Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 11:29

For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

29. damnation ] Rather judgment, as in the margin. Wiclif, dome (as in ch. 1Co 6:4). Luther, gericht. Vulgate, judicium, “The mistranslation in our version has, says Dean Alford, “done infinite mischief.” Olshausen reminds us how in Germany a translation (see above) less strong than this, yet interpreted to mean the same thing, drove Goethe from “Church and altar.” Of what kind the judgment is the next verse explains. That it is not final condemnation that is threatened, 1Co 11:33 clearly shews (Alford, De Wette). Some MSS. and editors omit “unworthily” here. It may have been introduced from 1Co 11:27. If it be omitted, the sense is that he who eats and drinks without discerning (see next note) the Body of Christ, invites judgment on himself. If it be retained, we are to understand that he who partakes unworthily, invites God’s judgment on him because he does not discern the Lord’s Body. The latter is the reading of the ancient versions.

discerning ] Dijudicans, Vulgate. Discernens, Calvin. Dass er nicht unterscheidet, Luther. Wiseli demynge, Wiclif. Because he maketh no difference of, Tyndale (after Luther). The word discern properly signifies to perceive distinctions, to distinguish. Thus Shakspeare,

“No discerner durst wag his tongue in censure,”

Henry VIII. Act i. Sc. 1,

i.e. no one who might have been inclined to exalt one king at the expense of the other. So the word discreet originally meant one who had the power of rightly distinguishing. The Greek word sometimes means to distinguish, or even to cause to differ (ch. 1Co 4:7). In the passive, in which it most frequently occurs in the N. T., it signifies to be made to differ, to doubt. Here, however, the word is used in its primary signification (cf. St Mat 16:3, where the same word is used with the same translation), and means to decide after a thorough inquiry ( search out, Chrysostom) to pierce through the impediments opposed by sense, and thus to come to a right conclusion of what is actually offered to faith in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, rather than with some, to discriminate between the Body of the Lord and other kinds of food.

the Lord’s body ] Some MSS. and editors read the body.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

For he that eateth … – In order to excite them to a deeper reverence for this ordinance, and to a more solemn mode of observing it, Paul in this verse states another consequence of partaking of it in an improper and irreverent manner; compare 1Co 11:27.

Eateth and drinketh damnation – This is evidently a figurative expression, meaning that by eating and drinking improperly he incurs condemnation; which is here expressed by eating and drinking condemnation itself. The word damnation we now apply, in common language, exclusively to the future and final punishment of the wicked in hell. But the word used here does not of necessity refer to that; and according to our use of the word now, there is a harshness and severity in our translation which the Greek does not require, and which probably was not conveyed by the word damnation when the translation was made. In the margin it is correctly rendered judgment. The word here used ( krima) properly denotes judgment; the result of judging, that is, a sentence; then a sentence by which one is condemned, or condemnation; and then punishment; see Rom 3:8; Rom 13:2. It has evidently the sense of judgment here; and means, that by their improper manner of observing this ordinance, they would expose themselves to the divine displeasure, and to punishment. And it refers, I think, to the punishment or judgment which the apostle immediately specifies, 1Co 11:30, 1Co 11:32. It means a manifestation of the divine displeasure which might be evinced in this life; and which, in the case of the Corinthians, was manifested in the judgments which God had brought upon them. It cannot be denied, however, that a profane and intentionally irreverent manner of observing the Lords Supper will meet with the divine displeasure in the eternal world, and aggravate the doom of those who are guilty of it. But it is clear that this was not the punishment which the apostle had here in his eye. This is apparent:

1. Because the Corinthians did eat unworthily, and yet the judgments inflicted on them were only temporal, that is, weakness, sickness, and temporal death 1Co 11:30; and,
2. Because the reason assigned for these judgments is, that they might not be condemned with the wicked; that is, as the wicked are in hell, 1Co 11:32. Whitby. Compare 1Pe 4:17.

Not discerning the Lords body – Not discriminating me diakrinon between the bread which is used on this occasion and common and ordinary food. Not making the proper difference and distinction between this and common meals. It is evident that this was the leading offence of the Corinthians (see the notes at 1Co 11:20-21), and this is the proper idea which the original conveys. It does not refer to any intellectual or physical power to perceive that that bread represented the body of the Lord; not to any spiritual perception which it is often supposed that piety has to distinguish this; not to any view which faith may be supposed to have to discern the body of the Lord through the elements; but to the fact that they did not distinguish or discriminate between this and common meals. They did not regard it in a proper manner, but supposed it to be simply an historical commemoration of an event, such as they were in the habit of observing in honor of an idol or a hero by a public celebration. They, therefore, are able to discern the Lords body in the sense intended here, who with a serious mind, regard it as an institution appointed by the Lord Jesus to commemorate his death; and who distinguish thus between this and ordinary meals and all festivals and feasts designed to commemorate other events. In other words, who deem it to be designed to show forth the fact that his body was broken for sin, and who desire to observe it as such. It is evident that all true Christians may have ability of this kind, and need not incur condemnation by any error in regard to this. The humblest and obscurest follower of the Saviour, with the feeblest faith and love, may regard it as designed to set forth the death of his Redeemer; and observing it thus, will meet with the divine approbation.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

1Co 11:29

For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself.

Eating and drinking unworthily

I. Explication.

1. What is meant by eating and drinking? Not the body and blood of Christ, but sacramental bread and wine.

2. What by unworthily? Not according to Christs institution.

3. What by damnation? Judgment. He sins, and so must expect punishment.

II. Doctrine. It behoves every one to have a great care he doth not receive unworthily. Who are unworthy receivers?

1. The ignorant receivers.

(1) Such as know not the fundamentals of religion, that is (Mat 28:19)–

(a) God the Father (Joh 17:3).

(b) God the Son. Who He was; what He became; what He suffered; what He did; what He is; for whom He undertook these things; what benefit we receive from them.

(c) The Holy Ghost.

(2) Such as know not the state of their own souls.

(3) That know not the nature of the sacrament, even that it is an ordinance instituted by God, wherein, under the outward signs of bread and wine, Christ, with all the benefits of His death and passion, is represented, sealed, and conveyed to the worthy receiver.

(4) Examine–

(a) How may we know whether we know God? By our love to Him, trust on Him (Psa 9:10), desire for Him, joy in Him, fear of Him.

(b) Ourselves. By our thoughts of ourselves, and our constant endeavour to get ourselves bettered.

(c) The sacrament. By our desire of it, and preparation:for it.

2. The impenitent (Act 2:33).

(1) What is repentance?

(a) To sorrow for the sins we have committed.

(i.) Heartily (Joe 2:13).

(ii.) Sincerely.

(iii.) Universally.

(iv.) Constantly.

(b) To turn from the sins for which we sorrowed–

(i.) With full purpose of heart.

(ii.) In obedience to God.

(iii.) From all sin.

(iv.) To a right end.

(2) How appears it that the impenitent is unworthy?

(a) They cannot discern the Lords body.

(b) They mock the ordinance by acting and living contrary to it, and provoke God.

3. Examine–

(1) Your heart, thoughts, affections.

(2) Your life, words, actions (Jer 9:17-18). (Bp. Beveridge.)

Eating and drinking unworthily

I. The sin. Thoughtless, impenitent, irreverent participation of the holy communion.

II. The cause.

1. Not discerning the Lords body.

2. Through ignorance and unbelief.

III. The consequences. Not necessarily eternal damnation, but condemnation, entailing, it may be, temporal chastisement (1Co 11:30), yet with a merciful design. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

The danger of unworthy communicating

I. The necessity of communicating suitably, and in a right manner.

1. God commands it (1Co 11:28). The matter and manner of all duties are linked together in the command of God. What God hath joined, let no man put asunder.

2. No duty is pleasing to God, unless it be done in a right manner.

3. Nothing is a work theologically good but what is done in a right manner (Heb 11:6). There was a vast difference betwixt Cain and Abels offering (Gen 4:4-5; cf. Heb 11:4). Cloth may be good, and yet the coat base, if it be marred in the making.

4. Though the work be in itself good, yet if it be done not in a right manner, it provokes God to inflict heavy strokes on the doer (1Co 11:31).

5. Only the duty done in a right manner prospers and gets the blessing. Our meat can do us no good, and our clothes cannot warm us, if we do not use them in the right manner.

6. If we communicate not in a right manner, we do no more than hypocrites actually do, and pagans may do.

7. God gets no glory otherwise from us in our duty (Mat 5:16).

II. Why it is, that though the right manner of communicating be the main thing, yet many content themselves with the bare doing of it, neglecting the doing of it suitably, and in a right manner.

1. Because to communicate is easy, but to communicate in a right manner is very difficult.

2. Because they obtain their end by the bare performance of the duty. As–

(1) Peace of mind. Many consciences are not so far awakened as to give men no rest without doing duty in a right manner, yet they will not hold their peace should a man neglect duties altogether.

(2) Credit in the world. It is no small matter to have a name, and to seem good.

3. Men may get duties done, and their lust kept too; they may go to a communion table, and to the table of devils too; but to do duties in the right manner is inconsistent with peace with our lusts (Psa 66:18).

4. Because men mostly have low and mean thoughts of God and His service (Mal 1:6-8; cf Heb 12:28-29).

5. Because men mostly are acquainted with fellowship with God to be had in duties; they know not the necessity of it, nor the excellency of it. Hence they are not at pains about it. (T. Boston, D.D.)

Of the subjects of the Lords Supper

1. A trial of grace, whether it be inherent or no. It is a showing the death of Christ: there must be therefore a search, whether those graces which suit the death of Christ, and answer to the ends of it, be in the subject.

2. A trial of the state wherein those graces are. Since the Supper is not worthily received but by an exercise of repentance, faith, and love, it is necessary to inquire into the state of those graces and their vigor or languor in the soul. By this are excluded from this ordinance–

(1) All persons incapable of performing this antecedent duty. Either in regard of natural inability, as children, infants. And in regard of a negligent inability, as ignorant persons, who neglect the means of knowledge, or improve them not.

(2) All persons who cannot find upon examination anything of a Divine stamp upon them in the lowest degree. This command of self-examination evidenceth to us–

(a) That a Christian may come to the knowledge of his state in grace; otherwise it would be wholly fruitless to examine ourselves.

