"Examine Yourself before You Take the Lord's Supper" 1 Corinthians 11:23-29
"For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. 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. 28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves."
Have you ever thought about the difference between Christian groups such as Christian Organizations, Christian ministries, Christians clubs, etc., and the churches? You may not have noticed many differences among them. They all have a ministry, worship service, education, fellowship, etc. However, one apparent difference is that the church is composed of the people baptized, while baptism is not required to be a member of other Christian groups. Why is baptism required to be a member of a Church while other Christian groups aren't?
Baptism is a public confession of the commitment to Christ. You need to be baptized to become a member because the church is the body of Christ, each of whose members belongs to Christ and one another. (Rom 1:6 & 12:5)
I would like to share with you today concerning the Lord's supper and the Lord's supper is also required to maintain such commitment and relationship. I hope it may make some sense to you though you may not practice the Lord's supper as often as I hope we do as a church.
When God promised David that one of his sons would succeed him, He also promised that his son would establish his kingdom and build a temple for God. And God also promised a lot of other blessings. God also said, however, if his descendant as a king does wrong, God will punish him with "the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men" God was saying He uses human beings to punish him if he disobeys God. In fact, when David committed sins, God inflicted the punishment upon him using his own sons. Can you imagine God using our loved ones as instruments to punish us? Unfortunately, that seems to be the case. It could be your own parents that make your life most difficult, and it could be your spouse or your friend or other church members that make your life miserable. It could be you that makes your parents, your friends sad. Our relationship with our loved ones is such that it could satisfy us most or make us most miserable.
Among many churches described in the New Testament, probably the most troublesome church was the Corinthians church due to the conflict among church members. On the one hand, it was an excellent church in terms of speech, knowledge, spiritual gift, and enthusiasm for the Lord Jesus Christ, but on the other hand, there were factions among members even to the point their meetings did more harm than good. They even took other members to court to resolve their conflict.
I believe this is why you find more emphasis on the church being one body and on love as described in 1 Corinthians 13, where it says, your faith, knowledge, and ministry are in vain without love. Every church in the NT did the Lord's supper. But, the Corinthian church is the only one church Paul had to explain the meaning of the Lord's supper because they totally went against the purpose of the Lord's supper while taking the supper: They didn't share their food with those who didn't have. They didn't care how others might have felt without food. That's why Paul reprimanded them, saying: "do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?" (v. 22)
That is why Paul said that they should examine themselves before eating the bread and drinking the cup, the Lord's Supper" (v. 28) Paul didn't say, "examine others", but "examing themselves" because we all are already expert in examining others: getting into others minds, analyzing, judging and even criticizing. That's our nature. That's why Jesus said, "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?" (Mt 7:3) Do you think Jesus said this to an exceptional group of people? Or Did Jesus make a statement with exaggeration to make a point? Or Do you agree that we see a speck in others yet do not notice the log in our eyes?
Let me ask you this, do you remember anybody who at least once made your life difficult, bothered, or miserable? Do you remember anybody whom you made difficult or miserable? I always got people complaining about others, yet I have yet to see one person who says, "I am the one that bothers, hurts others, makes others miserable" We are so self-centered we know the reasons why we can hate others; but, when others hate us we don't understand why they do.
For this reason, the Bible tells us time and again, not to judge others. Instead, it says, you have to deny yourself to follow Jesus. If you and I want to follow Jesus, then we have to acknowledge It's not others, but I who has problems and flaws, not just once but all of the time.
No one among us was called to deny others but us ourselves. Yet, we tend to think and live as if others have problems. When in conflict, we think if the others change, then the problem settles. But, the Bible says, deny yourself and examine yourself. This is to say, "I am the one who needs to change."
Then how to examine myself? When Jesus said, we are able to notice more easily other's speck than log in us, Jesus meant we are blinded to our problems. I believe this is one reason why people have a hard time believing they need the Savior. They don't see why they need salvation, to begin with, because they can't believe they are such a sinner that deserves severe punishment.
They don't believe their sin is terrible enough for Jesus to die to save us. How about you? Do you think you are really a sinner, whom only Jesus can save? Indeed, people acknowledge they commit sins, yet I would say they still consider themselves righteous rather than unrighteous. (When pastor Lee as a law school student, used to visit prisons. He found that no prisoners thought they were criminals that deserved prison terms.)
If we are such self-centered and self-righteous who won't be able to see as we are then, how to examine ourselves? The Bible says, "No one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law. The law merely shows us how sinful we are." We cannot see ourselves, but just as we can see ourselves through the mirror, the law shows us how sinful we are.
What is the law, then? The law is summarized in two things: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:37-39)
Loving God with all yourself is the first and the greatest commandment, likewise love neighbor as yourself. Therefore, if you don't obey the greatest commandment, you are committing the most severe sin before God. Yet we take great offense at a little thing done by others, never forgetting and never forgiving while we don't care Jesus' most important command to "love one another as I have loved you."
When Peter asked Jesus "how many times should he forgive a brother who sins against him? Jesus said, "Seventy times Seven" Then Jesus illustrate his point by telling a story of a king and wicked servant. (Matthew 18:21-35) The king forgave the servant ten thousand talents, 200,000 years of a laborer wage. (One talent was worth about 20 years of a day laborer's wages) Yet, this servant didn't forgive and put his friend in prison for a hundred denarii, 100 days of a laborer wage while he received forgiveness for 200,000 years of a laborer wage
This is the way God sees us doing: we see the speck in the brother's eye while we don't see the log in our eyes. We forget the far more outstanding debt God forgave us while we remember others' small debt to us.
We have to take the Bible as our reference point regarding sin rather than our standard. We have to consider God's commandment, "love your God with all yourself and love your neighbor as yourself' as the standard for living so we may always realize we are the greatest sinner, but forgiven so that we can forgive others.
One of the reasons Paul wrote a letter to Corinthians was to forgive a person. Then, Paul explains why they had to forgive him, "so that Satan will not outsmart them. For they are familiar with his evil schemes." In the letter to Ephesians, Paul again says, "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Then says, our conflict by nature is not against one another, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places." Paul is saying whether to forgive or not is spiritual. We are not dealing with human beings but the devil and evil spirits.
When Jesus taught how and what to pray, as in the Lord's prayer, He taught us to pray "and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And then, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." Forgiving others is connected with "God leading us not into temptation, but delivering us from the evil one." We have to forgive one another to stand against the schemes of the devil.
Conclusion: To examine myself involves not only understanding my problem but also dealing with the problem by repentance. We need not only to realize the log in our eyes but actually to take it out.
What is the log in my eyes? That is my not loving God with all myself and not loving brothers as myself, my not loving other brothers as Jesus love them.
Before we make issues out of my brother's little offense, we have to take the problems with myself, not loving Him as much as God wants me to love Him. Then repent and try to love Him. We have to realize whenever we judge and criticize and even hate others, and we are committing more grave sin than the sins we judge and condemn others for.
You don't take the Lord's supper today. But, you can still examine yourself to honor the Lord since the purpose of the Lord's supper is to remember what Jesus has done at the cross to unite us to Himself and to one another in Him.
