What does it mean to take communion in an unworthy manner?

from the old testament

• Taking communion in an unworthy manner is not discussed in the Old Testament. However, God cares how we approach what is holy. Moments like Leviticus 10:1–3 (Nadab and Abihu offering unauthorized fire) show that treating God’s holy ordinances carelessly or on our own terms is serious—worship must align with His instruction, not our preferences.
• In Isaiah 1:11–17 and Amos 5:21–24, God condemns worship that looks correct outwardly but is disconnected from justice, righteousness, and obedience—showing that participation alone doesn’t equal true worship.
• The Passover (Exodus 12) was a communal meal that identified God’s people as one under His salvation, much like communion; to treat it lightly or disregard its meaning would be to misunderstand God’s deliverance.
• Accounts like Uzzah touching the ark (2 Samuel 6:6–7) reinforce that mishandling what represents God’s presence is not trivial—there is weight and accountability in how we approach Him.

from the new testament

• The passage about taking communion in an unworthy manner is found in 1 Corinthians 11:27–29. It reads, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.”
• Understanding what Paul meant requires looking at what led up to this statement. The main context is that of 1 Corinthians 11:18–22. There, Paul was addressing a cliquish attitude in the church, saying that “when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you” (1 Corinthians 11:18). He then gave a specific example, that of the Lord’s Supper, saying, “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk” (1 Corinthians 11:20).
• Apparently, the wealthier members of the church were coming to the Lord’s Supper with a lot of food, whereas the poor members didn’t have any at all. Some, Paul said, were getting drunk, referring to them engorging themselves to extreme excess, while others sat to the side, hungry. Speaking to the wealthy, Paul angrily said, “Do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?” (1 Corinthians 11:22).
• In Paul’s mind, this was a clear violation of the point of the Lord’s Supper. He reminded them why Jesus gave it in the first place (1 Corinthians 11:23–26). When Jesus instituted that meal, it was a meal of unity to remember what Christ had done, the bread symbolizing His broken body and the wine His blood (1 Corinthians 11:24–25). The point of the Supper was that “as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26).
• Communion proclaims that all believers are equally saved through Jesus’ death and united as one as they await His return (1 Corinthians 11:23–26). But when the Corinthians created divisions—especially between rich and poor—they turned a symbol of unity into a display of inequality (1 Corinthians 11:18–22). In doing so, they took communion in an unworthy manner, misrepresenting Christ’s sacrifice and becoming guilty of distorting its meaning (1 Corinthians 11:27).
  
• Such a display of disunity in the meal that was all about unity in Christ greatly displeased God. He then explained: “That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died” (1 Corinthians 11:30). However, to be clear, Paul was not saying that they were unbelievers being judged, but feeling God’s discipline (1 Corinthians 11:32), something reserved for believers (Hebrews 12:6–7).
• This passage is often taught to mean that the believer is to perform a self-examination before taking communion to ensure that he or she is either not harboring sin or has nothing against another believer (Matthew 5:23–24). This is often based on 1 Corinthians 11:28, which starts, “Let a person examine himself ….” Indeed, Paul did warn believers to examine themselves in another letter (2 Corinthians 13:5), and Scripture elsewhere teaches us to repent of our sin (1 John 1:9). However, contextually, “examine” refers back to “unworthy manner” which refers to taking communion in such a way as to obscure or change the purpose of the Lord’s Supper, a meal about unity in Christ.

implications for today

Believers are unified into one body, the body of Christ. Before being saved, we were all equally guilty of sin. When we were saved, we were equally saved from the penalty of that sin through Jesus’ atoning work on the cross. It is because of this equality in Jesus that the biblical authors could make statements such as, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). They were not saying that our differences no longer mattered but that our differences did not define our relationship to Christ or other believers. This is because we were saved based on who Christ is and not on who we are.

The church, as a whole, is to be a working display of that unity. Paul spoke of us as different members working together to serve one another (1 Corinthians 12:12–14), while Peter referred to believers as stones in a building, fitted together (1 Peter 2:5). Communion is to be a celebration of that unity. It is a local church coming together to proclaim with one voice that Jesus is their Savior.

As believers, we must strive to maintain the unity that God made possible for us. Celebrating unity in communion while remaining stubbornly disunified in other areas is a challenge to the gospel. Paul warned believers in his day that dividing along lines of rich and poor showed they viewed communion as a meal of partiality rather than as a meal of unity. We are also warned to ensure that when we take communion, the unity we proclaim at the table is being lived out in the rest of our Christian life!