(b) No necessity of auricular confession: to tell all the secrets of the life to a priest. So let a man eat of this bread and drink of this cup. So, not otherwise, it is a hedge planted against every intrusion, so not without examination, and a fitness upon it. For the first. All men outwardly professing Christianity are not in a capacity to come to the great ordinance of the Supper. If all men were capable, pre-examination were not then necessary. In prosecution of this doctrine we shall lay down some propositions.

1. Only regenerate men are fit to come to the Lords Supper. No man in a natural state but must needs eat and drink unworthily, for he retains his enmity against God and Christ. Sanctified persons only are the proper guests. An unregenerate man cannot perform the duties necessary. It is bread belonging to children; unrenewed men are not yet in a state of sonship.

(1) Faith is a necessary qualification, but unrenewed men have not faith. An unbeliever receives the elements, not the life and spirit of a sacrament.

(2) An unrenewed man is not in covenant, and therefore no capable subject.

(3) This sacrament is a sacrament of nourishment; unrenewed men therefore are not fit for it. They are dead (Eph 2:1), and what hath a dead man to do with a feast? Men must be alive before they be nourished. Dead branches receive no sap from the vine.

(4) This sacrament is an ordinance of inward communion with Christ. But unrenewed men can have no inward communion with Him. They cannot have that joy which ought to be in a converse with Christ. Bosom communion belongs only to bosom friends: others are but intruders, and will receive no countenance from Christ.

(5) This ordinance is to be received by true Christians only. But renewed men only are such. Christianity is an inward powerful work, not a paint, an image. The form of godliness doth not constitute a man a Christian, but the power of it (2Ti 3:5). Freemen only have a right to the privileges of the city, and true, Christians to the privileges of the Church.

2. Men guilty of a course of sin, though secret and unknown to others, are unfit for this ordinance. What sins debar a man from this ordinance?

(1) Not such which are infirmities incident to human nature. Every sin doth not impede the operation of faith about the proper object.

(2) But a course in wilful and frequent breaches of a known command debars a man.

(3) Such cannot in that state perform the duties requisite in this ordinance. Faith is a necessary qualification; but a denial of subjection to Christ is an evidence of a gross infidelity. Practices are the clearest indexes of faith or unbelief, evil works deny God in His promises and precepts.

(4) Such contemptuously undervalue the blood of Christ, and therefore are unfit for this heavenly ordinance. It is no better than a mocking of God to come to His table with a professed enmity in the heart against Him.

(5) Such cannot receive any good from this ordinance. He can design no good to himself with a resolution to continue in his sin. Doctrine second: It is every mans duty solemnly and seriously to examine himself about his interest in Christ, his habitual grace, his actual right and fitness for the Lords Supper before his approach to it. Every ordinance hath a preparative: meditation is to usher in prayer, prayer is to sanctify the Word, the Word and prayer to sanctify other ordinances.

This institution hath examination for its harbinger to prepare the way of its access to us, and our access to it.

1. This self-examination or preparation is necessary. God required it in all duties. Purification went before sacrificing. The preparation and examination of themselves as to ceremonial uncleanness was strict before the passover, which was inferior to this ordinance, as the legal state was to the evangelical. The mercy to be now remembered is greater, the duties of preparation and devotion ought not to be less. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice, and eat of the part appointed for the feast (1Sa 16:5).

(1) It is necessary to clear up a right. There is an outward acceptation of Christ and His laws without a true and inward change of heart.

(2) It is necessary for the exciting of grace. That the soul may be excited before; that there may not be an ebb in our affections, when there is a flood of our Saviours blood; that we may not have little thoughts in the presence of great and adorable objects.

(3) It is necessary to prevent sin. The apostles direction to them to examine themselves implies the want of it to be the cause of those miscarriages among them, which he taxeth in the preceding verses.

2. As it is necessary, so it is universal. Let a man examine himself. Not some men, but every man; the most substantial Christian, as well as the weakest. I shall only mention two things.

(1) Let a man examine himself as to his sentiments concerning the nature of the institution.

(2) Let a man examine himself what soil he hath contracted since the last time he was with God, whether the interest of God hath prevailed in our hearts above the interest of the flesh. Do we invite Christ into our souls, and shall we not examine every corner and search out the dirt and cobwebs which may be offensive to Him? The Spirit of Christ is a dove, and doves love clean places. But–

3. We should inquire whether we have habitual grace or no; whether there be those uniting, gluing graces–faith and love. The second grace to examine ourselves about and to exercise at this ordinance is sorrow for sin. This is necessary to the Supper. The way to an heavenly repast, as well as the way to heavenly mansions, is through the valley of Baca. Since repentance is necessary, let us examine ourselves what of this grace there is in us.

(1) What is the spring of our sorrow?

(2) What is the subject of the sorrow? Is it the sin of nature? do we judge that the greatest sin, and not regard it, as the common people do the stars, imagining them no bigger than a candle, when they are of a vast bigness?

(3) What are the adjuncts of the grief? Is it in some measure proportionable to our sin, proportionable not to the law, but to the gospel? The first cannot be attained by us, because the injury done to God is infinte. Is the league between sin and the soul broken?

4. Love to God is another grace we are to examine ourselves about.

(1) Spiritual affections to God are required in all duties, much more in this. The highest representation of a loving Saviour suffering, ought to have a suitable return of affection. Now for the trial of this love.

(a) Let us not judge ourselves by a general love.

(b) Nor let us judge ourselves to be lovers of God because of our education.

(c) Nor let us judge ourselves by any passionate fits of love which may sometimes stir in our souls. But let us examine–

(1) The motives and object of our affection.

(2) What is the nature of our love?

(a) In regard to the prevalency of it. Do we love Christ solely?

(b) In regard to the restlessness of it. Can nothing but Christ and the enjoyment of Him content us?

(c) What are the effects and concomitants of our love? Are we careful to please Him, though with our own shame?

5. Another grace to be examined is love of Gods people. This is the badge of a disciple (Joh 8:34-35).

(1) This is necesssary in all duties. Would we pray, our hands must be lifted up without wrath and doubting (1Ti 2:8).

(2) But more necessary in this ordinance.

(a) It represents the union of believers together. The bread being made up of several grains compacted together (1Co 10:16). For we being many are one bread and one body. This ordinance was instituted to solder believers together. They have the same nourishment, and therefore should have the same affection.

(b) No benefit of the ordinance without this grace.

Let us examine ourselves as to this grace. And that we may not mistake, every difference in judgment is not a sign of the want of this grace. But this love is true–

(1) When it is founded upon the grace of a person.

(2) It must be a fervent love. With a pure heart fervently (1Pe 1:22), not in appearance and faintly.

(3) A love manifested most in their persecutions. To be ashamed of believers in their sufferings is, in Christs interpretation, to be ashamed of Christ Himself.

6. Another grace to be examined and acted is desire, a holy appetite.

(1) This is necessary in all duties. In hearing the Word the desire must be as insatiable as the infants cry for milk (1Pe 2:2).

(2) But in this ordinary more necessary.

(a) It is a feast, and appetite is proper to that.

(b) The greater the longings, the greater the satisfaction.

(c) This is the noblest affection we can bestow upon God. (Bp. Hacket.)

Mystical bread and wine

Like as if a rebellious subject should no more regard his kings seal than other common wax, it might rightly be said that he doth no more esteem him than other men; so when we come to the Lords table, if we take irreverently the mystical bread and wine as common food, we make the Lords body and life to be like the common body and life of humanity. (Cawdray.)

Unworthy communicating

It was a smart and piercing speech of St. Ambrose to Theodosius, offering himself to the table of the Lord, What, wilt thou reach forth those hands of thine, yet dropping with the blood of innocents, slaughtered at Thessalonica, and with them lay hold upon the most holy body of the Lord? Or wilt thou offer to put that precious blood in thy mouth? etc. The like may be said to many coming to the sacrament, that instead of washing their hands in innocency, they rinse them in the blood of innocents. What! will they reach forth those hands of theirs, defiled with blood, with the blood of oppression, those fingers of theirs defiled with iniquity and with those hands and fingers touch those holy mysteries? with those lips of theirs, that have drivelled out such a deal of filthy communication, with those mouths which have drunk of the cup of devils; with those mouths and lips, will they offer to drink the precious blood of Christ? is it not sin enough that with their sins they have already defiled their hands, fingers, lips, mouths, but that now also they will needs come and defile the Lords table? and impudently crowd into the sacrament, when they come piping hot out of their sins and provocations? (R. Skinner.)

Worthy receiving

A man is not said to be worthy in regard of any worthiness in himself, but in respect of his affection and preparation, and in regard of his fit and seemly receiving. As we used to say the king received worthy entertainment in such a gentlemans house, not for that he was worthy to receive him, but because he omitted no compliments and service in his power fit to entertain him; even so I say, we are not worthy of Christ, that He should enter into our houses, that He should come under our roof. But, notwithstanding, we are said to be worthy when we do all things which are in our power fit for the entertainment of Him. If we come not in pride and in our rags, but with repentance, joy, comfort, and humility, then are we worthy. (R. Sibbes, D.D.)

The worthy receiving of the Lords Supper

Consider–

I. What worthiness to partake is.

1. What is meant by worthiness to partake.

(1) Not a legal worthiness, as if we could deserve it at the hands of God (Luk 17:10). Those who are that way worthy in their own eyes, are altogether unworthy.

(2) But it is a gospel-meetness and fitness (Mat 3:8). And much of that lies in coming with a deep sense of our vileness and emptiness (Isa 4:1).

2. Wherein does this worthiness to partake consist?

(1) In habitual meetness for it, in respect of a gracious state. A dead man is not fit for a feast nor a dead soul for the Lords table.

(2) In actual meetness, in respect of a gracious frame. Not only life, but liveliness is requisite (Psa 80:18), A sleeping man is not fit for a feast; and therefore even a true believer may communicate unworthily, as some in Corinth did (1Co 11:30; 1Co 11:32).

II. The duty of self-examination necessary for worthy receiving of the Lords Supper.

1. The rule or touchstone by which we must examine.

(1) Beware of false ones.

