Why many believers are sick and weak, and several have died

Believer, God wants us to be in good health. See this reflected in John's prayer in 3 John 2: "Dear friend, I pray that you may prosper in every way and be in good health physically just as you are spiritually."

Christ Himself bore the stripes for our healing. Isaiah 53:4 says of Him- "Surely our sicknesses He hath borne, And our pains -- He hath carried them,..." But many among us today are not walking in good physical health that Christ paid for us to have. In fact, church crusades and revivals are bursting with Christians who are searching desperately for the healing that Christ suffered for us to have.

Plus, our Saviour says in Mark 16:17-18: "These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in My name, and they will speak in new languages.18 They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.19 When the Lord Jesus had finished talking with them, He was taken up into heaven and sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 20 And the disciples went everywhere and preached, and the Lord worked through them, confirming what they said by many miraculous signs."

Notice "These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe:"? That's you and I who believe in our Saviour Jesus Christ. You and I in Christ get to place our hands on the sick and they will be healed. These "miraculous signs" are meant for unbelievers to see/experience and thus believe. Christ does them through you and I who believe to confirm the message that we believe and preach. Notice no human effort is involved. Neither Jesus nor His apostles ever told anyone to go and fast or sow a mighty seed in order to receive God's freely-given healing in Christ.

But many believers are held captive by sickness and disease that Christ suffered to free us from. How come? Believer, in God's word is the singular reason why many Christians are weak, sick and why many die. See 1 Corinthians 11:30-

"For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep."

See the Good News Translation: "That is why many of you are sick and weak, and several have died."

Only one reason and we find it in the verses preceding the above verse- 1 Corinthians 11:27-30-

"27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep."

This is the singular reason why "many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep": partaking of the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner aka not discerning the Lord’s body while partaking of the Holy Communion.

Many false doctrine preachers twist the “unworthy manner" part and and actively tell you that you can't partake of the Holy Communion if you have sinned, but nothing could be further from the truth! "Unworthy" here is not referring to the "sinlessness" of person who is partaking. It is referring to the manner in which one partakes: "not discerning the Lord's body." This is what determines our eligibility to partake- Romans 5:9-

“And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

In Christ, God sees us as righteous (without sin) because Christ died for our sins. In Christ, our right-standing before God is a settled issue. To us, He is “The Lord our Righteousness.” Christ died for unworthy people, not people who can be righteous or guilt-free on their own. We who believe are all unworthy of ourselves. If being sinless at the point of partaking was a criteria for partaking, no human would ever qualify to partake, not even the one dishing out the communion elements, because "all have sinned." There is none righteous.

Our right-standing before God is as a result of His gift of righteousness to us in Christ and not because we obeyed the law or confessed acts of sin in order to be forgiven and thus get re-righted with God so that we can be eligible to partake in the Lord's Supper.

Forgiveness of our sins is a product of Christ's crucifixion and not anything that we do by human effort, much less confessing each sin in order to get right with God so that we can be eligible to partake. See Romans 4:25—

“Jesus was handed over to be crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and was raised back to life to prove that He had made us right with God!”

All of our sins are forgiven forever because of our Lord Jesus Christ’s single sacrifice for sins for us (Hebrews 10:12.) His resurrection is the divine evidence of our everlasting righteousness in Him. Believing this is what it means to believe in Jesus. Recall 1 Corinthians 11:26-

"For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.”

Whenever we partake of Him, we are proclaiming His death through which we have forgiveness of sins. Confessing sins in order to be forgiven and re-righted with God and in order be eligible to partake of the Holy Communion is to say that Christ’s death did not accomplish forgiveness of sins for the believer. This is the opposite of proclaiming His death. This is what it means to eat in an unworthy manner. This is unbelief. Only believe, and this we do by grace.

See the MSG version of the often misunderstood 1 Corinthians 11-

"27-28 Anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Master irreverently is like part of the crowd that jeered and spit on Him at His death. Is that the kind of “remembrance” you want to be part of? Examine your motives, test your heart, come to this meal in holy awe. 29-32 If you give no thought (or worse, don’t care) about the broken body of the Master when you eat and drink, you’re running the risk of serious consequences. That’s why so many of you even now are listless and sick, and others have gone to an early grave.”

