The Lord's Supper 2/3

When Paul writes that the one who comes to the Lord’s Supper should first examine themselves and only then eat the bread and drink the wine, he of course does not mean that self-examination should remain only a conclusion about one’s own condition. It is obvious that he expects self-examination also to lead to repentance, if things are found in one’s own life that are not according to the mind of God. The ultimate purpose of self-examination is therefore to repent and to act as Hebrews teaches: “…let us also lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us…”

The Lord’s chastening

Paul shows that if we succeed in judging the wrongs in our lives and repenting of them, we need no further judgment: “But if we discerned ourselves, we should not be judged…” Sometimes, however, wrong clings to us stubbornly. It may be that in certain situations we do not even notice that we are living wrongly. Sometimes the old nature takes such a hold that we do not want to repent, even though we know it is needed. So for one reason or another we do not necessarily succeed in ordering our lives according to God’s will ourselves, and then God steps into the situation: “…but when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.” And of him it is said that “he chasteneth us for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.”

If a child understands on their own to stop, say, lying, they do not need their parents’ judgment and the possible punishment and chastening connected with the situation. But if the child does not judge lying themselves, their parents have to intervene in that very behavior so that nothing worse happens. So also our heavenly Father raises us, that nothing worse may happen to us.

Rom 8 1 Cor 10, 11 Heb 12