Unworthy
of a Symbol?

What is this page about?

Here is the passage from Paul’s letter.

Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in a way unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment to himself if he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body.

1 Corinthians 11:27–29 · World English Bible

In simple words: A person may eat the bread or drink the Lord’s cup in a wrong way. That person sins against the body and blood of the Lord. So everyone should look at himself, and then eat the bread and drink from the cup. A person who eats and drinks in a wrong way brings judgement on himself, because he does not see the Lord’s body for what it is.

And here is what people often hear next in church. This page wrote these words. They are not from a real person.

Put the first idea next to the last one. Eating this in the wrong way is dangerous. And it is just bread. Both cannot be true.

The short answer

1. Paul tells us what the problem in Corinth was. It was not unbelievers at the table. The church ate the Lord’s Supper as part of a real meal. The rich people ate first and ate well. The poor came later and found nothing. Paul’s answer is: “wait for one another” (1 Corinthians 11:33). Everyone in the paragraph is already at the table. The people in danger are the sure and comfortable ones.
2. “In an unworthy way” describes how a person eats. It does not describe who the person is. Paul never says, “Unworthy people must not eat.” He says nobody should eat in a wrong way. And he has just said what the wrong way was.
3. The old King James Bible says “damnation”. The Greek word means “judgement”, and modern Bibles say “judgment”. Paul says what the judgement was: sickness. And he says what it was for: so that “we may not be condemned with the world” (1 Corinthians 11:32). That is the opposite of being lost for ever.
4. “Not discerning the body” needs a body that is there. “Discern” means to see what something really is. The body may be the Lord’s body given in the bread. The church read it this way for 1,500 years. Or the body may be the church, the people at the table. The rich were shaming them. In both cases something real is there. In neither case does Paul ask, “Have you had a conversion experience?”
5. For 1,500 years the church believed that something is given in the Supper. And it told frightened people to come.
6. The church did keep some people from the table. But the reasons were things everyone could see. See Part 4.
7. So the modern warning is upside down. It keeps the fear of the old teaching, but it says the old teaching is false. And it points the fear at worried people. The old church told those people to come.

What Paul was correcting

Take verses 27 to 29 out of the paragraph. They sound like a warning about your soul. Put them back. Now they are in the middle of a correction about a church meal that went wrong.

For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken. What, don’t you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly and put them to shame who don’t have enough?

1 Corinthians 11:21–22 · World English Bible

In simple words: When you eat, each person eats his own food first. One person is hungry, and another is drunk. Do you not have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you look down on God’s church and shame the people who have nothing?

Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home

1 Corinthians 11:33–34 · World English Bible

In simple words: So, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home.

That is the wrong thing: something people did to other people, in public.

Look also at verse 28. “Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat.” The sentence ends with eating. A person looks at himself on the way to the table. It is not a reason to turn back.

One more thing. In the oldest hand-written copies of this letter, verse 29 is shorter. It does not have the words “in an unworthy way”. Paul used that word one time, in verse 27. And verse 21 had already shown what he meant.

What the church believed

Was the Lord’s Supper more than a bare sign for most of Christian history? Here is the evidence, in short.

They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Ignatius of Antioch, about the year 107, writing about false teachers

In simple words: They stay away from the Lord’s Supper and from prayer. They do not agree that the Lord’s Supper is the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

not as common bread and common drink do we receive these

Justin, about the year 155

In simple words: We do not receive these as normal bread and normal drink.

About 500 years ago, the Reformation divided the church in western Europe. The Christians argued about how Christ is present in the Supper. They did not argue about whether we receive more than bread. Lutherans, Anglicans and the Reformed churches all said that people who receive rightly truly receive Christ. In 1689 the English Baptists said that such people “really and indeed” feed on Christ.

The first Baptist statement that does not say anything is received is from 1833. The words “symbolic act” came into a large Baptist statement of faith in 1963. So as an official teaching, “the bread is only bread” is quite new.

Now the important part for the person in the church seat. The churches that believed most about the bread said this about who should come:

Those who are truly displeased with themselves because of their sins and yet trust that these are forgiven them

The Heidelberg Catechism, 1563

In simple words: The people who should come are those who are truly unhappy with themselves because of their sins, and who still trust that their sins are forgiven.

If, therefore, you are heavy-laden and feel your weakness, then go joyfully to this Sacrament and obtain refreshment, consolation, and strength.

Martin Luther, Large Catechism, 1529

In simple words: If your heart is heavy and you feel weak, go gladly to this sacrament. There you will receive new life, comfort and strength.

