1. The antecedent duty, which is laid down,
Eateth and drinketh damnation to himself. Κρῖμα signifies sometimes judgment, Gal. 5:10, 1 Pet. 4:17. Unworthy receiving is such an act as deserves damnation, and if not repented of, will bring damnation. The state may be changed, and so damnation avoided; but believers themselves, for their unworthy frames, shall not avoid the stroke of God, which the next verse manifests, ver. 30: 'For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.'
Not discerning the Lord's body. Not discerning the end, subject, and mystery of this sacrament; putting no difference between that and common bread. There is putting a difference between things, in regard of opinion and judgment.* As God is said to put no difference between the Jews and Gentiles, in regard of purification by faith,
Acts 15:9: 'And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith;' so men put no difference between the body of Christ and the body of a mere man, between bread as representing the body of Christ, and bread, the ordinary staff of life, when they make no solemner preparation for it than they do for an ordinary repast. When a man doth not regard the person and merit of Christ according to the true value of him, and comes to the Lord's table as to common bread,† and considers not to what end the elements are destined, nor the greatness and glory of that body which they represent, he violates in those signs the honour due to the majesty of Christ. If a man did rightly understand the dignity of the body of Christ, and how much it suffered for our sins, and that we should die to sin, he would certainly prepare himself by a strict survey of his own heart, that he might not come unworthily to so great a mystery.
In the verses we see, 1. The antecedent duty, examination.
2. The subsequent duty, participation.
1. The antecedent duty, which is laid down, (1.) In the extent of the subject, A man, i.e., every man.
(2.) The nature of the duty, Examine.
(3.) The object of it, Himself.
(4.) The necessity of it, So let him come, not else.
2. The subsequent duty described in its two parts.
(1.) Eating the bread.
(2.) Drinking the cup.
3. The enforcement to this duty, ver. 29.
(1.) The danger of unworthiness, Eats and drinks damnation.
(2.) The nature of unworthiness, Not discerning the Lord's body.
(3.) To which we may add, The sinfulness of unworthiness: ver. 27, He that eats and drinks unworthily, is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. To which the particle but (ver. 28) refers, as the means to avoid that sinfulness: 'But let a man examine himself.'
Doctrine:
1. All men outwardly professing Christianity are not in a capacity to come to the great ordinance of the supper. The apostle writes not to the heathen, but the Christian Corinthians.
2. It is every man's duty solemnly to examine himself about his interest in Christ, and his right to this ordinance, before he come.
3. Without due examination, and by unworthy receiving, a man commits a great sin, and incurs a great danger.
1. For the first. All men outwardly professing Christianity are not in capacity to come to the great ordinance of the supper. If all men were capable, pre-examination were not then necessary. But because this