Judge by the right standard - The cross

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

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.

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.

³³ So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. ³⁴ If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you will not come together for judgment. The remaining matters I will arrange when I come.

In today’s text Paul warns believers about the dangers of improperly judging the body. He says:  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. 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. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.    Paul says that we must first examine ourselves, we must judge ourselves rightly so that we will not be judged. This is like what Jesus says in Matthew 7:1-5:   “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. 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? 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? 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.” Jesus says that by our own standard of measure we will be judged. If we judge others, if we judge their sin without first judging ourselves, we bring that same judgment on ourselves. It is not that we are supposed to see ourselves as sinners, but rather that we recognize that it is only by grace that we ourselves can be righteous. Recognizing that it is only by grace, through the cross that we are free from sin, we then must also extend the same grace to others, judging not what we see, but rather judging them as they too are seen through the finished work of the cross.   

Romans 6:23 says:   For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.     Paul says:   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.   If we judge others apart from the cross, apart from God’s gift to us, that is the standard of judgment we bring upon ourselves. We relinquish the benefits and the promises of the finished work of the cross and so we are again subject to the wages of sin in our own bodies. Paul says:  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.    May it never be that we would be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. In John 10:17-18 Jesus says:  “I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative.”  We are not held as responsible for; guilty of the death of Christ. He went willingly to the cross for our sins. If however we choose judgment and sin rather than the gift we are given, it is as if we are causing Christ to return again to the cross; as if the finished work, His dying once for all, was not enough. We are guilty of not believing the cross was enough for the sins of others if we judge them unrightly.

We must not though allow ourselves to mistakenly substitute acceptance and tolerance of sin in place of the grace of the cross. Paul says:    The Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 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.” 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.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.   We proclaim the Lord’s death; we remember the finished work of the cross, Jesus victory over sin and death. We must judge sin through the finished work of the cross. Sin was not redeemed by the cross. Rather sinners are redeemed from sin; given victory over sin. Jesus says:     “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.”    It is not that we accept or disregard the sin in either our own lives or the lives of others. It is that we see first ourselves as only free from sin through the cross of Christ. Then from that same perspective, from that same lens of redemption, we see others and so we help them and encourage them to also live free from sin.  

Lord Jesus Christ, may I never forget what You did for me, that You willingly died for my sin. May I continue daily to see myself through the lens of redemption, subjecting the sin in my life to the victory of the cross. Allowing the cross to remove the sin, may I also see others through the finished work of the cross, as redeemed from sin. With perfect vision, restored by the cross, may I help others to see more clearly.   Amen.