(a) The common guise of the world. It is not enough that ye are like, aye, and better than many (Luk 18:11).

(b) Ones being better than sometime before (2Co 10:12).

(c) The letter of the law. The Pharisee (Luk 18:11); and Paul before his conversion (Rom 7:9).

(d) The seen practice of the godly, which is an unsafe rule, because you cannot see the principle, motives, and ends of their actions.

(2) The only true rule or touchstone in this case is the Word of God (Isa 8:20). God hath given us marks in the Word, by which one may know whether he be in Christ or not (2Co 5:17); whether born of God or not (1Jn 3:9), and the like.

2. The matter about which we are to examine ourselves–the state of our souls before the Lord.

(1) The reason is, this sacrament is not a converting, but a confirming ordinance. It is a seal of the covenant, and so supposes the covenant entered into before by the party. It is appointed for nourishment, which presupposes life. And if it were not so, what need of self-examination?

(2) But more particularly, because there are some graces, namely, knowledge, faith, repentance, love, and new obedience, which in a particular manner are sacramental graces–these are to be examined.

III. The necessity of self-examination.

1. To prevent the sin of coming unworthily to the Lords table. If we rush on this ordinance without previous examining ourselves, how can we miss of communicating unworthily?

2. To prevent the danger of coming so, which is eating and drinking damnation to ones self. The danger is great–

(1) To the soul (1Co 11:29).

(2) To the body (1Co 11:30). (T. Boston, D.D.)

Not discerning the Lords body.

Discernment of the Lords body

The Saviour is here making a spiritual feast for His people, presenting Himself to them under the form of bread and wine; you are, therefore, not to look on these as mere dumb signs, but as objects which speak most distinctly to your spiritual ear. It behoves every Church, that is, every company of believers–

I. To realise the presence of the Lord among them as His guests and friends. At His table you are to meditate of His love–to sit down and commemorate His sufferings on your behalf; His object is to make you happy; He commands you to take this as a pledge of His friendship; you must not stop short at the mere symbol; this is, in effect, His body that was broken for you, and this is His blood which was poured out for you on the accursed tree. His hands, His feet were pierced for you–His side, too, was pierced, after He had given up the ghost: His sufferings were such as no tongue can tell, and such as cannot be known to mortal man. His affection for you was written in blood, and that blood was His own! That bread and that wine tell you that He died for you; and that in so doing He made an end of sin, and brought in an everlasting righteousness. He is now able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. Eat, then, oh! friends, and drink, oh! beloved, is His language. As He died for you, so He now lives for you: and at the close He will come again, and take you unto Himself, that you may be for ever with the Lord.

II. To reciprocate the feelings of the Lord Jesus. The soul must and will speak to the praise of sovereign mercy. That we may properly discern the Lords body, we must–

1. Discern the evil of sin. Where is sin painted in colours so dreadful as here?

2. Discern the relation of man. What is the depraved creature man worth to his Maker? He is lost for all the ends which he ought to answer. Divine mercy could not reach him, apart from a proper Mediator and an atonement for sin. After this redemption he needed the exercise of Divine power to create him anew. The Cross, clearly seen, is death to human glorying. There is no room for it there! Go then, Christian, to His table, and take a fresh lesson from your Lord, who, with all His perfections, was made lowly in heart, since the more you share of this, the more abundantly will you possess rest to your own soul.

3. Discern the beauty of holiness and the necessity of cultivating it. Can you have a more impressive lesson on the evil of sin than the table of the Lord affords you? Will you prepare a second Cross for Christ, and with your own hands nail Him to it? Is there anything in the universe so full of beauty as holiness? Is it not the interest of every creature to press after a close resemblance to our Judge and our Creator?

4. Discern His sovereign and unutterable love. Were we not all enemies, full of selfishness, a god to ourselves, and a rule to ourselves, living without God, and having no hope in the world? Yet He came to die for these very enemies. (The Christian Witness.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 29. Eateth and drinketh damnation] , Judgment, punishment; and yet this is not unto damnation, for the judgment or punishment inflicted upon the disorderly and the profane was intended for their emendation; for in 1Co 11:32, it is said, then we are judged, , we are chastened, , corrected as a father does his children, that we should not be condemned with the world.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

He that eateth and drinketh unworthily; in the sense before mentioned, either having no remote right or no present right to partake in that ordinance, being an unbeliever, or a resolved unholy or ignorant person; or irreverently and irreligiously. He

eateth and drinketh , damnation, or judgment, it is no matter which we translate it; for if he brings Gods judgments upon him in this life, they will end in eternal damnation, without a timely repentance; but it is

to himself, not to him that is at the same table with him, unless he hath been guilty of some neglect of his duty to him.

Not discerning the Lords body; and his guilt lieth here, that he doth not discern and distinguish between ordinary and common bread, and that bread which is the representation of the Lords body, but useth the one as carelessly, and with as little preparation and regard to what he doth, as he uses the other.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

29. damnationA mistranslationwhich has put a stumbling-block in the way of many in respect tocommunicating. The right translation is “judgment.” Thejudgment is described (1Co11:30-32) as temporal.

not discerningnotduty judging: not distinguishing in judgment (so the Greek:the sin and its punishment thus being marked as corresponding) fromcommon food, the sacramental pledges of the Lord’s body. Most of theoldest manuscripts omit “Lord’s” (see 1Co11:27). Omitting also “unworthily,” with most of theoldest manuscripts, we must translate, “He that eateth anddrinketh, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, IF he discern notthe body” (Heb 10:29).The Church is “the body of Christ” (1Co12:27). The Lord’s body is His literal body appreciatedand discerned by the soul in the faithful receiving, and not presentin the elements themselves.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily,…. As before explained, 1Co 11:27 “eateth and drinketh damnation to himself”; or guilt, or judgment, or condemnation; for by either may the word be rendered; nor is eternal damnation here meant; but with respect to the Lord’s own people, who may through unbelief, the weakness of grace, and strength of corruption, behave unworthily at this supper, temporal chastisement, which is distinguished from condemnation with the world, and is inflicted in order to prevent it, 1Co 11:32 and with respect to others it intends temporal punishment, as afflictions and diseases of body, or corporeal death, as it is explained in 1Co 11:30. This they may be said to eat and drink, because their unworthy eating and drinking are the cause and means of it. Just as Adam and Eve might be said to eat condemnation to themselves and posterity, because their eating of the forbidden fruit was the cause of it. So the phrase, “does not eat condemnation”, is used in the Persic version of Joh 3:18 for “is not condemned”. And let it be observed, that such an one is said to eat and drink this judgment or condemnation to himself, and not another; he is injurious to nobody but himself: this may serve to make the minds of such easy, who are not so entirely satisfied with some persons who sit down with them at the Lord’s table, when they consider that it is to their own injury, and not to the hurt of others they eat and drink:

not discerning the Lord’s body. This is an instance of their eating and drinking unworthily, and a reason why they eat and drink condemnation to themselves, or contract guilt, or expose themselves either to chastisement or punishment; because they distinguish not the Lord’s supper from an ordinary and common meal, but confound them together, as did many of the Corinthians, who also did not distinguish the body of Christ in it from the body of the paschal lamb; or discern not the body of Christ, and distinguish it from the bread, the sign or symbol of it; or discern not the dignity, excellency, and usefulness of Christ’s body, as broken and offered for us, in which he bore our sins on the tree, and made satisfaction for them; a commemoration of which is made in this ordinance.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

If he discern not the body ( ). So-called conditional use of the participle, “not judging the body.” Thus he eats and drinks judgment () on himself. The verb – is an old and common word, our

dis-cri-minate , to distinguish. Eating the bread and drinking the wine as symbols of the Lord’s body and blood in death probes one’s heart to the very depths.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Unworthily. Omit.

Damnation [] . See on Mr 16:16; Joh 9:39. This false and horrible rendering has destroyed the peace of more sincere and earnest souls than any other misread passage in the New Testament. It has kept hundreds from the Lord ‘s table. Krima is a temporary judgment, and so is distinguished from katakrima condemnation, from which this temporary judgment is intended to save the participant. The distinction appears in ver. 32 (see note). The A. V. of the whole passage, 28 – 34, is marked by a confusion of the renderings of krinein to judge and its compounds. 120 Not discerning [ ] . Rev., if he discern not, bringing out the conditional force of the negative particle. The verb primarily means to separate, and hence to make a distinction, discriminate. Rev., in margin, discriminating. Such also is the primary meaning of discern (discernere to part or separate), so that discerning implies a mental act of discriminating between different things. So Bacon : “Nothing more variable than voices, yet men can likewise discern these personally.” This sense has possibly become a little obscured in popular usage. From this the transition is easy and natural to the sense of doubting, disputing, judging, all of these involving the recognition of differences. The object of the discrimination here referred to, may, I think, be regarded as complex. After Paul ‘s words (vers. 20, 22), about the degradation of the Lord ‘s Supper, the discrimination between the Lord ‘s body and common food may naturally be contemplated; but further, such discernment of the peculiar significance and sacredness of the Lord ‘s body as shall make him shrink from profanation and shall stimulate him to penitence and faith.

The Lord ‘s body. Omit Lord ‘s and read the body. This adds force to discerning.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily.” (ho gar esthion kai pinon) “For the one eating and continuing to drink (unworthily).” To eat and to drink unworthily, with the wrong motive.

2) “Eateth and drinketh damnation to himself.” (krima heauto esthiei kai pinei) “Eats and drinks judgement to himself” – the kind of judgement described as chastisement, 1Co 11:32. The Lord will chasten His children who stubbornly refuse to obey the order of His commands, Psa 89:30; Psa 89:32; Heb 12:6; Heb 12:11.

3) “Not discerning the Lord’s body.” (me diakrinon to so soma) “Not discerning (discriminately considering) the body (of the Lord)” – In partaking of the elements, “in remembrance or as a memorial of Him.”

