Memorial Reminder: Do Not Partake Unworthily

Note: This subject has been covered in recent years in the Watchtower, but I want to explain it to ones who may not understand or need a refresher. I explain this to Bible students who need help understanding.

The feelings of those who come out of Christendom about partaking of the Memorial emblems is understandable. It is a religious custom to them as ingrained as any other practice or holiday. But this is no little matter to be treated lightly or observed as a formality.

Paul wrote: "Whoever eats the loaf or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty respecting the body and the blood of the Lord." (1Co 11:27) Was Paul referring to those who fail to imagine the body and blood of Christ in the emblems, or who fail to maintain moral cleanness, or who simply fails to be committed to the faith? Or was there something more involved?

In the context, Paul was speaking to those who were treating the occasion as an ordinary meal without solemn consideration because of their sectarian divisions or their need or desire for food or their desire to get drunk. (1Co 11:17-22) So in line with that, are you desiring to eat and drink because you discern the body and blood of the Lord or because of sectarian custom that you are simply accustomed to?

Discerning the Body

What does it mean to discern "the body and the blood of the Lord"? Does it mean that we must simply visualize that the bread is Christ's flesh and the drink is his blood? Or is there something more involved?

Paul gives the answer: "First let a man approve himself after scrutiny, and only then let him eat of the loaf and drink of the cup." (1Co 11:28) Thus, this is not about the bread or the wine themselves, but about us individually, scrutinizing ourselves over whether we ourselves are worthy to eat and drink the bread and the wine.

Paul continued: "For the one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment against himself." (1Co 11:29) Do you not agree that this statement is very weighty? Do you want to be judged because you did not carefully scrutinize yourself before partaking of the emblems? Obviously not. Thus a personal assessment is absolutely necessary.

What We Ourselves Are

He wrote further: "That is why many among you are weak and sick, and quite a few are sleeping in death." He obviously meant a spiritual sickness and death. Then he says, "But if we would discern what we ourselves are, we would not be judged."—1Co 11:30, 31

Note that he is not talking about our level of commitment or whether our brother has something against us or if we have desisted from sin. Instead he asks us to "discern what we ourselves are," as if asking us to consider our breed or species, our kind. (1Co 11:29)

So what is your "kind"? What kind are you? Remember, this involves discernment, distinguishing what something is and is not. Since this is about ourselves, then we are discerning, not the emblems, but something about ourselves regarding the body of Christ.

Earlier in the same letter, Paul wrote: "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I, then, take the members of the Christ away and join them to a prostitute? By no means! Do you not know that anyone who is joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For 'the two,' says he, 'will be one flesh.' But whoever is joined to the Lord is one with him in spirit."—1Co 6:17

So this is the body we must discern in order to partake worthily. We must discern whether we ourselves are part of the body and blood of the Christ. What does that mean?

They Were Bought With a Price

Paul explains: "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the holy spirit within you, which you have from God? Also, you do not belong to yourselves, for you were bought with a price. By all means, glorify God in your body."—1Co 6:19, 20

So then, the person partaking must discern that they were purchased with a price and that they no longer belong to their self, but to Christ's body. But what purchase is Paul talking about?

He is referring to the purchase to be with Christ in heaven. (Rev 14:3) Note at 1 Corinthians 6:17 that they are one with Christ, not just in purpose or a figurative sense, but just as Christ "emptied himself and took a slave's form and became human" and later gave up his physical form and became a spirit, likewise an anointed Christian will also give up his physical slave's form and take on a higher form and become a spirit.—Php 2:7-9

They Groan for a New Body

In what way do the anointed sense this spirit calling? Paul again answers: "All who are led by God's spirit are indeed God's sons. ... You received a spirit of adoption as sons, by which spirit we cry out: "Abba, Father!" The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are God's children. If, then, we are children, we are also heirs—heirs indeed of God, but joint heirs with Christ—...so that we may also be glorified together [in heaven]. ... Not only that, but we ourselves also who have the firstfruits, namely the spirit, yes, we ourselves groan within ourselves while we are earnestly waiting for adoption as sons, the release from our bodies by ransom."—Ro 8:14-23

Notice the deep groaning for release from the body that the anointed have. At 2 Corinthians 5:2 he says, "For in this house we do indeed groan, earnestly desiring to put on the one for us from heaven." Their groaning leads them to cry out with an impassioned plea to their heavenly Father to be with him where he is. When a reptile sloughs off its skin, it scrapes against every course surface to be free from its husk. Likewise also an insect liberating itself from its shell or a chic from its egg, works furiously to be freed from it and it calls out instinctually for its mother.

So you must scrutinize yourself and see if you discern the body of the Christ, that is, the adoption as a spirit son of God who will rule with Christ for the thousand years. (Rev 20:6) Scrutinizing requires brutal honesty, recognizing what the cause of your desire is. Is it coming from a deep groaning to be with your heavenly Father in heaven alongside Christ to rule as a king-priest, (Rev 5:9, 10) or is it merely the desire for maintaining familiar trappings of former religious training, or something more fleshly?

