In 1 Corinthians 11 Paul was still addressing things within the church that were being done out of order. One of which was the right order and structure for doing things in their public assemblies. There were cultural practices about head coverings that were not being respected and were imitating the ways of pagan religion. This was a common problem with the church at Corinth because many believers were living a double lifestyle of proclaiming to be Christ followers, but many were abusing their “freedoms” and blurring the lines by participating in pagan activities that were demonic. This problem also carried over into their celebrations of the Lord’s supper as well. At a time that they should have been sharing in a dinner together, thinking about the sacrifice Jesus made at the cross and celebrating communion with self-reflection and examining themselves before God, they were acting selfishly toward each other, demanding priority to themselves by wealth class so that the wealthy people sat in the dignified places, ate all of the food and got drunk, and the poor were overlooked, hungry and humiliated. The whole communion service went from a holy, commemorative celebration to a wild party that very much resembled some of the pagan celebrations. This was the exact opposite of what the Lord’s supper was supposed to be and Paul was telling them that the way they were treating each other and the way they were conducting themselves was bringing judgment on them. Paul took it a step further by saying that whoever drinks of the cup and eats of the bread unworthily, without self-examination, is guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul told them that this is why many of them were sick and many had died in their sin. He told them (and us) that if we would self-examine our own hearts, and judge ourselves, we would not be judged and condemned to death with the rest of the world. Instead, we would be disciplined by God and changed. This is such and important topic because Christians spend so much time trying to get away from judgment. Nobody wants to feel guilty or condemned, but the order God intended is that we judge ourselves and allow God to discipline us and change us so that we aren’t judged with the rest of the world in the end. If we resist this process and refuse to change, we will be no different from the rest of the world. Being Christ followers means that we evaluate ourselves daily, allow God to show us our issues so we can pick up of our cross (and say NO to our flesh) to follow Him. We can either do this daily, or do whatever we want now and be judged and condemned with the world in the end.
