1 Corinthians 11:30 - Printer Friendly

ESV: That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

NIV: That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.

NASB: For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number are asleep.

CSB: This is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep.

NLT: That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died.

KJV: For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

NKJV: For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.

Paul's sobering words in the previous verse raised a serious question for believers. He said that to participate in communion without "discerning the body" will bring judgment on the one who eats the bread and drinks the cup. That reference seems to refer to those who treat the bread and wine as just like any other meal or snack: to be careless or shallow about it. Or, it might refer to those who fail to recognize how commemorating the death of Christ expresses unity with other believers. Or, it might refer to some combination of both. But what judgment comes from not discerning the body?

Paul's answer only adds to the seriousness of this passage. He writes that many among the Corinthians were weak and ill for this very reason. Some had even died as a result of failing to participate in the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner. To be even more clear, it is God who has brought weakness, illness, and death to them as discipline for their failure to observe communion with proper respect for Christ's sacrifice and for each other.

Many people struggle with the idea that God would bring illness or death to a Christian for continuing to participate in sinful practices. Or that He would do the same for those who sinfully mishandle good practices. It fits perfectly, however, with Paul's earlier warning to the Corinthians about the Israelites who died in the wilderness after escaping from Egypt. Paul clearly implied that God would do similar things to them if they participated in idol worship and other sins (1 Corinthians 10:1–13).

What about God's love and grace and forgiveness of sin? In verse 32, Paul will clarify that this judgment from God does not include the loss of salvation. Suffering and even death in this life are not eternal judgments. Both may be the discipline of a loving Father for the good of the children whose sin He has forgiven.

First Corinthians 11:17–34 contains Paul's rebuke of the church in Corinth for their application of the Lord's Supper. They had turned it into a gathering at which the wealthy ate and drank too much, leaving the poorer Christians hungry and humiliated. Paul warns that communion should be a time of sober self-reflection about our sin and Christ's sacrifice, as well as a time to unite the body of Christ, the church, while taking in representations of the blood and body of Christ. Some in Corinth were sick and others had died as part of God's judgment for participating in communion in an unworthy manner.

Paul confronts two issues the church in Corinth was failing to practice correctly. First, some women were not wearing head coverings while praying or prophesying in their meetings. Paul insisted they must do so, and that men must not, based on mankind's relationship to God and the social implications of that covering. Second, Paul describes the reasons for observing the Lord's Supper and how it should be done. The Corinthian Christians had brought God's judgment on themselves for practicing communion in a way which dishonored Christ's sacrifice for sin and humiliated the poor among them.

After concluding his teaching on meat offered to idols, Paul turns to two issues the church in Corinth was getting wrong. The first was head coverings when praying or prophesying in their meetings. Differences between men and women in that regard are because of both spiritual and social reasons. Paul also corrects the disastrous way in which they were practicing the observance of the Lord's Supper. They were dishonoring Christ's sacrifice for sin as well as the poor in the body of Christ, the church. Despite having more to say on communion, Paul will move on to the topic of spiritual gifts in chapter 12.

First Corinthians is one of the more practical books of the New Testament. Paul writes to a church immersed in a city associated with trade, but also with corruption and immorality. These believers are struggling to properly apply spiritual gifts and to resist the ungodly practices of the surrounding culture. Paul's letter gives instructions for real-life concerns such as marriage and spirituality. He also deals with the importance of unity and gives one of the Bible's more well-known descriptions of love in chapter 13.