St. Paul speaks of the body of Christ in 1 Cor 11:23-30 in the same way Christ himself spoke of it: as His literal body, not the Christian assembly.
“St. Paul speaks of the body of Christ in 1 Cor 11:23-30 in the same way Christ himself spoke of it: as His literal body, not the Christian assembly.
Paul’s argument about treatment of individual believers in the local Body of Christ is buttressed by presenting what Christ told Paul - that the sacrifice must be received in a worthy state. He uses the description of judging yourself (examining) before receiving Christ’s body by judging your relationships with other believers. This is what “discerning” means in Greek.
Paul uses this description of self-judgement, especially our treatment of other believers, as a sub-point in the broader instructions before and after this sub-point. It is the central idea of this complete unit of thought. This is seen in the Greek sentence structure, the context of the entire unit of thought, the juxtaposition of His physical Body and His spiritual Body of believers, and in the Greek words for judging, discerning, etc. your relationships with those fellow believers.
Paul’s point is that you cannot receive Christ’s Last Supper elements worthily unless you are in a right relationship with Christ’s Body of believers.