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

29. He who shall eat unworthily, eateth judgment to himself. He had previously pointed out in express terms the heinousness of the crime, when he said that those who should eat unworthily would be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord Now he alarms them, by denouncing punishment; (706) for there are many that are not affected with the sin itself; unless they are struck down by the judgment of God. This, then, he does, when he declares that this food, otherwise health-giving, will turn out to their destruction, and will be converted into poison to those that eat unworthily

He adds the reasons because they distinguish not the Lord’s body, that is, as a sacred thing from a profane. “They handle the sacred body of Christ with unwashed hands, (Mar 7:2,) (707) nay more, as if it were a thing of nought, they consider not how great is the value of it. (708) They will therefore pay the penalty of so dreadful a profanation.” Let my readers keep in mind what I stated a little ago, that the body (709) is presented to them, though their unworthiness deprives them of a participation in it.

(706) “ La punition que Dieu en fera;” — “The punishment that God will inflict upon it.”

(707) “ Ils manient le corps precieux de Christ irreueremment, c’est a dire, sans nettoyer leur conscience;” — “They handle the precious body of Christ irreverently, that is to say, without washing their conscience.”

(708) In the Vat and Alex MSS. and the Copt version, the reading is simply μη διακρίνων τὸ σῶμα — not distinguishing the body; while later copies have τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Κυρίον — the body of the Lord The verb διακρίνω is employed by Herodotus in the sense of distinguishing, in the following expression: διακρίνων ουδενα — without any distinction of persons (Herod. 3. 39.) It is supposed by some that the word, as employed here, contains an allusion to the distinguishing of meats under the Mosaic law. — Ed

(709) “ Le corps de Christ;” — “The body of Christ.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(29) Unworthily.This word is not in the best Greek MSS.

Damnation to himself.The Greek word hero does not imply final condemnation. On the contrary, it only means such temporal judgments as the sickness and weakness subsequently mentioned, and which are to save the man from sharing the final damnation of the heathen.

Not discerning the Lords body.The words the Lords are to be omitted, the weight of MS. evidence being altogether against their authenticity. 1Co. 11:30 is a parenthesis, and 1Co. 11:31 re-opens with this same verb. The force of the passage is, He who eats and drinks without discerning the Body (i.e., the Church) in that assembly, eats and drinks a judgment to himself; for if we would discern ourselves we should not be judged.

There are some important points to be borne in mind regarding this interpretation of the passage. (1) The Greek word, which we render discerning, discern, signifies to arrive at a right estimate of the character or quality of a thing. (2) The fault which St. Paul was condemning was the practice which the Corinthians had fallen into of regarding these gatherings as opportunities for individual indulgence, and not as Church assemblies. They did not rightly estimate such gatherings as being corporate meetings; they did not rightly estimate themselves as not now isolated individuals, but members of the common Body. They ought to discern in these meetings of the Church a body; they ought to discern in themselves parts of a body. Not only is this interpretation, I venture to think, the most accurate and literal interpretation of the Greek, but it is the only view which seems to me to make the passage bear intelligibly on the point which St. Paul is considering, and the real evil which he seeks to counteract. (3) To refer these words directly or indirectly to the question of a physical presence in the Lords Supper, is to divorce them violently from their surroundings, and to make them allude to some evil for which the explicit and practical remedy commended in 1Co. 11:33-34 would be no remedy at all. Moreover. if the word body means the Lords physical body, surely the word Lords would have been added, and the words, and the blood, for the non-recognition of the blood would be just as great an offence. (4) St. Paul never uses the word body in reference to our Lords physical body, without some clear indication that such is meant. (See Rom. 7:4; Php. 3:21; Col. 1:22.) On the other hand, the use of the word Body, or Body of Christ, meaning the Church, is frequent. We have had it but a few verses before, in reference to this very subject (1Co. 10:16). It is also to be found in Rom. 12:5; Eph. 1:22; Eph. 5:23; Eph. 5:30. (In this last passage, of His flesh and of His bones, are not in the best MSS., and destroy the real force of the Body, which means Church.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

29. Damnation Not eternal perdition; but, literally, judgment. And that judgment Paul seems to have considered as likely to be inflicted upon the body of the Christian offender, as intimated in the next verse.

Discerning body Treating the elements as if they were mere bread and wine in disregard of their holy symbolism.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he discern not the body. For this reason many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.’

For all who come eating and drinking of the Lord’s Supper, who do not discern in it His body, and His dying for them, and through it His uniting of them all in His body as one, drink judgment on themselves. Indeed that is why there is sickness among them, and quite a few have died (‘sleep’ is the Christian synonym for death). This would suggest something unusual which had happened, above the norm, which Paul saw as the chastening of God, for it was not seemingly a judgment that affected their eternal future. It had openly happened, and all were aware of it. It was not theoretical. And it was to be seen as a chastening of the whole church.

‘If he discern not the body.’ In chapter 10 stress was laid on the fact that the bread was the representation of the body, and that that included both the body of the Lord Jesus and the body composed of His people as united with Himself. The bread represented His physical body, but it also represented His people made one with Him. Both have to be discerned as one for they are inseparable (Eph 2:15-16). Thus as we come to the Lord’s Supper we must discern the Lord’s body, that is, we must recognise that it proclaims His death for us and that we come as participators in His death and resurrection, and we must equally discern that we are all therefore one body in Christ sharing with Him in His death and resurrection.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

1Co 11:29. Unworthily See 1Co 11:27. To receive for the purposes of intemperance or of faction, was certainly receiving very unworthily. The sense of the Apostle’s expression, however, may be extended to every manner of receiving contrary to the nature and design of this solemn ordinance, and consequently to the case of doing it merely in a secular view, which it is heartily to be wished that all concerned in it would seriously consider. It is perhaps one of the most unhappy mistakes in our version of the Bible, that the word is rendered damnation. It has raised a dread in tender minds, which has greatly obstructed the comfort and edification that they might have received from this ordinance. As the word signifies only that the unworthyreceiver is guiltyof sin, and may expect such punishment as is mentioned in the next verse; so, in conformity with the whole context,it should have been rendered judgment. The Apostle afterwards says, we are judged, , that is, “we are chastened or corrected, that we may not be condemned,” ; which plainly shews, that the judgment spoken of might be fatherly chastisement. It should likewise be observed, that St. Paul does not say, Whosoever shall eat this bread, being not worthy of it; but whoever eats it in such an unworthy or irreverent manner as he describes above; and therefore the text in this view certainly ought not to discourage Christians at present from approaching the Lord’s table. See Wall, Locke, Doddridge, and the next note.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

1Co 11:29 . Since is spurious (see the critical remarks), . might be understood absolutely: the eater and drinker , who turns the Supper, as was actually done at Corinth, 1Co 11:22 ; 1Co 11:34 , into a banquet and carousal. This was the view I held myself formerly, taking in the sense: because he does not, etc., as in Rom 4:19 . But after 1Co 11:28 , whose . finds expression here again, it is simpler and most in accordance with the text to render: “ He who eats and drinks (the bread and the cup), eats and drinks a judgment to himself, if he does not , etc.,” so that in this way . . [1884] conditions the predicate, and is not a modal definition of the subject. The apostle might have written simply . , . . .; but the circumstantial description of the subject of the sentence for the second time by . carries a certain solemnity with it, making one feel the risk incurred by going on to eat and drink.

. . [1885] ] a concrete expression (comp 2Co 2:16 ) of the thought: he draws down judicial sentence upon himself by his eating and drinking . The power to effect this turns on the . . [1887] , 1Co 11:27 ; and therefore nothing is decided here against the symbolical interpretation of the words of institution. That the is a penal one, is implied in the context (Rom 2:2 ; Rom 3:8 ; Rom 13:2 ; Gal 5:10 ). The absence of the article , again, denotes not eternal condemnation, but penal judgment in general without any limiting definition. From 1Co 11:30-31 we see that Paul was thinking, in the first place, of temporal judgments as the penalty of unworthy communicating, and that such judgments appeared to him as chastisements employed by God to avert from the offender eternal condemnation. With respect to the dativus incommodi , comp Rom 13:2 .

] if he does not form a judgment upon (so ., Vulgate, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Bengel, de Wette, Weiss) the body, i.e. the body, , the sacred body, into communion with which he enters by partaking of the Supper, and respecting which, therefore, he ought to form a judgment of the most careful kind, such as may bring him into full and deep consciousness of its sacredness and saving significance (on ., comp 1Co 14:29 ; Mat 16:3 ). Comp Chrysostom: , , , , . Usually (so too Ewald, Kahnis, Hofmann) commentators have taken . in the sense of to distinguish (1Co 4:7 ), and have rendered accordingly: if he (or, following the reading which puts after : because he ) does not distinguish the body of Christ from common food . [1891] Hofmann, again, seeing that we have not along with , holds it more correct to render: if he does not distinguish the body, which he who eats this bread partakes of, from the mere bread itself . Both these ways of explaining the word, which come in substance to the same thing, proceed upon the supposition either that the body of Christ is that with which we enter into fellowship by partaking of the symbol (which is the true view), or that it is partaken of “in, with, and under” the bread (Lutheran doctrine), or by means of the transubstantiation of the bread (Roman Catholic doctrine). But in 1Co 11:31 , where is taken up again from our passage, the word means to judge , not to distinguish , and we must therefore keep to that meaning [1892] here also.

It was needless to add to because the is regarded as that which had suffered death by the shedding of its blood ; comp 1Co 11:26 , also 1Co 10:17 . The twofoldness of the elements has its significance to thought only in the equal symbolism of the two; apart from that symbolism, reference to it would be inappropriate, since, objectively, they cannot be separated.

[1884] . . . .

[1885] . . . .

[1887] . . . .

[1891] So Luther’s gloss: who handles and deals with Christ’s body as if he cared no more for it than for common food.

[1892] Which stands in significant correspondence with (comp. too, the oxymoron in ver. 31): a judgment if he does not form a judgment . Hence there is the less warrant in the text for the meaning “ distinguish .”

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 1979
ON EATING AND DRINKING OUR OWN DAMNATION

1Co 11:27; 1Co 11:29. Whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord . For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lords body.

