Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  2024  Day 89

March 29;        I Corinthians 11:28;        144/260;        ‘Examine Yourself’

1 Corinthians 11:28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Communion is an ordinance of the church.  That means communion was something that the Lord Jesus Himself did and commanded us to continue in His absence.  Verse 27 tells not to partake of communion in an unworthy manner, meaning we are to attribute to communion the full worth of Jesus’ redeeming work for us.  When we partake of communion we are remembering one of the most sacred events that has ever happened, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  We are to examine ourselves, making sure that we never receive communion in a nonchalant manner.  Our eternal life was granted to us when we comprehended what Jesus did for us on the cross and accepted Him as our Lord and Savior.  We need to examine ourselves to reflect on the sacredness of what Jesus Christ did for us while we were still sinners.  We need to examine ourselves, making sure that we do treat the elements we partake of, representing the broken body of Jesus and His shed blood in a reverent manner.  Our examination of ourselves must include sincere gratefulness for Jesus’ willing sacrifice on our behalf.  We finally need to examine our life and repent of our sins, confessing them before we receive communion.  Additionally, verses 29-30 teach a very sobering truth.  Verse 29 says that we can eat the bread (and drink the juice) in an unworthy manner, ‘not discerning the Lord’s body.’  If we do not believe Jesus’ body was broken for our healing we can actually be weak, sick and die (sleep).  ‘Not discerning the Lord’s body’ can also mean not treating members of the church which is the Lord’s body properly.  This too can open a Christian to demonic attacks and even death.