They Are Chosen As a Special Possession

John 1:13 and Heb 5:4-6 demonstrate that one does not choose to become an adopted son of God by partaking of the emblems, but God chooses them to be such and then they partake.

He does draw them. But this specifically is a choosing to be a priesthood for special possession. (1Pe 2:9) If there is a special possession, then there are those who are not, but are still possessions. The ones who are special possessions have been born again in spirit. They are born again because of God’s choosing of them. It is not because of their water baptism, but because of their spirit baptism from God. (John 3:3-8)

In your house, you have many possessions with which you would feel the loss if they are destroyed. But you also have things that have an even greater value which you take pains to secure. Those are your special possessions. You decide what your special possessions are. They do not choose for you. Likewise Jehovah is the one who chooses. You do not choose for him.

Be Careful, Be Sure

Therefore, if you are not certain whether you are anointed to be an adopted son, king and priest of God in heaven, then that is your answer. (1Co 4:8) The anointed are certain. Not out of ego, as a narcissist or any other psychological condition, nor because of a feeling, but out of a witness born to them through holy spirit within themselves.

Also, if your vision of your resurrection is waking up to green grass and paradisaic gardens and trees, your hope is not heavenly.

Only you can determine if you have the calling, but determine it you must in order to partake of the emblems if you do not want to be adversely judged by God.

Finally, if you can be judged for not discerning the body according to 1 Corinthians 11:27-29, then this is not the same judgment that we escape through faith in Jesus Christ. In fact, there is no place in the Scriptures that says that we will be judged if we do not partake of the emblems, but the above verses say that we will be judged if we do partake unworthily. Thus you can still be saved through faith in Jesus without partaking of the emblems.

Now if a person can be judged for partaking because of fleshly desire, ego or mere formality, how much more the person who partakes out of spite for the religion practicing it.

For more on this subject, see the articles The Spirit Bears Witness With Our Spirit and We Want to Go With You in the January, 2016 Study Edition of the Watchtower.

Comments

Dismythed said…
Johan:

I have removed the rudeness from your comment. English does not appear to be your first language, so the grammar and spelling adjustments in the following quotes are to help you, not mock you.

First, this site is not for convincing our opposers of anything. It is for helping our own brothers and interested ones to better understand the issues. There is little point in our addressing anyone opposed because an oppositional mindset will never listen to facts. I give someone like you a chance in case you are open to discussion as your final question seems to suggest.

"JW[s] refer to the body of Christ as the anointed ones who are the only ones may partake which they limit to a [number] 144 000. That is how one can be worthy. One does not [determine] being [a] part of the anointed (which they limit to a 144,000) as being part [of the] body of Christ."

Correct. That comes from 1 Corinthians 10:16, 17: "The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of the Christ? The loaf that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of the Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, although many, are one body, for we are all partaking of that one loaf." Thus it is only those who partake who are actually the body of Christ.

But as I explained in the post, partaking does not automatically make one part of Christ's body. It requires self-analysis according to 1 Corinthians 11: 27-31 as I explained in the main post.

"We all become the body as one when we [state] our faith in Jesus."

At Mt 19:23, 24 Jesus refers to the sever difficulty of getting into the kingdom. It is pretty easy to say "I have faith in Jesus". So which is true? To someone who was taught that faith is all that is needed, our teaching sounds very strange. But we rely on the Scriptures, not on what men tell us about the Scriptures. We are convinced through the holy writings and the direction of Jehovah's holy spirit, not through the words of men. (1 Corinthians 2:11-13)

You wrote: "Do you remember Jesus prayer 24 hours prior to the memororial?: '[O] Father, [I] pray that all those who come to believe in me through their word (apostles) so that they ALL MY BE [ONE]'--Jn 17. ,: 20-25"

This does not speak of "the body of Christ". It speaks of unity. The body is not even mentioned here. However, he does repeatedly mention having them (the apostles) with him where he is going (heaven). Since he is only talking about the apostles, this scripture fails to prove your point.

You wrote: "The qualifier to partake is not being part of an elite anointed class but to be a disciple."

You made this statement without supporting evidence. I looked up all mention of "disciple" and "disciples" and found nothing supporting your statement.

You wrote: "Now a question for you. Your religion limits the new covenant to [include only] 144,000, [thus] excluding the great [crowd] from the new covenant and therefore they don't partake. Now tell me: do you agree with the WT that the foreigner who lived in Israel foreshadowed the great crowd?"

You have it wrong. I am not sure where you got that idea. Insight on the Scriptures, vol. 1, p. 75, says that "alien residents" is the acceptance of gentile non-Jews into the covenant. It has nothing to do with the great crowd except that all Christians, Jews and non-Jews, are foreigners residing in the world because they are no part of the world.
Dismythed said…
To Unknown of Agust 11, 2022:

Apologies for the delay in response. It is the policy of Dismythed not to handle Bible questions here except as they affect the main subjects of concern on this site. Those subjects of concern are defensive in nature against myths about God, the Bible (in general), science and Jehovah's Witnesses (as a group).

Thank you.