In considering the circumstances of the Corinthian believers, we might be inclined to consider the infractions the apostle Paul reports as occurring at their congregational meals as a minor thing (I Corinthians 11). After all, offenses are bound to occur. Is that not just a part of life? But in Paul's mind, what was happening within that congregation was not an insignificant thing, which is why he writes in I Corinthians 11:29: "For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body."

Many Bibles' marginal references for this verse, as well as some interlinear Bibles, indicate that the translators have added the word "Lord's" to the text, assuming that Paul refers to Christ's human body. However, in the Greek text, the end of the verse simply reads "not discerning the body." The words "the body" can refer to several things that are not mutually exclusive. Paul could weave multiple threads through his writings, and at times, overlap them in profound ways.

First, remember that some members in Corinth were confused about whether the congregational meals were the Lord's Supper. By trying to observe the Lord's Supper or Passover on just any occasion, the significance of the bread and the wine becomes muddled through familiarity and sheer repetition. Hence, if any bread throughout the year symbolized Jesus Christ's crucified body, church members would take the Passover in an unworthy manner because they would not see His sacrifice as distinct and set apart. For the symbol to continue to be meaningful, people must distinguish between the unleavened bread eaten on Passover and common, daily bread.

Second, we can understand the phrase "not discerning the body" as a reference to the tortured, physical body of Jesus Christ. Thus, we participate in the Passover in an unworthy manner if we do not seriously and consciously acknowledge our sins, which made Christ's excruciating sacrifice necessary. He suffered crucifixion because of what we have done, and without consciousness of our sin and the wages—punishment—we have earned, His sacrifice loses its significance in our minds.

Third, "the body" can refer to the spiritual Body of believers, the church. As we saw in I Corinthians 10:16-17, what we partake of is what we become a part of. When we partake of the bread that symbolizes His body, we become a part of the spiritual Body of believers who are also "in Christ" and have the Father and the Son dwelling in them.

I Corinthians 10 contains the first mention of this spiritual Body, and the rest of the chapter and chapter 11 are all about things related to interactions within the Body. Then chapter 12 gives the most lengthy and specific explanation of the Body analogy in the Bible. After that, chapters 13 and 14 continue expounding on the theme of relationships and interactions within the Body, even though the Body is not directly mentioned. So, when Paul talks about the "the body" without defining exactly what he means, we must remember that it appears in the middle of a lengthy discourse on the spiritual Body.

In light of this third possibility, what does it mean to "discern" the body? The English word discern means "to separate or distinguish by the eye or by the understanding" or "to see the difference between two or more things." It can mean "to judge" or even "to be partial to." The Greek word in I Corinthians 11:29, diakrino, means essentially the same thing: "to make a separation or a distinction" or "to evaluate between two or more things, and become partial to one." It can mean "to differentiate" and "decide."

A clear example of diakrino appears in Acts 15:8-9: "So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction [diakrino] between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith" (emphasis ours). In his experience with the house of Cornelius, the apostle Peter declares that God did not make a diakrino, a discernment, between the Jews and the Gentiles. He gave the new Gentile believers the Holy Spirit just as He did Jewish believers. God does not discern or make a distinction between believers based on ethnicity. God's distinction or discernment concerns only whether they are believers. Since the Gentiles were believers, He acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit.

What I Corinthians 11:29 means, then, is that if we do not discern or make a correct distinction regarding the spiritual Body, we will partake of the Passover in an unworthy manner. The way that we "discern the Body" is to distinguish it in our minds from what is not part of the Body—the rest of humanity. It means to show partiality to the Body as a whole, rather than making distinctions within the Body. The Corinthians were making distinctions about people within the Body, and thus they highly esteemed some individuals among them and despised others.

Thus, Paul warns them that, when it came time to observe the Passover, they were in danger of eating and drinking judgment to themselves because they were not being partial to Christ's spiritual Body as a whole. Put another way, they were not treating all church members—all the brethren for whom Christ died—with the highest respect.

Part Three will show why "not discerning . . . the body" in this way brings judgment upon those guilty of this behavior.