Luther also said who is truly unworthy: only people who do not feel their weakness and do not want to be called sinners. And John Calvin called the Supper medicine for the sick and comfort for the sinner.

Who was kept from the table?

The old church did not let everybody come. From the first century it kept back:

• people who were not baptized,
• people who lived openly in sin,
• people who were in an open fight with another member,
• people who did not say that they held the faith.

A church can see every one of these things.

There was one thing the old church never did. It never kept back a person who was afraid that he was not good enough. This is true of the early teachers, of Luther and Calvin, and of every statement of faith before 1648. The church worked hard to comfort such a person. A famous preacher in the 390s corrected his people because they stayed away out of fear. The English prayer book of 1662 has strong words for people who refuse to come to this holy meal.

A new rule appears in a church document in New England, in America, in 1648. A person had to tell the story of his conversion before he could take the Lord’s Supper. But the same document also says that the weakest Christian, if he is honest, must not be kept away or discouraged. And those churches believed that God truly gives something in the Supper. Their test was like a fence around something precious. The modern church has kept the fence and taken away the precious thing.

Four people at the table

This page made up four people. What does each voice say to them: Paul, the old church, and the modern warning?

1. The woman who has always believed

She was baptized as a baby. She was taught the faith. For fifty years she has believed, prayed, received the Lord’s Supper and tried to live as a Christian. If you ask, “When were you born again?”, she will say, “I do not know.”

• Paul: Nothing in his paragraph is about her.
• The old church: She is welcome. Every old source accepts her.
• The modern warning: “If you cannot name the moment, let the plate pass.” She is told to keep herself away.

2. The man with a date who lives in open sin

He had a strong conversion at nineteen and can tell you the hour. Now he is forty-one. He is still married, but he lives openly with another woman. The church leaders have spoken to him two times. He says it is not their business.

• Paul: For open sin like this, Paul tells the church to act (1 Corinthians 5:13).
• The old church: He is kept back, for a reason that everyone can see, until he changes his life.
• The modern warning: He has been born again, and he is sure. By the words of the warning, he passes the test.

3. The new believer who is afraid

She came to faith eight months ago and was baptized. She has read 1 Corinthians 11, and she is very afraid. She is not sure that her faith is real enough. She has let the plate pass three times.

• Paul: His warning is for sure and comfortable people, not for her. And verse 28 ends with “let him eat”.
• The old church: The Reformation writers wrote for people like her. “Go gladly.”
• The modern warning: It does not forbid her. But it has frightened her away, and the bread she fears is “only bread”.

4. The visitor who does not believe

A friend brought him. He is not a believer and is not baptized. He takes the bread because it seems rude to refuse. His friend said it is only bread.

• Paul: Paul thinks something happens at that table: “The cup of blessing which we bless, isn’t it a sharing of the blood of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16)
• The old church: He is kept back, because he is not baptized and does not believe. The church does this. He does not have to search his own heart.
• The modern warning: It would keep him back too. But think: if it is only bread, what has he done wrong? He ate a piece of bread to be polite.

The part that really matters

Is this page about whether the bread is really Christ’s body? No. A reader who believes that the bread is only bread can still believe it after reading this page. But he cannot keep the warning.

The second card keeps the fear of the first card and throws away the reason for it. And it points the fear at the wrong people. Paul warned the sure and comfortable people who had already eaten. The modern warning falls on the girl who is not sure her conversion counted. It falls on the man with doubts. It falls on the person who was baptized as a baby and has no date to give.

The two best answers

Two answers to this page are good, and the full page agrees with both.

“The body in verse 29 means the church, not the bread.” That may be right. Paul has just written that we are “one body” (1 Corinthians 10:17). But see what follows. Then “not discerning the body” means treating other Christians as if they did not belong to Christ. That is a sin of the sure people at the table, against other people. It is still not a private test for a worried person.

“The Supper is for believers. So it is right to ask if a person believes.” This is fully right. It is the oldest rule of all. But the modern warning does not ask, “Do you believe?” It asks, “Have you had an experience? Can you name the moment?” The old church asked a person to say his faith aloud, and the church could hear it. The modern warning asks for a sure feeling, which only the person can feel. And then it speaks of judgement.

Where this page ends

Check it yourself

1. Read 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 in one go. Then read 1 Corinthians 10:16-17. Then read verses 27 to 29 again.
2. Read the part about the Lord’s Supper in Luther’s Small Catechism. The answer to “Who receives this sacrament worthily?” is four lines long.
3. Read the service for Holy Communion in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. It keeps some people from the table, and it comforts frightened people, in the same service.