THE more excellent any thing is, the greater is the guilt contracted by the abuse of it. A contempt of the law is not so bad as a contempt of the Gospel [Note: Heb 10:28-29.]. An irreverent attendance on Divine ordinances is exceedingly sinful; but to profane the Lords supper is worse, inasmuch as that institution is more solemn and brings us nearer to God. Hence when St. Paul reproved the former, he spake mildly [Note: 1Co 14:33; 1Co 14:40.]; but when he reproved the latter, he spake with great severity.

I.

What is it to eat the bread, and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily

To understand this, we should inquire how the Corinthians behaved [Note: ver. 2022. Their conduct seems at first sight to be absolutely inconsistent with a profession of Christianity. But, having been accustomed to such behaviour in their feasts during their Gentile state, they were as yet too much addicted to their former habits.]. The abuses of which they were guilty are impracticable now: nevertheless we may imitate them in our spirit and temper. Like them we shall eat and drink unworthily if we do it,

1.

Ignorantly

[The Corinthians did not discriminate between the common and religious use of the consecrated elements. Many at this time also partake without discerning the Lords body: they, not remembering his death, defeat the end for which the Supper of the Lord was instituted.]

2.

Irreverently

[The customs of our country do not admit of our meeting in the tumultuous way that was practised at Corinth [Note: 1Co 11:21.]; but many are altogether as destitute of reverence and sacred awe. A light, worldly, impenitent heart, is unbecoming that solemnity: such a frame, if habitual, mates us partake unworthily.]

3.

Uncharitably

[The rich did not impart of their provisions to the poor [Note: 1Co 11:22.]. We also may be equally destitute of Christian love: we may be haughty, injurious, unforgiving, &c. Such a frame wholly unfits us for the Lords table [Note: Mat 5:23-24.].]

4.

Sensually

[The Corinthians made it an occasion for intemperance and excess: though we cannot imitate them in this, we may be as carnal as they. A want of spirituality and affiance in Christ makes our service carnal; nor can such a service be acceptable to Him who will be worshipped in spirit and in truth.]
To attend at the Lords table in such a manner is no slight or venial offence.

II.

The consequence of so doing

The consequences mentioned in the text respect,

1.

The guilt we contract

[They were guilty of the body and blood of our Lord who crucified him, as they are also who apostatize from his truth [Note: Heb 6:6.]. They too are involved in the same guilt who partake unworthily of the Lords supper: they manifest a contempt of his sacrifice [Note: Heb 10:29.]. What a dreadful iniquity is this! How careful should we be to abstain from the commission of it!]

2.

The punishment we incur

[The word damnation imports temporal judgment [Note: The Apostle explains his meaning in the following verse; for, for this cause, &c and he tells us that it was a chastisement inflicted to keep them from eternal condemnation, ver. 32.]. Eternal damnation is by no means a necessary consequence of this sin [Note: Mat 12:31.]: yet if it be unrepented of, no doubt this punishment will follow; and we may expect some spiritual or temporal judgments for it here. We should therefore examine ourselves well before we attend the table of the Lord [Note: ver. 28.].]

Address
1.

Those who urge this as an excuse for neglecting the Lords supper

[There are many who under this pretext cover their own unwillingness to yield themselves up to God; but God will not admit their vain excuses. The habitual neglect of their duty ensures the punishment which they desire to avoid. Let all then devote themselves to the Lord in the use of all his instituted ordinances.]

2.

Those who are really kept away by a fear of incurring this punishment

[Many are kept from the table by a sense of their own unworthiness. But to be unworthy, and to partake unworthily, are very different things [Note: A rebel against a mild and merciful prince is unworthy of pardon: but if he receive with gratitude the pardon offered him, and return to his allegiance, he receives it worthily. Thus we are unworthy of the smallest mercies, and much more of the childrens bread: but if we receive this bread with humility, gratitude, and an increasing devotedness of heart to God, we receive it as we ought, that is, worthily.]: yet if we have partaken unworthily in past times, let us humble ourselves for it; and then may we come again with joy: this has been the experience of many [Note: 2Ch 30:15-23.], and may be ours also.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

Conditions of Renewal

Heb 6:4-6

1Co 11:27 , 1Co 11:29

There are some few passages of Scripture which have caused a great deal of difficulty and heartache. There are others which have kept away from the altar, yea, from the Cross itself, many a young, timid, reverent spirit. The question is whether there is any need for this? I think not. I do not know of any passage of Scripture that ought to keep any soul from God, from God’s house, from God’s ordinances. We are so differently constituted that some of us can only be nursed for heaven. We want continual encouragement; we are soon made afraid by shadow, by unexplained and sudden sound, by incidents uncalculated and unforeseen. We must take care of that section of society; they must be encouraged, consoled, stimulated, comforted; whatever lies in their way of progress towards the Kingdom of heaven must be resolutely removed. Others are very courageous by nature: are extremely robust, words of encouragement are misspent upon them; they have a fountain of encouragement within their own hearts. Whether they are physically so strong, or intellectually so robust, or spiritually so complete, we need not stay to inquire; suffice it to say that they have no shadows, no spectres, no doubts, no difficulties.

There are two passages of Scripture which seem to have kept a good many men in a state of fear and in a state of apparent alienation from the Church. It may be profitable to look at these passages. If the difficulty can be taken out of them by fair reasoning, and by established laws of grammar, and the philosophy of language, a great point will have been gained. One of them is that remarkable passage already quoted in the text “It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” This has been a great battleground; innumerable Calvinists have slain innumerable Arminians within the four corners of this most solemn declaration. There was no need for the fray. All the energy was misspent All the high debate about election, reprobation, apostasy, was utterly in vain, so far as this particular text is concerned. There is nothing here to cast down the heart of any man who wants to come back again. One version of the Bible has put in the word “difficult” instead of the word “impossible.” This little contribution of clemency we have received from the sternest of all languages, the Latin. We do not need the contribution. The word “impossible” is better than the word “difficult” in this connection. It is clearer, more to the point: it comprehends the case more entirely; let it therefore stand in all its tremendous import. There can be no doubt as to the characters represented by Apollos or Paul, whoever the writer may have been. He is urging the great doctrine and duty of progress; he wants the Church to get on “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith towards God,” and many other things. The Apostle was a man of progress. Speaking thus of baptism, he says, “It is impossible for those who were once enlightened” literally, for those who were really baptised: we say really baptised, because he is not referring to water-baptism, he is referring to the inner, the spiritual baptism, the chrism of fire, the visitation of the Holy Ghost upon the soul. It is impossible for those who have been baptised by the Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and who were not only baptised by the Holy Ghost, but have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, it is impossible for them if they fall away, to renew them again unto repentance. What construction can we put upon these words but that if we once leave Christ for one moment we can never get back again? If having been in Christ we do wrong, we commit one sin, we must commit a thousand more, for we are on the downward road, and we cannot be arrested in the infinite descent. There is no such reading in the text. We cannot stop the text at a given point, and say, “That is the doctrine, and certainly it would appear to be such.”

But the text proceeds to give a reason why it is impossible to renew certain persons again to repentance, and that reason is this “Seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.” Is not that a final reason? Yes, it is: but it is not a correct representation of the Apostle’s reasoning. The English is to blame for the ruin it has brought. Over this false grammar have men fallen into despair. The Revisers were timid, because they were conservative. I blame them distinctly for want of courage. They had learning enough, prestige enough; they could have encountered momentary prejudices in a dignified and successful manner: but who ever got twelve or twenty Christian scholars together without their devouring one another, so courteously as sometimes perhaps in some degree to fall short of the point of courage? The tense changes in the latter part of the statement. “Seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame” should read thus: “It is impossible for those who” then read the description “If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, whilst they are crucifying the Son of God afresh, and putting him to an open shame.” The latter tense is present, it indicates an immediate and continuous action, something that is going on now, at this very moment; and the Apostle says, Brethren, if you continue to crucify the Son of God afresh, you can never get back again to your original state of acceptance, you can never recover your sense of adoption; the very act you are doing is fatal. Why then, should you be discouraged, if you really want to come back to Christ, and if you are endeavouring to lead a good life? If you are bethinking yourself, and trying to say the old sweet prayer, and if it be really your heart’s desire to be recovered from your backslidings, there is nothing in this passage to hinder you coming home now.

The passage thus rendered is supported by all the experience of life. It is impossible for any man who has fallen from sobriety to be renewed again to temperance, so long as he is debauching himself night and day with the drink which overcame him; if he will set it down, and retire from it, he shall yet be a sober man, but if he mean to recover his sobriety by drinking more deeply, then manifestly he is perpetrating an irony that is ridiculous and shameful. It any man have fallen from honesty it is impossible to recover him so long as he continues to steal. He must drop the action, he must feel burning shame on account of what he has done, and when his felonious hands would go forth to repeat the nefarious deed, he must draw them back and say, No: I will cry mightily unto God if haply I may yet be an honest man. Thus talking there shall be no doubt about his honesty. The Apostle’s reasoning then is simply this: that if we continue to sin we cannot repent; whilst we are in the very act of crucifying the Son of God afresh, and putting him to an open shame, it is impossible for us to repent, to pray, to return. This is the noble teaching of the Apostle, this ought to be a comfort to us all. We sin every day, and yet it we do not want to sin, and if the sin be followed by heartache, confession, contrition, and mighty prayer at the Cross, we shall be renewed again unto repentance every eventide; but if we think we can, by simply confessing the sin, gain a new licence to recommit it, then our confession is a lie, and the very act of contrition is a trick which aggravates our guilt. The action must be bon-fide, the soul must mean what it says, the reality must be equal to the profession. We have therefore to declare this sweet gospel would God we could declare it in adequate music! There is no soul that has gone so far away from God to be unable to repent: and we have to declare this solemn truth, that any man who talks of repentance, and is at the same time crucifying the Son of God afresh, continuing to love his sins and to wallow in them, is a liar in the sanctuary. Return, O wanderer, to thy home: come back, poor soul, made afraid by backsliding. We have all been guilty of backsliding; the oaths are lying round about us like a million withered leaves: but if we really do not want to crucify the Son of God afresh, if we are really earnest about desiring to return, we can return. “Return, ye backsliders, and I will heal your backsliding!” is the cry of the Old Testament, is the gospel of the Cross.

