"For this cause many
among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep" (1
Corinthians 11:30).
In the above words the Apostle
gives the note he has made after holding a spiritual clinic in
relation to the sicknesses and debilities among the Corinthian
believers. Indeed, he goes beyond that and gives the reason for
the death of "not a few." Evidently things were pretty
bad there as to the physical. Incidentally, and yet as a striking
part of the whole, it is impressive that so much physical
sickness and - apparently - unnecessary death should be amongst
those who were said to "come behind in no gift,"
including the gift of healing (1:7; 12:9).
Now let us clear this ground by
saying emphatically that there was a definite reason for this
condition, and evidently one which was based upon a state of
things which should have been known to be wrong. That just means
two things.
One - all sickness,
ailment, and death is not due to specific sin on the
part of the one afflicted. This surely goes without saying, but
we say it strongly lest any sufferer should take on condemnation
unnecessarily. There are many sufferers "in the will of
God."
The other thing is that there
must have been a knowledge which put these believers into the
category of those who knew better and were not sinning in
ignorance. It would indeed be a grievous thing if the Divine
counsels decided that such a definite pronouncement should be
made where people were totally ignorant of their sin and wrong
doing.
The whole tone of this letter
shows that the state of things was one which called for stern
words and not soft advice.
That brings us right up to the
very point of this particular word. There is a principle which we
want to indicate. The actual nature of "not discerning the
body" is not the object of our enquiry. The principle is
this:-
If any one or any body of the
Lord's people should have come to know of Divine truth in general
or particular, and should have definitely or ostensibly stood
with it, they have come into touch, not with abstract doctrine,
but with the Living God, and with that which involves Him. The
effect must be either positively unto life or death. They can
never remain as they were before; sooner or later there will be
an issue. Should that Divine truth have come their way, or they
have come its way, in something more than a mere tradition, that
is, by a real first-hand work of the Holy Spirit, the issues will
be the more immediate and positive. Should such a people - as in
this basic instance at Corinth - know by a Holy Spirit ministry
the truth of:
a) The essential vital oneness
of believers with a crucified and risen Christ - implying their
own death to the self-life, and resurrection to live
"henceforth unto him" - and then bring their old nature
life positively into the new realm, they must meet the impact of
the death-dealing blow of the Cross.
Or should they know the truth
of:
b) The essential oneness and
relatedness of all believers as "one loaf, one body,"
and then act in any way which definitely violates that
relatedness, such must suffer the consequences of getting away
from the "covering" and safeguarding which - in some
undefined, but very real way - is bound up with spiritual
corporateness. There it is, and if we understood the laws and
workings of the protective values of our physical bodies, and
realised how a disturbed relatedness in function leads to
suffering and death - unless put right - we should know that God
has constituted the whole physical universe upon spiritual
principles. Further, we should realise that the term "Body"
as to the Church is no mere metaphor, but something very real.
It is just not possible to
accept any Divine revelation without being involved in its
principles, and suffering if those principles are violated. So
the Apostle says "For this cause," i.e. the reason is
this. You cannot profess that Christ is Lord, and then be your
own Lord. You cannot be a member of a family and ignore the
family and be as though you were the family. You cannot be
a member of a body and then make your own plans and carry out
your own arrangements without regard to laws of relatedness. This
carries its own laws of retribution, but there is the Holy Spirit
to be reckoned with and taken into account. We may slip up and
default and the corrections of the Lord be gentle, but the matter
of responsibility is one that varies according to opportunity,
privilege, and position.