Health And Wholeness Through The Holy Communion (5 page)

I am not saying that you must partake every day. But if you are sick, I would recommend that you have Communion daily.

I know of people who are so radical that they take it like medicine — three times a day. And you know what? They get radical results.

Some people say, “Pastor Prince, don’t be extreme.” Those of us who trust in God and in His Son’s perfect work at Calvary are extreme — extremely blessed. So partake because the Holy Communion is God’s channel of health and wholeness for you.

Don’t Be Afraid To Partake

Don’t Be Afraid To Partake

God has made it truly easy for His people to walk in divine health. We just need to come to His Table, put our faith in His broken body for our healing and partake. It is so simple, yet so powerful.

That is why the devil has tried to steal this truth from the church by making Christians believe that they should not partake. And he does this by making them believe that they are unworthy to come to the Lord’s Table. This erroneous thinking is largely due to a misinterpretation of the following verses.

1 Corinthians 11:29–30

²⁹
For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgement to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
³⁰
For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.

When I was a young Christian, I was told, “Don’t come to the Lord’s Table if you have sin in your life. If you are unworthy and partake, you are guilty of the body and blood, and will drink judgment to yourself.”

I was not sure what all that meant, but it was enough to scare me. And I was always told, “Be sure to examine yourself to see if you have sin in your life. And make sure you confess all your sins before you come.”

I never dared to partake because I always wondered, “Is there some sin that I have not confessed?” It is not that I was living in sin, but I did not want to take the risk.

What if I forget to confess one sin? Judgment would fall on me, right? And my mama sure didn’t raise no fool. So I chose not to partake, just to be safe. Every time the elements of the Communion were passed to me, I just passed them on.

I thought that I was better off not partaking. But ironically, by not coming to the Lord’s Table, I was robbing myself of God’s source of health, healing and blessing for me. Legalistic and erroneous teaching is very damaging because it keeps us from receiving what God has for us.

What It Means To Partake Unworthily

So let us read for ourselves what Paul said so that we can partake in a worthy manner.

1 Corinthians 11:27–29, KJV

²⁷
Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
²⁸
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
²⁹
For he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

Firstly, in verse 29, he says that if you eat and drink unworthily, you bring damnation to yourself. Let us get one thing straight. The word “unworthily” is an adverb, which means it modifies the verb.

In this case, “unworthily” describes the action of eating and drinking. It is not describing the person who is eating or drinking. So Paul was not saying that if you are an unworthy person, do not partake.

Yet, the church has somehow misconstrued that teaching and now, Christians are saying, “If you are unworthy, don’t partake.” They say, “If you have sin in your life, don’t come to the Lord’s Table lest you become weak and sick, and die prematurely.” They have turned something that is meant to be a blessing into a curse.

In any case, all of us who come to the Lord’s Table are unworthy and made worthy only by His blood. It is only Jesus’ death that qualifies us to partake. Paul was not saying that we should not partake if we are unworthy. He was saying that we should not partake in an unworthy
manner.

What does it mean to partake unworthily? Read the rest of verse
²⁹
and you will conclude that if you fail to discern or understand the significance of the Lord’s body, you are eating and drinking in an unworthy manner.

Partaking unworthily means not recognising that the broken body of the Lord was meant to bring health and wholeness.

The Corinthians partook unworthily because they did not recognise that the broken body of the Lord was meant to bring them health and wholeness.

And by treating the Holy Communion as a ritual, they missed out on the blessings. They did not understand the significance of the bread. They did not know why they were partaking. This is what it means to partake unworthily.

The manner in which we partake will determine whether we experience the benefits of the Lord’s body. If our attitude is, “It’s just a piece of bread,” then that is what it will be. And we will have robbed ourselves of the life-giving effects of the bread at His Table.

Paul described in greater detail the manner in which the Corinthians partook. Let us take a closer look.

1 Corinthians 11:20–22

²⁰
Therefore when you come together in
one place, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper.
²¹
For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk.
²²
What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in?…

He gave them a good tongue-lashing because when they came to the Lord’s Table, those who were hungry rushed for their turn. And others guzzled the wine until they became drunk.

So Paul was not saying that if you have sin in your life, you cannot partake
^*
. He was telling us to partake in the correct manner, which is to recognise that the Lord’s body was broken so that ours can be made whole. Do not take the Lord’s Supper because you are hungry. If you are hungry, eat at home first.

*Please do not misunderstand me. I am against sin, but this is not the point of Paul’s teaching here.

What Paul told the Corinthians to do was to discern the power of the Lord’s broken body. He was teaching us that when we fail to discern the body, we should not partake because we are not claiming by faith what Jesus has done for us.

And by failing to do so, we are making His work on the cross ineffective and powerless as far as we are concerned.

When you fail to discern His body, you are actually despising His work on the cross. Vine’s Expository Dictionary has this to say about partaking unworthily:

Unworthily —
anaxios
NT: 371 is used in 1 Corinthians 11:27, of partaking of the Lord’s Supper “unworthily”, i.e., treating it as a common meal, the bread and cup as common things, not apprehending their solemn symbolic import.

Jesus wants us to take the bread and believe that His body was broken so that our bodies can be made well. And when we discern it that way, we are partaking worthily.

When you come to His Table and release your faith in the Lord’s body, you will receive the benefits of healing, health and wholeness. And you will be strong and healthy, and live long.

What It Means To Examine Yourself

Secondly, I was told that to “examine” myself means to check if I have sins in my life and to confess them all.

To correct this misconception, we have to understand the context of Paul’s statement. He is addressing the issue of eating and drinking unworthily.

So it follows that he was telling the Corinthians that they should examine themselves to see if they were eating and drinking in a worthy manner. Nowhere does it say that he told them to examine themselves to see if there was sin in their lives.

1 Corinthians 11:27–29

²⁷
Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
²⁸
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
²⁹
For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

Looking at the passage again, it is clear that Paul is saying that a man should examine himself to see if he is eating and drinking worthily so as not to eat and drink judgment to himself.

It is so simple, but preachers have for so long made Christians fearful and sin-conscious when God wants us to be Son-conscious. He just wants us to examine ourselves to see if we are putting our faith in His Son’s work on the cross for us.

What It Means To Drink Judgment To Yourself

Thirdly, the “judgment” (in verse 29) does not mean God’s anger or wrath as I used to think. In some circles, people still believe that the judgment here refers to God sending them to hell. That is an incorrect interpretation.

The Greek word used here is
krima,
which means divine sentence. When Adam sinned against God, a divine sentence fell on the human race. Weakness, sickness and death are some effects of that divine sentence.

The Lord’s Supper is how God helps us offset the process of ageing and walk in divine health.