Now, nearly immediately connected with this passage is one which the Apostle has written in connection with the administration of the Lord’s Supper. The two passages may fairly be said to have a distinct and almost vital relation. How many people have been kept back from the Lord’s table by these words: “Whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord…. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.” Timid souls by the hundred have been kept away from the Lord’s Supper by these words. Yet there is nothing in them to keep away any soul. We have been frightened by shadows. We cannot but admire the timidity which says, I am so conscious of unworthiness that I dare not touch the sacramental bread, and sacramental cup. But such unworthiness is not referred to in this particular passage; therefore this passage must never be quoted when that sense of unworthiness is felt. When that sense of unworthiness is most deeply upon us, then should we come most reverently and hopefully to the Lord’s table. What were the circumstances under which this declaration was made? Everything depends upon understanding the circumstances of the case. We must penetrate the atmosphere, if we would understand the admonition. Everything was debased in the Church at Corinth. That early Christian Church seemed to have a genius for deprivation and perversion and all manner of wrong. The Lord’s Supper was instituted there as in other churches; the people came together to partake of the Lord’s Supper, and instead of making a distinctly religious festival of it, they turned it into a carnival, holiday-making, feasting, rioting; so much that the Apostle says, “Have ye not houses to eat and drink in?” why should you come to the Lord’s table to have a saturnalia, to feast yourselves in this way, and to debase yourselves in this riotous manner? Understand, therefore, that the Corinthians were not recognising the Lord’s body in this matter but were simply feasting together and rioting together, eating bread and drinking wine together, until the religious consciousness was lost, and the whole ceremony became one of simple social festivity. Addressing himself to such circumstances, the Apostle said, Beware: you are contracting a guilt you ill suspect: if the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness! the Lord’s Supper was meant to be a religious festival, a time of solemnity, a time of heart-inquest, a time of memory, so that all the pages of the Lord’s earthly story might be recalled and felt in ever-deepening emotion; instead of this, you are making that holy feast a riot: whoever eateth this bread, and drinketh this cup, unworthily, irreverently, debasing the whole action into its very lowest forms, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself. And that is right.

Then will you not come to the Lord’s table? Shall there not be a great inrush upon the holy scene? Men have been afraid lest their unworthiness would keep them back. The unworthiness was not in reference to the individuals but in relation to their want of discernment as to the meaning of the feast. No longer was the Lord’s body present amongst them, but a mere ceremony of eating and drinking. Will you then stand back any longer? Will you not come in, it may be timidly, and say, I, too, would like to touch this bread and this cup of memorial? Thus two classes are addressed, the backslider who says, “I once could pray, but I do not pray now” if he can add, “but I want to pray,” then the first passage need not stand in his way; secondly, the timid, self-distrustful, and self-renouncing, the passage in the Corinthians has no reference whatever to you. If you say, “This feast is holy,” and wish to observe it with becoming reverence, the doors are thrown wide open, and God’s welcome is as broad as God’s love. Why stand ye then outside? Come in! Come now! See me, or your own minister or friends in your own locality immediately, and say you wish to come to the Lord’s table. That means making a profession without ostentation, doing a deed the sanctifying effect of which ought to flow through the whole life. Will you not say Yes? Then this will be your birthday if you will.

Prayer

Almighty God, we bless thee for the uplifted Cross, whose light fills creation. We see a Cross everywhere; its great shadow makes the night and the morning of the world; without that Cross there is no security. It is in everything; where anything lives something else has died. We found this in the garden, and in the nest of the birds, and in the jungle of the wild beasts, and in our family life, and in our spiritual and educational life; that some may live some must die. Thou hast put death upon thy table, and made thy sacrament and oath and immortality even in the grave and in the presence of death. God forbid that we should glory save in the Cross! If men would lead us to the throne may we go to it by the Cross. Inasmuch as we have been called by thy love to see the Cross and know somewhat of its holiest meaning, if we be risen with Christ may we prove our resurrection by the heavenliness of our love, by the heavenliness of our citizenship, by the heavenliness of our service. O Christ, the Living One, thou didst come to take us to the Father. Show us the Father: may we know that he is close at hand, though we cannot see him; that if we could but open our soul’s eyes we should see the Father in every little child, in every broken heart, in every budding flower. Oh, for eyes to see, heart-eyes, soul-eyes, the vision of the inner life, penetrating all cloud and darkness, and seeing the Shining Glory. Then should our life be rid of its burdens, its pains and its sorrow and its fear, and we should live the life of liberty. If any man is foolish enough to be making his own gospel, do thou chastise him with many disappointments day by day, until he shall begin to pray at the right altar. Thou hast sent thy Son to save us, to seek and to save the lost, to call sinners to repentance: help us to hear the music of his inviting voice, and to answer it because our sin is exceeding great. Oh, hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place the prayer thy servant prayeth, and when thou hearest, Lord, forgive! Amen.

Things That Accompany Salvation

Heb 6:9

IT is quite right to be interested in a salvation that is central; that is essential, but salvation is not solitude. Salvation represents a great sociality. Salvation is the heart of a noble fellowship. Many writers and preachers have, no doubt, set forth the text as conveying the idea of a procession; salvation red as blood, bright as light, tuneful as embodied music, at the head, and then all the retinue, a thousand or ten thousand strong, following, their very march music, their very look an expectation and a prophecy. It is a beautiful picture. Every man’s life is to be such. If we have regarded salvation as monasticism, loneliness, one little or great idea dissociated from other thoughts, and especially dissociated from active and expressive character, we have done injustice to its first, midst, and last idea and purpose.

There may be too much said about salvation when that term is too narrowly interpreted. No selfishness is so selfish as pious selfishness. No cruelty is so cruel as Christian cruelty. The bite of the wolf is nothing to the lie of the soul. What if your salvation and mine are of infinitely less consequence than we have supposed? If we have been looking on that term as simply expressive of that comfort, individual certainty of going higher and higher, and doing less and less, and enjoying the indolence of doing nothing, some strong man may one day arise who will tear that idea of salvation to rags and tatters. It is not true, therefore it is not healthy, therefore it ought to be put down. “Are you saved?” may be a wicked inquiry. Some will not understand how this can be, because some are only at the alphabet, and some have not begun to study their letters. There are children in the world who have never heard of the existence of the alphabet. We do not consult them upon higher statesmanship or the higher mathematics. In another sense there is no greater question than, “Are you saved? are you a new creature, a liberated soul, a mind on which there shines the whole heaven of God’s light? Are you a soldier, a servant, a helper of the helpless, a leader of the blind? Are you akin to the soul of Christ?” It is impossible for us to get at Christ in any sense of acceptance, assurance, and identification, except through one gate. Can we not climb up, pierce the roof, and enter by a way of our own making? No. What is the name of the only gate that opens upon the presence-chamber of the Saviour? The name is the Cross. Have you ever heard it? That you have heard it as a name, we know, but there is hearing and hearing. The Cross may be a word, or it may be a sacrifice; a literal fact, or a suggestion infinite in its resources as the heart of God. It is in the latter larger, truer sense that the Cross is a gate, the one gate and the only gate to the presence and favour of the King.

Many men are saved who do not know it. I have known so-called bad men whose disposition I have coveted. I have known them more largely than they have known themselves, though their breath is burned with unholy suggestion. I have known that their souls have been fruitful in noble and kindly thoughts. Let God say who is saved. “Lord, are there few that be saved?” No answer. Christ takes the statistics, but he does not publish them. He says in reply, rather than in answer, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate; do not be inquiring so much whether there be few or whether there may be many that be saved. Strive ye yourselves to enter in at the strait gate.” We may be asking questions about others when we should be executing duties on our own behalf. There is nothing meaner in all God’s universe, so far as we know it, than a pious miser, a miser by self-thought, self-condolence, self-flattery, self-regard, as though he should shut himself into his own garden and his own banqueting-hall, and should say, “What a wicked world it is, and how few that attend to religious ordinance and ceremony, and how much men are to blame themselves for the evil they are in and for the suffering they endure!” Talk of a man so, he is the devil’s hired servant.

What are the things that accompany salvation? To the youngest, let me say, to accompany is to go with as we should say, “Are you walking to-day in the field? if so, I will go with you.” Things that accompany salvation are things that go with salvation, keep it company, belong to it, have a right by kindred and by quality to be there. But what things can accompany salvation when salvation is interpreted in its higher and deepest sense? Is it a virgin beautiful with ineffable loveliness? Oh! were it not better she should walk in her fine linen alone on the green hills, in the flowering gardens, in the laden orchards? No. She will have with her a thousand little children, multiplied by ten thousand more, and cubed up into an unimaginable number. That virgin is social, friendly, a great housekeeper, and she goes forth, not in vanity, but in a natural expression of kindliness accompanied by others akin to her own soul.

Sometimes you see a procession and not the head of it. Did that sight ever deceive you? Never. Beholding the retinue, the procession, you say, Who is this? Not, Who are these? but, What is this? as if it were a single and not a plural explanation. Who is it? One soul. What is it? One event, yet not a soul alone, not an event dissociated from a common history. Are you satisfied to look upon the procession, upon the retinue, to see nothing besides? You know you are not. You want to see the leading figure, the main idea, the life of which these are the lives. Is the child satisfied to see the tail of the kite? The dear little child rounds his eyes and looks for the kite itself, and with joy he points it out, saying, “There, I see it.” Dear little child, was it not enough to see the floating tail of the kite? No! the child will see the chief image itself. In that little figure, homely enough, and therefore all the better, we see the whole idea of this conception of a procession, a retinue.

“Things that accompany salvation.” That word “accompany” might be made much larger and much more vital. Sometimes the procession is abreast of the king. It so happens that in this march sometimes the things do not accompany in the sense of following behind, but in the better and the excellent sense of going along with, as if arm in arm, placed so that it shall be difficult to say who leads so far as the mere stepping is concerned, and yet not difficult to say who leads so far as the larger life and regnacy of will are concerned. Some men make places for themselves. You say there is no room, these men soon find room enough. They do not claim it, it is conceded to them. There may be momentary opposition or envious interpretation, but all things give way before sovereign power, before supreme and noble character. At the last, confidence is promoted, integrity is crowned, but who has the deepest, clearest, largest, best ideas will always lead the empire and make republics into sovereignties.

