Coupling this with (in the same book to the same audience) 1 Cor. 6:19-20 (AV) says:
"What? know ye not that your body is thea temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you,
which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit,
which are God's."
Many wrongly believe, and it is often erroneously preached, that this passage refers singularly merely to the individual person, but the Greek grammar does not permit this, since here "ye, you, your, yourselves" are all second person plural, referring to the entire group to which the letter is addressed; but "body" is singular in number. Therefore, the "body" is the corporate entity of the assembled "members" as seen in 1 Cor. 12:12-14 (AV):
"For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body,
being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles,
whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
For the body is not one member, but many."
But what happens if one member of the body defiles him/herself, fails to examine oneself under prompting of the Holy Spirit, has not confessed it to God and repented (1 Jn. 1:9), and becomes unworthy to partake of his/her portion of the Holy Commemorative Meal of Emblems of Jesus' Cross-death? He/she has not discerned the impact on the whole local Body of Christ, which also then is tarred with his/her defilement, as written in 1 Cor. 3:16-17 (AV):
"Know ye not that ye are thea temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy,
which temple ye are."
This person has not discerned the Body of Christ, the local ekklesia, and when he/she unworthily drinks into chastisement from God, subjects the whole church to the resultant sickness and weakness of souls and bodies of the other members, who are unawares as to why they are ill.
The perfect example of what can happen is portrayed by the sin of Achan in the olden days, for when he disobeyed in the accursed thing, the whole nation of Israel, the Body of God's People, was made to suffer, until they exercised discerment, exhortation, and church discipline. Read Joshua Chapter Seven to see how this illustrates the effect of lack of self-examination and discernment. In all, Achan brought death to his whole family (the local church), whose sin cannot have escaped their attention.
So let this be a lesson on what the verse 1 Corinthians 11:29-32 (AV):
"For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnationcorrective chastisement
to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemnedto hell
with the world."
So if you are going to keep on committing sinful behavior though the Holy Spirit has warned, and not repent, at least do not partake of the Remembrance Supper, for that would cause others in the church also to suffer for your disobedience, and perhaps not even know why it was you that hurt them. But if your waywardness becomes known, they need to exercise church discipline and shun you until you reform, even if only to protect themselves from the consequences of your participating in the Braking of Bread unworthily (1 Cor. 5:1-8, 2 Cor. 3:5-8).
This is the lesson of discernment of the Body; not that the Remembrance Supper is a event set apart and distinguished from a normal meal (which it should be); nor that the Elements of the Memorial should be portions reserved and only used for it (which they should be). These considerations do not require spiritual discernment--they are merely common respect for the Remembrance to make it unique. The discernment function is to deal with something less obvious to the casual eye: to self-examine and certify one's own worthiness of attitude and practice to avoid chastisement to oneself and others from correction from a provoked church or Heavenly Father (Heb 12:5-11).
ping to imardmd1’s Post #323 to Elsie
A certain saved member of a Corinthian assembly was having his own mother as his wife. Paul admonished the assembly to put that one out for satan's destruction of his body so that his soul might be saved. Such an one will stand before the Bema Seat IN HEAVEN, 'naked' having escaped the Judgment as if by fire.