A man must examine himself... if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.

1 Corinthians 11:17-34 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

¹⁷ But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse. ¹⁸ For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it. ¹⁹ For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. ²⁰ Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper, ²¹ for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk. ²² What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you.

The Lord’s Supper

²³ For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; ²⁴ and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” ²⁵ In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” ²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

²⁷ Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. ²⁸ But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹ For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. ³⁰ For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. ³¹ But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. ³² But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.

But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.      A man must examine himself…This is much like what Jesus teaches in Matthew 7:1-5.

 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. ² For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. ³ Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

In order to judge our brother or the body of Christ we need to first examine ourselves. We need to first remove anything that would hinder us from seeing clearly, from seeing other as God sees them. Doing that requires that we deal with all of our own preconceived ideas as well, as any anger, bitterness or offense that we have toward others. If we hold any of these against them, we do not judge rightly.

We have this wrong idea that in order to forgive someone, we need to first make sure that they know how they have wronged or offended us. Forgiveness is something that requires two parties, but it is not necessarily our self and the other person. Jesus gives us the perfect model of true forgiveness, when on the cross, He says: "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34) The two parties required for true forgiveness are our self and God.

In today’s text,  Paul is speaking about participating in communion. I have been in churches when people would refrain from taking communion because they were not in right fellowship with others.  We should never be in that situation.    Mark 11:25 says: "Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.  Whether it is to pray or to participate in communion or just to wake up and go about our day, we need to forgive others of any offense. We need to let go of any anger, bitterness, resentment or judgment we hold against them. Forgiveness is a choice, so then is unforgiveness.  We need to choose wisely which we will walk in.   For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.  For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. Even medical science will acknowledge that anger and bitterness negatively affect our health.

On the other side of forgiveness, we also need to learn to properly apologize, how to be truly sorry when we have hurt or offended others. In Mathew 5:22-24, Jesus says:

"But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. 23"Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.…

Too often we have a tendency for our apologies to be sorry buts. There are no sorry buts in heaven. Sorry buts are when we try to hide our effort to continue to make our point behind the words I’m sorry; I’m sorry but I really think… or I’m sorry but you really did…   Sorry buts are not apologies. They are deceptive ways of saying what we think. If we are truly sorry we don’t need to point out their fault or justify our motive. Once we have forgiven their fault, between our self and God, our motive is now our sin, not theirs. I am sorry, please forgive me, are the only words we need to cover our sin.   

The church has lost much of the power of it’s testimony because of the lack of love and unity within the church. Jesus says:  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. ³⁵ By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”(John 13:34-35)   

On the night He was betrayed and arrested, Jesus prayed for us, His church. He prayed for you and for me.

 But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. ¹⁴ I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. ¹⁵ I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. ¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. ¹⁸ As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

²⁰ “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; ²³ I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. ²⁴ Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

²⁵ “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; ²⁶ and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

Jesus paid the price for our sin in His body. Can we not for His sake judge the body rightly?

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, I am sorry, forgive me for all that I have done to fall short of Your will for my life. For all that has come against me from others Father forgive them for they know not what they do.   Amen