If self-examination leads us to believe we are too sinful to take Communion, we have misunderstood the nature of grace. Similarly, if it leads us to believe we ‘deserve’ to take Communion, we have failed to understand God’s grace. The emphasis Paul places on taking Communion in this chapter reminds us of the corporate nature of this love feast; it’s not meant to be a stick to beat us with. ‘We are only worthy because Christ has made us worthy. We need to partake feeling unworthy to do so. This attitude is part of what it means to partake in a worthy manner.’ (Keith Krell, bible.org) We are people who can live without condemnation (Rom 8:1) because of all Christ has done for us, not because of what we have done; God ‘has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.’ (Eph 1:3-4)
Paul’s concern with the Corinthian church is that the factions and disunity in the church there effectively undermine the unifying, redemptive purpose of Christ’s death. He wants us to look back and remember all Christ has done for us and look forward with eager anticipation to His coming again, but he knows that the greatest commandments are to love God whole-heartedly and to love others as we love ourselves. This the Corinthians were clearly not doing. Loving God can never be divorced from loving people (1 John 3:15-18).
‘When we partake of a piece of the bread from one loaf, as a gathered church, we not only symbolise our union with Christ in His atoning work, but our union with His “body,” the church. We symbolise that we all, together, constitute the body of Christ, and that we are all equal sharers in the saving work of Christ. We profess not only our unity but our equality. We are all one body, and we all have equal standing in that body. It is by virtue of His work at Calvary that we are saved. No one is more saved or less saved than anyone else in the body of Christ.’ (Bob Deffinbaugh)