Barclay: the discernment we need

Monday, September 10, 2018
Meditation:
    Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.
    —1 Corinthians 11:28-29 (RSV)
Quotation:
    Division has always been a disease of the church... The Love Feast, which should have been the sign and symbol of perfect unity, has become a thing of divisions and class distinctions. And here there is something which only the newer translations reveal. In the older translations, it is said that to eat and drink at the sacrament without discerning the Lord’s body is the way to judgment and not to salvation. But in the best Greek text, the word Lord’s is not included. The sin is not to discern the body; that is to say, not to discern that the church is a body, not to be aware of the oneness of the church, not to be aware of the togetherness in which all its members should be joined.
    ... William Barclay (1907-1978), Ethics in a Permissive Society, New York: Harper & Row, 1971, Fontana, 1971, p. 59 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 11:28-29,31; Ps. 26:2-3; Lam. 3:40; Hag. 1:5,7; John 17:22-23; 2 Cor. 13;5; Gal. 6:4; 1 John 3:19-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Show us our unity, Lord, in Your body and blood. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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