TEWKESBURY. Will you explain 1 Corinthians 11:30, please? Is it bodily sickness that is meant, or spiritual sickness; and does it apply literally today?
IN this verse sickness and death of the body are alluded to, for the word “sleep,” here as elsewhere, means death. The previous verse tells us that to eat and drink the supper of the Lord in an unworthy manner brings upon us judgment from the Lord in the course of His governmental dealings with us. The form that judgment took with the Corinthians was sickness and even death. Had they but judged themselves, which would have at once led to the correction of the evil, they would not have been thus judged. But being judged they had to recognize it as a chastening from the Lord’s hand sent so that they might at once come under the divine dealings and not have their judgment postponed to the great day of reckoning that awaits the world.
It unquestionably applies today. The Lord still deals with us in chastisement if and when necessary. He may not send it in the form of sickness or death, but in other forms. That is as seems best to Him. Not all the sins of a Christian are “a sin unto death.” (1 John 5:16, 17). Nor is all chastisement that may come upon us necessarily in retribution for sins committed. Chastisement may be preventive (See 2 Cor. 12:7) or educational (See Heb. 12:5-9).
Happy is that believer who learns to habitually judge himself and who consequently walks in obedience and avoids the things that would call for the chastisement of the Lord.