Let a man examine himself

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. – 1 Corinthians 11v28

One thing that the church does not lack is fruit inspectors. We are all ready and willing to check out how everyone else is doing spiritually. We do have a responsibility to each other in helping deal with sin. However, in my experience we tend to be nit inspectors rather than fruit inspectors. If you have ever dealt with head lice you know exactly that I am talking about. You use a fine tooth comb and you examine very hair on the head. Finding nits is important, but the word of God makes it clear that we need to even deal with the nits of sin, but there is something that we had better be aware of first. This is nothing new; Jesus told the Pharisees that they needed to deal with the beam in their own eyes before the looked for the specks of dust in other’s eyes.

Apparently the Corinthians really had things messed up. The Lord’s Table had become a social club. Not only that, but it looks like it had become a time for nit-picking in the lives of others.

From the very start of the letter Paul had been addressing unity focused on the cross. When we start focusing on each other, our flaws and weaknesses we cannot focus on the cross. It is only when we look to the cross that and our lives in the shadow of the cross that we can truly examine ourselves.

The Lord’s Table provides a perfect opportunity to examine ourselves. As we remember the Lord’s death and we look at our own lives we see the terrible price He paid. We can’t see that when we are examining others.

Of course we should not need the Lord’s Table in order to examine ourselves, but it does provide a perfect time to do that. It is not just a church formality; it is not just an ordinance. It is the time to reflect on the cross and how our lives measure up to what He did for us.