We have bought all the God is only love theology of today. However, the plain meaning of this passage is still in affect today, whether we believe it or not. We need to get serious about it.
However, our modern scientific minds silently scoff at God bringing sickness and death as judgement, because to us, that is just superstitious thinking of ancient people. We know germs, viruses, etc, causes sickness and death, it is all cause and effect. So if we get sick we have an explanation and not a confession of our sins and a plea for healing mercy. The Word of God says that many of them got sick, and some died because of the way they treated the Blood and Body of the Lord.