What are the “things that accompany salvation”? There are some things that would not accompany it. There are some things that through the very force of shame would decline to be in the retinue. Can a poor, tattered, ragged, dishonoured, self-discredited vagrant join the procession of the king? He says, “No, it is not my place, put me out of sight, let me die in darkness.” Among the “things that accompany salvation,” we find first of all purity of character. But does purity of character mean perfection? It does not. There is no perfect man. This cold space, this cage of time, could not hold him. Perfect man can only bloom in heaven, where the climate is pure and where the day has no night. By purity of character let us mean a real, honest motive, a just and noble desire, a wish to be, not in heaven, but heavenly in mind, thought, life, speech. This definition enables me to include a great number of persons in the Church who do not include themselves. It is sad to see how things are always placed in the Christian kingdom. There are some pedants who will not come in, and therefore ought always to be outside. Pedantry has no status in the New Jerusalem. There are some conceited persons who think they have attained all that is desirable; they do not come in, and in very deed they ought to be kept out. Self-complacency is not a virtue anywhere; in the New Jerusalem it is a blasphemy.

There, are, however, men who are getting wrong seven times a day who ought to be in the Church. They are Christlike and do not realise the fact. I have seen in their eyes tears which must have travelled to their eyes by way of the heart. Yet they blunder; I know it well; they fall flat down in the devil’s mire. I have seen them many times; they are inflammable, passionate, wanting in self-control. Surely. But they are pressed and driven by five hundred ancestors who were worse than they are. The five hundred ancestors are smiting them as with scorpions. Blessed be God, it is not ours to judge. Christ will shut out no one that he can bring in, and he must be a son of perdition whom Christ cannot bring into his own feast of love and eternal fellowship.

Among the “things that accompany salvation” I give a foremost place to unselfishness of service; the service that never looks at itself in the Church mirror; that never dresses itself to go out to be seen ostentatiously in public; the service that is crowned with self-unconsciousness; that does good things by stealth and blushes to find them fame; the service that does things as a monarch does them, not knowing that they are being done, without any sense of taxation, and sacrifice, and painfulness. There is a doing that would rather do than not do. There is an action that must take place because the suppression would be not only unreasonable but intolerable. Love must serve. Many are working in that way who have no earthly fame. The Apostle recognised all such in the very text in which we find the words on which we are discoursing, for he says, “God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love.” Here is one of the things, therefore, which accompany salvation. Doing, always doing; doing simply, doing kindly, doing lovingly, doing in the Christly spirit. There are some actions that are oppressive to the very individuals for whom they are performed. Why? Because the manner of doing them is burdensome, aggressive, oppressive. Some people help you and therefore hinder you. Some people do for you things little or great with such self-effusiveness and self-display and with such an unreasoning expectation of gratitude, that the receiver of such services would gladly dispense with them. There is an action subtle as the atmosphere, silent as the night, always operating, never displaying, or demonstrating, or self-magnifying.

What shall we say of charity of heart? Does not that also accompany salvation? That is the larger love, that great mother-love which says, “If the house will not hold you, we must add another wing to it.” Great love never takes out a two-foot rule and says, “There will only be room at this table for thirty,” but love says, “You must find another table.” But the room will not hold it. “Then take down the wall, and go into the garden.” Love keeps pace with necessity. When the great feast was spread those who went out to call in the unfamiliar guests said, “Lord, it is done as thou hast said, and yet there is room.” It was Christ who spoke that parable. He is great in finding room, but never was prevented from doing anything because there was nothing, or because there was little to begin with. “Five loaves” would do to begin with. The prodigal said, “There is bread enough in my father’s house and to spare.” All the evangelists who went out to call the hungry people to the supper said, “Lord, we have searched everywhere, and brought in everybody we can find from hedge and ditch and hole and rock, and still there is room.” Who ever exhausted God? Who ever overthronged his heaven?

This must be the spirit of the individual Christian also. But here is a poor heretic who does not see his way clear to several of the dogmas of the Church. Oh! tell him to speak nonsense no longer, but to come in at once. Here is a soul greatly troubled because his experience is different from other experience that he has heard of. Tell him to come in this very instant, for there is a chair set on purpose for him at the corner of the table. Here is a man who rather revels in his infidelity, and gets drunk on his unbelief. Then keep him out. If a man is proud of his scepticism, we do not want him inside the Church, or out of it. He is not wanted anywhere. But if a poor soul should come in and say, “Oh, sirs, it is so dark; which is the way? Will a little child take hold of my hand; and if any wise man is here, will he kindly tell me where I ought to begin, what I ought to do, and how I ought to begin?” make room for him. You need not make room for him; the King, in drawing up his list of wedding guests, set a chair for him next himself.

Where there is this charity, Christ is. Where, then, charity does not exist, there is no Church. Unutterably do I hate a man and the disposition that would keep out of the Church any poor, maimed, bruised soul that wants to be in it. “But he does not think as we do.” And who are we that should do the superior thinking and set up a standard theology? I will not be one of the number. I was born yesterday; to-day I am groping and struggling and wandering and stumbling in prayer; and tomorrow I shall not be here. Does the poor soul want to love Christ? If so, here is a seat for him at the Lord’s table. “Is not the Lord’s table set up for perfect people?” By no means. For then would it be a banquet in a wilderness far from any human heart.

There is another accompaniment to salvation which must not be forgotten; let it be named as final in the list, but only as initial in its suggestions. And it is evangelistic zeal. What is the meaning of evangelistic? It means that some soul has a truth, a gospel, which he says he must go and tell everybody all over the world. That is the meaning of evangelistic. The truth burns him until he tells it. The gospel that fills his soul is the gospel for every creature. And he must talk about it; propagate it, publish it, circulate it. He must breathe it on every wind, and send it to every sea to be carried to every golden shore. What did the Apostle mean when he said he was a debtor to the barbarians? This has often been misinterpreted, and the Apostle Paul has been represented as a very humble person, because he confessed his obligations to everybody, to the Jew, to the Gentile, to the Greek, to the barbarian, to the bond, and to the free. And the favourite pulpit idea has been that Paul was so willing to acknowledge that everybody had been favourable to him, and kindly disposed towards his life, and had contributed something towards his service. Nothing of the kind. Paul’s idea was the evangelistic idea. What I hold, said Paul, belongs to the very first man I meet, and the man beside me, and the man behind me, and all the world, Jew, Gentile, Greek, barbarian, bond, free. Wherever there is a man, I am his debtor. “Oh, sir, come, I know this truth, and therefore I owe it to you” that is the Cross of Christ in eloquent action. Not, “I have received something from you, poor barbarian, and therefore I must give something back.” “I never received a thing from you in my life, but I know a truth that would make a man of you, I know a gospel that would serve you, therefore I am your debtor. Come, and I will pay it. This truth I do not hold as mine only, but as yours also.” Fly abroad, thou mighty gospel, go forth, thou queen of truth and love, and be thy retinue more in number than the sands upon the seashore, brighter than the stars that beam in the diadem of night!

Prayer

Almighty God, we have heard that thy mercy endureth for ever. All the great houses of history have said this. We know it of a truth; we take up the great song and sing it with our whole heart; for we have tasted and seen and handled of the Word of life. Thou hast saved us. Thy mercy has been near us all the day and all the night; thou hast come to us in the darkness of our despair and in the humiliation of our weakness, and thou hast breathed great gospels into our sinking hearts. Oh, how loving is thy voice, how majestic and tender in music! Behold, thou canst speak a word in season to him that is weary, and thou canst order the armies of heaven. We rejoice in thy love; we draw near to thy pity; because there are tears in thine eyes and thou didst look upon sinful men, we dare come quite close to thee and say, Have mercy upon me! Thy mercy endureth for ever; this we will say in the morning and in the evening; when we awake in the night-watches we will say, Thy mercy endureth for ever. Teach us that we live in thy mercy; because thy love faileth not, our life is permitted to add to its days. We do not live because of thy greatness or thy justice, thy power or thy majesty, but because of thy tenderness and love, and pity and gentleness, and fatherly-motherly care. What are these great, sweet words thou hast sent unto us to live upon, to hide in our hearts, and turn into daily life? Like as a father pitieth his children; casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you; last of all he sent his Son; God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son: these are thy words; we cannot mistake them; these voices are not earthborn; behold these great utterances fall from heaven, and bring all heaven with them. Help us to answer their grand appeal, that we may be broken in heart, humble in spirit, meek of disposition, obedient in will, and abounding alway in the fruits of the Spirit. Amen.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

Ver. 29. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily ] He saith not unworthy (for so we are all), but unworthily, that is, unpreparedly, for a good work may be spoiled in the doing, as many a good tale is marred in the telling, and many a good garment in the making.

Eateth and drinketh damnation ] He that came in without a wedding garment on his back, went not away without fetters on his feet. He was taken from the table to the tormentors. God’s table becomes a snare to unworthy receivers; they eat their bane, they drink their poison. Henry VII, emperor of Germany, was poisoned in the sacramental bread by a monk; Pope Victor II by his sub-deacon in the chalice; and one of our bishops of York by poison put into the wine at sacrament. God will deal with ill communicants asJob 20:23Job 20:23 . They will speed no better than Amnon did at Absalom’s feast; or than Haman did at Esther’s. Sin brought to the sacrament, picks out that time to petition against them, as Esther did against Haman at the banquet of wine,Ezr 7:2Ezr 7:2 ; Ezr 7:6 . So that they shall cry out as that emperor beforementioned did, Calix vitae calix mortis, The cup of life is to us a cup of poison.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

29. ] For he who eats and drinks (scil. of the bread and of the cup: certainly not, as Meyer, ‘the mere eater and drinker , he who partakes as a mere act of eating and drinking,’ which is harsh to the last degree, and refuted by the parallel, 1Co 11:27 . is spurious, see var. readd.) eats and drinks judgment to himself (i.e. brings on himself judgment by eating and drinking. , as is evident by 1Co 11:30-32 , is not ‘ damnation ’ ( ), as rendered in our E. V., a mistranslation, which has done infinite mischief), not appreciating ( dijudicans , Vulg. , , , . Chrys. Hom. xxviii. p. 251) the Body (scil. of the Lord: here standing for the whole of that which is symbolized by the Bread and the Cup, the Body and Blood . The mystery of these, spiritually present in the elements, he, not being spiritual, does not appreciate : and therefore, as in 1Co 11:27 , falls under the divine judgment, as trifling with the death of Christ. The interpretation of Stanley, “not discerning that the body of the Lord is in himself and in the Christian society, and that it is as the body of the Lord, or as a member of that body, that ha partakes of the bread,” is surely somewhat farfetched, after , 1Co 11:24 ).

