But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
Paul is still writing to the church in Corinth about how they're mishandling the Lord's Supper — the shared meal of bread and wine that remembers Jesus's death. After warning them about the danger of participating carelessly, he gives this direct instruction: look inward first. The word he uses for "examine" carries the sense of testing something for quality — the way a craftsman checks a joint before trusting it to hold weight. This isn't a checklist to complete before you're allowed to participate; it's a call to self-awareness rather than self-deception. The point isn't that you must be spiritually spotless, but that you must be genuinely honest — about where you are with God, with others, and with what the table actually means.
God, give me the courage to look honestly at myself — not with shame, but with open hands. Before I come to your table, help me arrive as I actually am, not as I wish I were. Make my self-examination a doorway into your presence, not a barrier. Amen.
We live in a world of constant external feedback — ratings, reviews, performance dashboards — but almost no one teaches us to look honestly inward. Paul's word "examine" is the same used in ancient times to test metal for purity, to determine whether what looks like gold actually is. He isn't asking you to grade yourself on a spiritual rubric before you're allowed to sit down. He's asking something stranger and harder: to simply be honest with yourself. Are you carrying unresolved anger toward someone in that same room? Are you showing up because you mean it, or because it's what you do on Sundays? The examination isn't designed to disqualify you. It's designed to wake you up. Self-examination is a lost art — not the anxious kind, the endless loop of am-I-good-enough, but the clear-eyed kind where you sit quietly and ask: what's actually true about me right now? Before the bread reaches you, that's an invitation to bring the real version of yourself: the tired one, the resentful one, the one who almost didn't come today. God doesn't need your polished presentation. He already sees past it. The examination isn't a checkpoint. It's the beginning of an honest conversation.
What specifically do you think Paul wants a person to examine in themselves before taking communion? Is there a practical list, or is it more open-ended than that?
What does self-examination look like for you in practice — not just at communion, but in your daily faith life? What does it feel like when you skip it?
Is it possible that fear of self-examination actually stunts spiritual growth? What makes honest self-reflection feel so uncomfortable or even threatening?
How does your level of self-awareness affect the way you treat the people around you — at church, at home, or at work?
Before a significant moment of prayer or worship this week, what would it look like to take 60 seconds for honest self-examination? What is one thing you might need to bring to the surface?
Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
1 John 3:21
For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
1 John 3:20
Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
Lamentations 3:40
And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
1 Corinthians 11:24
Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates ?
2 Corinthians 13:5
But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.
Galatians 6:4
Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
Matthew 5:23
Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
Matthew 5:24
But a person must [prayerfully] examine himself [and his relationship to Christ], and only when he has done so should he eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
AMP
Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
ESV
But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
NASB
A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.
NIV
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
NKJV
That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup.
NLT
Examine your motives, test your heart, come to this meal in holy awe.
MSG