Treating the divine as if it were common can be an easy, but extremely dangerous trap to fall into. In the chapter which deals with communion, 1 Cor. 11:17-34, Paul brings insight and gives a warning concerning this issue:
"But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning (to esteem, approve, prefer, determine, distinguish on account of) the Lord's body. For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged." 1 Cor. 11:28-31
The Lord's body is described within the communion that Paul was discussing in this chapter. His body spoken about here goes beyond the physical elements of the bread and wine, and instead envelopes the purpose of His coming-as the Son of God, His body broken for us, receiving the punishment that we deserve, overcoming death for us in order to create a new, resurrection body for us, and His blood covering and satisfying the lawful judgment of the Old Covenant, and creating the New Covenant. This New Covenant defeats the power of death from our sin, and provides eternal life in His righteousness. When we participate in this communion with Him, we are remembering His accomplishment for us, and in us, until He comes again. Paul tells us that every time we participate in communion, we "shew" (declare, teach, preach, proclaim publicly, root: "as an angel") that the Lord has victoriously completed His work of salvation for all (v. 24-26). A modern English form of the word, "shew" is proclaim, meaning "to publicly or officially announce, especially when dealing with a matter of great importance". Yet, there were those in the church at that time who treated the communion elements as if they were just a meal. Paul said, that when we do not discern what Christ was providing for us when He ordained the communion, we reduce the divine purpose from heaven which has been given to us, into something common. As a result, many became sick and slept, or died (v. 30).
In leaving us the instruction for communion, I don't think that Jesus' purpose was to institute a legalism, but to provide a way to continually announce and offer His salvation to the world.
I would like to take this precept of divine provision, and consider it in regard to other issues we may face in the body of Christ.
Paul goes on to describe in the next chapter, the Lord's body, that He created from His own:
"For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ....For in fact, the body is not one member, but many...But now, God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased...But God has composed the body...that there should be no schism (division, dissension, rt: to break, to cleave, to split into factions) in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another...Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually."
1 Cor. 12:12-27(excerpt)
We do not place ourselves in the body, but God has done this. He specifically does this in order to prevent division, dissension, and the splitting into factions. Uh-Oh!! That's exactly what the church has become: divided, dissenting, and split into thousands of factions. So what happened? I think we took something divinely created and appointed, and exerted our own will over it, reducing it to the common.
This divinely appointed body has a head, for what good would a body be without a head?!
"And He (Christ) is the head of the body, the church..." Col. 1:18.
And, "...grow up in all things into Him who is the head-Christ-from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." Eph. 4:15-16
From these scriptures, we can conclude that while we are the body of Christ, the head of this body is Christ, Himself. Again, with Christ as the head, every part of the body is in its correct place, supplying the whole body, and growing. Uh-Oh!! What happened again? Could it be that we have replaced Christ's headship with our own, thereby replacing the divine with the common, again?
As the head, "...He Himself gave (furnished, appointed, endued, entrusted, committed, given to someone to care for his interests) some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping (perfecting) of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;" Eph. 4:11-13
We are members of the body, set in our places in that body by God, with Christ as the head, who has appointed certain ones to develop us to a specific end. Have we accepted those whom Christ has divinely appointed over us, or have we rejected them in order to exercise our own choice in the matter?. These appointments are His divine provision for us that will produce unity, and spiritual growth into knowledge, perfection and Christ's fullness.
When we do not recognize these things in that manner, we do not receive the benefit of the provision, and we suffer for it. These appointments concerning the body are not a matter of chance, nor choice, but by divine ordination and decree. We have a King/Lord/Head in Christ, and a heavenly Father, who make those determinations regarding us, and gift us accordingly by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:11). If we fail to discern the divine source and connection to how, where, and under whom we have been placed in the body by God and Christ, instead thinking we can decide these things for ourselves, we reduce the divine to the common, as the Corinthian church did in the matter of communion. In this case, the ordination of the Father and the headship of the Son over the church is replaced by the realm of man's will and determination. Again, as with the communion issue, I don't think the Father's purpose, and the structure created by Christ, was to institute a legalistic demand upon us, but to provide a divine benefit for the church, the body of Christ, and each individual member thereof. At the same time, a divinely driven church would fulfill God's plan for the church-the ministry of reconciliation between God and man, by being the Body of Christ in the earth.
If we refuse Christ's Lordship over His body, including our assigned place and part of the body, we reject His and His Father's provision for us. This can bring harm to ourselves, and certainly to the church. This requires serious self-examination and prayer, regarding our views of Christ, His body, and our presence and position in that body. If we judge ourselves in this matter, we will not be judged (1 Cor. 11:31).
Not discerning the Lord's body, according to Paul's words, is very dangerous. It is a trap set by the enemy, and approved by our own flesh, in which we can so easily be snared if we are not careful.
Our Father has placed us in the body, with Christ as its Head.
"The Doxology"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQUTvMtUhw4
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