Nothing here about acts of sin. Christ came to save us from our sins. Titus 2:14 says of Him- "He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

Our being sin-free and clean is dependent on Him. We can do nothing without Him. The “That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup” in verse 28 refers to making sure that we eat and drink with reverence and understanding. The 'unworthily" refers to the manner of partaking - PARTAKING WITHOUT REGARD OR REVERENCE FOR THE LORD'S BODY - and not the sinlessness or worthiness of the partaker.

Christ's body was broken for us to make us whole. His blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins. We proclaim His death whenever we partake: "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.” The one who is not partaking because he has sins in his life is saying that Christ did not die for his sins and denies himself the life-giving power of the Holy Communion.

Those who partake because they think that they are eligible because they made themselves sin-free and so are "worthy" also eat and drink judgment to themselves as they do not believe that all of their lifetime of sins have been paid by Christ as it is written in Hebrews 10:12:

“But our High Priest offered Himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then His sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.”

This unbelief is why many who profess Christ "even now are listless and sick, and others have gone to an early grave.” The Holy Communion is for imperfect people whose perfection is found in Christ, not people who see themselves as sinless by human effort (righteous by self aka self-righteousness.)

Trying to be right with God by human effort at obedience before partaking of the Holy Communion is a testament to the rejection of the right-standing with God that Christ died that we might have. If getting our sin act together by ourselves was a prerequisite for partaking of Christ’s body and His blood, the very best of us would fail to qualify to partake every single time, because "If You kept a record of our sins, who could escape being condemned?" Psalm 130:3. This is how we are made righteous in the sight of God:

“And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God." Romans 5:9.

Partaking in an unworthy manner is not a matter of whether one has sinned or not. No one is sin-free by human effort, even human effort at confessing sins to be forgiven or to get right with God in order to partake. Jesus took care of that for believers according to Romans 4:25– “Jesus was handed over to be crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and was raised back to life to prove that He had made us right with God!”

If one is trying to confess acts of sin in order to be forgiven and in a bid to get re-righteous before God and eligible to partake in the Lord's Supper, that one denies the death and ressurection of Christ. This is unbelief.

It is the manner in which some believers partake that is unworthy: by "not discerning the Lord's body.” For example, not making a difference between His body that was broken for us (healing us of our sicknesses and pains) and His blood that was shed for us (by which all of our sins are forgiven and we are made righteous in Him;) In essence, by partaking without regard, acknowledgement or reverence for His body that was broken for us and His blood that was shed for us.

Many people eat and drink to "see if it will work." Some just eat and drink giving no thought to what Communion with Christ is all about as explained by Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:23–26. Others believe that they will fall sick if they partake with sin in their lives and so stay away and miss out on its life-giving power- the power to make them whole!

Each time we deny ourselves of this wonderful blessing because of some 'holy' individual that forces us to be sin-conscious, we put ourselves in the precarious position of those that Jesus spoke about in John 6:53 - those with no life in them-

"Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you."

Believer in Christ, partake in our Lord's Supper often, discerning our Lord's body. Do it as often as you can. In church. With your believer friends. In the privacy of your kitchen. With your family. Alone. Everyday. Five times a day. As often as the Spirit enables you to! By yourself. Anytime the Spirit leads you to.

Are you sick? Are you trying hard to KICK a bad habit and score a goal of victory over it? Did you think about it just before the call to partake of Christ’s body and His blood? Partake, knowing that His finished work has made you completely righteous and whole, including your heart and mind where bad thoughts are processed!

By God’s grace, don’t be robbed of this wonderful blessing of Holy Communion that our Saviour has blessed us with by those who say you have to be "sinless" or “worthy” before you partake. In Christ, the Lord Himself is our Righteousness. If our right-standing with God depended on us, like the rich young ruler that asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, there will always be “One thing you lack.” They are robbing you of the life-giving power of the Bread of Life. Partake as often as He gives you grace to!

Through Adam's disobedience, the world has been condemned to be sinful, sick, stressed, depressed, and unpeaceful; a downward spiral to death. The Communion — Christ Himself- is the Way out. Christ paid the price for our freedom from these things. Each time we deny ourselves of this wonderful blessing of Communion with Him because of some 'holy' individual that forces us to be sin-conscious, we put ourselves in the precarious position of those that Jesus spoke about in John 6:53 - those with no life in them-

53 "Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you."

Believe Right and you will Live Right.