1 Corinthians 11:32Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

That others struggle for the sake of crowns is witnessed by the word of God spoken to Job: “Do you think I have dealt with you for any other reason than that you may appear righteous?” (Job 40:3). Therefore, in either case, let us endure temptations, for we have good hopes.

By thus bringing him himself under judgment for condemnation and leading him to fall into sin, they entangle him in condemnation together with the world, according to the following holy saying: “For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But being judged,” that is, by judging others, “we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.”

“If we would judge ourselves,” says the Apostle, “we would not be judged.” He did not say: if we punished ourselves and endured penalty for guilt (εί έκολάζομεν εαυτούς, εί έτιμαρούμεθα). He said only: if we were willing to acknowledge our sins, condemn ourselves, and confess our iniquities, then we would be freed from both the punishment here (καί τής ένταύθα) and the punishment to come (τιμωρίας).

For the one who condemns himself makes God merciful in two ways: by acknowledging his sins, and by becoming less inclined to sin in the future. Since we do not wish to do even this easy thing as it ought to be done, God does not wish to condemn us with the world. He spares us and punishes us here, where the punishment is temporary and the consolation is great.

For cleansing from sins is possible, and sweet hope remains, lightening the present. Therefore, wishing both to console the weak and to make others more zealous, the Apostle says: “But being judged, we are chastened by the Lord.”

He did not say: we are subjected to punishment (κολαζομεθα). He did not say: we are struck like criminals (τιμωρούμεθα). Rather, we are chastened as children (παιδευόμεθα). For this is more admonition than accusation, more remedy than punishment, and more correction than beating.

Here one may also recall the rule established at the Roman Council of the third century against the Novatians: Novatus and the others with him, who exalt themselves and have resolved to approve his brother-hating and inhuman opinion, are to be considered excommunicated from the Church. By contrast, the brethren who have unfortunately fallen are to be examined and healed by the means of repentance.

In keeping with its significance, this passage of Scripture is usually appointed for the apostolic reading on Great Thursday. The following words of the Apostle Paul should be singled out for special attention: “Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord” (1 Cor 11:27).

These words are remarkable for their dogmatic importance and force, for they indicate the essence of the mystery of the Eucharist. In this mystery, under the form of bread and wine, it is not merely symbols of the Body and Blood of Christ that are offered. Rather, it is the very Body and the very Blood of Christ, transubstantiated.

Otherwise the guilt of unworthy and negligent communicants would not be so grave. The Apostle would not have said of them that they eat and drink judgment to themselves, not discerning the Lord’s Body (1 Cor 11:29), and that they are guilty against the Body and Blood of the Lord.

Nor would such grave punishments break forth for unworthy communion. Yet the Apostle immediately adds: “For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and many sleep” (1 Cor 11:30).

“After eating something pleasant at dinner, you take care not to spoil what came before by bad food. Yet after receiving the Spirit, we give ourselves over to pleasures. We must be temperate both before communion and after it. The chief good is to approach the Mysteries with a pure conscience.

“Not content with what he has said before, he adds: ‘Let a man examine himself,’ as he also says in the second epistle: ‘Examine yourselves’ (2 Cor 13:5). If we do not approach a bodily table when suffering from fever and an overflow of harmful humors, lest we incur death, much more must we not touch this table with corrupt desires, which are worse than fever.”

These words beautifully explain how those who taste the Mysteries without understanding their power bring judgment of death upon themselves. Of course, this judgment does not overtake all with equal speed. Yet in every case unworthy communion cannot remain without recompense. In Corinth this was accomplished with manifest clarity in the sicknesses of many and the death of some.

But so that Christians would not draw any wholly perverse conclusions from this, the Apostle points to the means of avoiding judgment. This is the awareness of one’s nothingness before God, and the fear of angering Him by anything that can make us unworthy of His sacred and mystical supper.

Finally, if punishments do overtake us, we must not despair. These punishments are corrections by which God wishes to draw us away from deeds that lead to condemnation in eternal torment, together with the world that has not known the Lord.

The Corinthian Christians had been carried away by the passions of that world. This was true both of those who went to eat things sacrificed to idols and of those who greedily ate their own offerings at the agape meal.

“The Apostle does not threaten us with punishment together with the world, but spares us, threatening us with punishment here. It is temporary and contains much consolation, for it frees us from sins and gives sweet hope for the future, which lightens present sufferings.

“By this he wishes both to console the infirm and to make others more zealous. ‘But now,’ he says, ‘being judged, we are chastened by the Lord.’ He did not say: we are subjected to execution or torments, but: we are chastened, παιδευομεθα, trained and instructed.

“For present punishment is more instruction than condemnation, more healing than penalty, more cure than torment, and more correction than recompense. And not only by this, but also by the threat of greater future punishment, he lightens the present. ‘That we may not be condemned with the world,’ he says.

“Do you see how he points to Gehenna and the fearful Judgment, and proves that this judgment and punishment are inescapable and will certainly come? If believers under God’s protection do not escape punishment for their transgressions, as the present indications show, much less will unbelievers escape, who sin gravely and incurably” (St. Chrysostom).

“He called those sunk in unbelief and sins ‘the world.’ He says that, because God especially favors and cares for believers, He repays them for sins here, so that they may not be condemned together with those people” (Oecumenius).