Looking at Paul’s discourse
concerning the communion in this way---in the larger context of what precedes
it in the eleventh chapter and in consideration of the general tone of the
letter (Paul’s constant focus on the church body/body of believers) while also
holding on to the reality of a general and public reading to the group rather
than an individual and private reading, prompts an observer toward a better way
of coming to terms with what follows. The twenty-seventh verse reads “For
this reason, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an
unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord” (1
Corinthians 11:27).
When isolated from what prompted
Paul to write about that which he is said to have received from the Lord, this
verse prompts all types of interesting thoughts concerning what it means to
take in an unworthy manner. When one goes on to hear “A person should
examine himself first, and in this way let him eat the bread and drink of the
cup” (11:28), an even larger range of potential interpretations come into
view.
In
fact and unfortunately, it is proof-texting that almost immediately comes into
view. Accordingly, and rather than considering the statement from its own
context, a separate statement from what is presented as Paul’s second letter to
the Corinthians, that of “Put yourselves to the test to see if you are in the
faith; examine yourselves!” (13:5a) is brought into service, so as to aid the
unsure reader of the first letter in their comprehension. That won’t do
at all, of course, as ideas communicated in the second letter would have little
to zero bearing on the way the hearers of the first letter are meant to understand
Paul’s directions. As a matter of logic, the recipients of letter one
would not have letter two in order to provide an interpretive matrix when they
first hear letter one. This would seem to be rather obvious, but is
sometimes lost to view in an effort to create a coherent systematic theological
system that would not be of any help to this particular church body.
Nevertheless, herein lies much
controversy, as rightly introspective Christians grapple with what it means to
take the bread or cup in an unworthy manner, or with what it means to examine
oneself in light of the fact that Paul continues on to write “For the one who
eats and drinks without careful regard for the body eats and drinks judgment
against himself. That is why many of you are weak and sick, and quite a
few are dead” (11:29-30).
Naturally,
judgment, weakness, sickness, and death are ends to be avoided.
Unfortunately, large numbers of Christians, down through the centuries, have
not only looked at the words of these verses and attempted to understand them
in isolation from the larger picture into which they are painted, they have
also looked at them from within the overarching idea that the goal of the
Christian life is simply to achieve heaven and avoid hell.
Therefore, words such as “guilty”
and “judgment” are associated with the proverbial and everlasting fires of
hell. In addition, individualistic concerns and notions of personal
salvation, and the corollaries of heaven and hell (as the ideals of salvation
and judgment) have further colored the interpretation in a way that simply
would not have been in the minds of Paul’s original hearers, especially if they
had already been well-instructed by him in the fundamentals of all that was
implied by the kingdom of heaven, and by concepts such as justification (the
means by which one enters into the kingdom of heaven).
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