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

1Co 11:29 . Participation in the bread and cup is itself a : “For he that eats and drinks, a judgment for himself (sentence on himself) he eats and drinks”. The single art [1782] of , combining the acts, negatives the R.C [1783] inference from the of 1Co 11:27 (see note). Contact with Christ in this ordinance probes each man to the depths ( cf. Joh 3:18 f., Joh 9:39 ); it is true of the Lord’s verbum visibile , as of His verbum audibile , that he who receives it (Joh 12:48 ). His attitude toward the Lord at His table revealed with shocking evidence the spiritual condition of many a Cor [1784] Christian his carnality and blindness as one “not distinguishing the body”. The two senses given by interpreters to are, as Hn [1785] says, somewhat blended here (“Beruht jedes Urtheilen auf Ent scheiden und Unter scheiden”), as in dijudicans (Vg [1786] ): one “discerns (judges clearly and rightly of) the (Lord’s) body” in the sacrament and therein “discriminates” the rite from all other eating and drinking precisely what the Cor [1787] failed to do (1Co 11:20 ff.). They did not descry the signified in the sign, the Incarnate and Crucified in His memorial loaf and cup, and their Supper became a mere vulgar matter of meat and drink. This ordinance exposed them for what they were (1Co 3:3 ). ( cf. 1Co 11:24 ff.) a reverent aposiopesis , resembling in 1Co 3:13 (see note); the explanation of some Lutherans, that means “the substance” underlying the material element, is foreign to the context and to Apostolic times. On “the serious doctrinal question” as to what the unfaithful receive in the sacrament, see El [1788] ad loc [1789] Distinguish (unhappily rendered “damnation” in A.V.), a judicial sentence of any kind, from , the final condemnation of the sinner (32; Rom 5:16 ).

[1782] grammatical article.

[1783] Roman Catholic.

[1784] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[1785] C. F. G. Heinrici’s Erklrung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer’s krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).

[1786] Latin Vulgate Translation.

[1787] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[1788] C. J. Ellicott’s St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians .

[1789] ad locum , on this passage.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

unworthily. The texts omit. In that case after “himself”, read “since he does not discern”, &c.

damnation = condemnation, or judgment. App-177.

discerning. App-122.

the Lord’s body. The texts read “the body”. That is, he does not recognize the common membership of all the saints (1Co 10:17). This was the sectarian and selfish spirit rebuked in verses: 1Co 11:19-22. Note the Figure of speech Paregmenon. App-6.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

29.] For he who eats and drinks (scil. of the bread and of the cup: certainly not, as Meyer, the mere eater and drinker, he who partakes as a mere act of eating and drinking, which is harsh to the last degree, and refuted by the parallel, 1Co 11:27. is spurious, see var. readd.) eats and drinks judgment to himself (i.e. brings on himself judgment by eating and drinking. , as is evident by 1Co 11:30-32, is not damnation (), as rendered in our E. V., a mistranslation, which has done infinite mischief), not appreciating (dijudicans, Vulg. , , , . Chrys. Hom. xxviii. p. 251) the Body (scil. of the Lord: here standing for the whole of that which is symbolized by the Bread and the Cup, the Body and Blood. The mystery of these, spiritually present in the elements, he, not being spiritual, does not appreciate: and therefore, as in 1Co 11:27, falls under the divine judgment, as trifling with the death of Christ. The interpretation of Stanley, not discerning that the body of the Lord is in himself and in the Christian society, and that it is as the body of the Lord, or as a member of that body, that ha partakes of the bread, is surely somewhat farfetched, after , 1Co 11:24).

Fuente: The Greek Testament

1Co 11:29. ) [without the article, comp. v. 32.-Not. crit.] some judgment, a disease, or the death of the body; see next verse; so that those who do not discern the Lords body have to atone for it in their bodies. He does not say to , the condemnation.- , not judging as to [discerning]) Comp. Heb 10:29.- , the body) supply, and the blood.- , of the Lord) An Antonomasia [an appellative instead of the proper name], i.e. Jesus. The Church is not called the body of Jesus, or the body of the Lord; but the body of Christ: The question here then is about the proper body of the Lord Jesus.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

1Co 11:29

1Co 11:29

For he that eateth and drinketh, eateth and drinketh judgment unto himself, if he discern not the body.-He who comes to it not remembering the Lords crucified body and shed blood, not drinking into the true spirit of Christ, not striving to walk worthy of his goodness and love, as shown in his sufferings and death, eateth unto condemnation rather than justification. Observing the body of Christ as a pledge of sanctification and justification and redemption to him who comes to it in a proper spirit, but of wrath and condemnation to him who comes not observing this spirit.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

damnation

judgment, in the sense of 1Co 11:32.

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

damnation: or, judgment, [Strong’s G2917], judgment, or punishment, not damnation, for it was inflicted upon the disorderly and profane for their amendment. 1Co 11:30, 1Co 11:32-34, Rom 13:2, *Gr: Jam 3:1, Jam 5:12, *marg.

not: 1Co 11:24, 1Co 11:27, Ecc 8:5, Heb 5:14

Reciprocal: Gen 17:14 – broken Num 18:32 – pollute Psa 26:6 – so will Hos 8:13 – but Rom 14:23 – damned Heb 10:29 – wherewith

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

1Co 11:29. Discerning is from DIA-KRINO, which Thayer defines at this place, “to separate, make a distinction, discriminate.” The thought is that the participant should eat and drink with his mind on the body and blood of Christ, remembering that the two parts were separated and that He died for us. Unless this is done, the person partaking will bring condemnation upon himself. The Corinthians did not distinguish between the body of Christ and food for natural hunger. The same guilt may be brought upon us today without eating to satisfy our hunger. If we partake of the “emblems” while our mind is on some other subject instead of the death of Christ, such as our plans for the day, etc., we will be just as guilty as were the ones at Corinth. Sometimes disciples will be engaged in conversation at the time, and will partake of the bread and/or cup mechanically or as a habit only. When they do so they eat and drink damnation to themselves.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

1Co 11:29. For he that eateth or drinketh, eateth and drinketh judgment unto himself, if he discern not the body. (The evidence for the omission of unworthily and Lords before body is, we think, conclusive; but the sense is the same.) Discerning the body sounds very abrupt to us who are accustomed to the fuller form; but it is perhaps all the more emphatic.[1] By eating and drinking Judgment is meant incurring the effects of the Divine displeasure.

[1] Stanleys ideathat the body here means the Christian societyseems too far-fetched to require notice.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

What it is to eat and drink unworthily, we find explained before, at 1Co 11:27.

Note here farther, That many persons of honest hearts, but weak heads, have sadly misunderstood the words of St. Paul, about unworthy receiving, thinking that such an excess of reverence and preparation is required, that either they dare not come at all, or they come with so much dread and fear upon their minds, that they are more terrified than comforted.

Observe farther, The unworthy person eats and drinks judgment; that is, temporal judgment will follow him in his life; and, without repentance, eternal damnation in the next.

Yet note, It is judgment to himself that receives not to another that receives with him. If a wicked man’s presence at the sacrament pollutes the ordinanace to a worthy receiver, then Christ and his eleven apostles were defiled by the company of Judas at the passover; for at that he certainly was, and as many think, at the Lord’s supper also.

Learn, then, that unworthy receivers of the Lord’s supper do contract great guilt, and incur great danger, to themselves. The design of the apostle in these two last verses is this, that we should not sinfully omit the duty, because of the command; nor carelssly undertake it, because of the threatened judgment.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

For he that eateth and drinketh, eateth and drinketh judgment unto himself, if he discern not the body. [The Corinthians were eating the supper in a spirit of levity, as though it were common food; not keeping in mind what it memorialized.]

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

29. For he that eateth and drinketh not discerning the body, eateth and drinketh condemnation to himself. We need the light and truth of the Holy Ghost to enable us spiritually to discern the Lords body broken in the bread and His blood flowing in the wine. Damnation, as in E.V., does not occur in this life. The Greek krima means condemnation here and damnation hereafter. Oh! What a wholesale damnation work Satan is doing! Deluding millions of poor unsaved, wicked, worldly, carnal people, to crowd the sacramental board, without the light of the Holy Ghost shining in their hearts, to discern the Lords body in the holy sacrament, and thus eating condemnation now and damnation in the world to come. Thus multitudes of proud, carnal church members, who in their hearts despise the humiliation of the cross, and could not be induced to come to the altar to consecrate themselves to God and get His blessing in their poor lost souls, are ready to crowd around the chancel and partake of the holy sacrament.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Verse 29

Not discerning the Lord’s body; not discerning the spiritual character and import of the ceremony; that is, he makes no distinction between the Lord’s supper and an ordinary festival.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

11:29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not {m} discerning the Lord’s body.

(m) He is said to discern the Lord’s body that has consideration of the worthiness of it, and therefore comes to eat of this food with great reverence.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Eating and drinking in an unworthy manner results in divine judgment. Judgment is inevitable at the Lord’s Table. We judge ourselves (Gr. diakrino) before we partake and then participate in a worthy manner, or God will judge (krino) us. The "body" has a double sense: the body of Christ given on the cross, and the mystical body of Christ, the church.

"The ’unworthy’ or ’inappropriate’ participation in the Lord’s Supper that entails eating and drinking judgment against the participants comes in not ’discerning (diakrinon) the body’ (1Co 11:29). How members of the community view one another, whether they are sensitive to the poor and latecomers or whether the prevailing social customs dictate their behavior, becomes the decisive issue. Does the congregation recognize itself as the distinctive body of Christ?" [Note: Cousar, "The Theological . . .," p. 100.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)