employed. Judgment must either take place here and now, or it must take place before

the Bema. If here and now, it may go so deep as to involve "the destruction of the flesh",

but the spirit will be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. So, if any believer partook of the

Lord's supper "unworthily", he ate "damnation to himself", and this damnation was

immediate "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep"

(I Cor. 11: 29-30).  Consequently, the Apostle admonishes the believer to "examine

himself" and so let him eat that bread and drink that cup. Present judgment is set over

against condemnation, the "we" who are chastened, set over against the "world" that shall

be condemned.

A word or two upon the key words of I Cor. 11: 31, 32 is called for.

"If we judge ourselves, we should not be judged."  The two words here

translated "judge" are not identical. The first word is in the Greek diakrino "to discern"

(Matt. 16: 3), and is so translated in I Cor. 11: 29 "Not discerning the Lord's body".

Perhaps "discriminate" covers most of the passages where this word is used. "Who

maketh thee to differ?" (I Cor. 4: 7) shows this clearly. The second word translated

"judge" in verse 31, and again in verse 32 is krino, which in the noun form krima is

translated "damnation" in verse 29, "condemnation" in verse 34. This word krino is used

in chapter 5: 13 for the judgment of them which are without, and of "going to law"

(6: 6).

The condemnation of the world is put over against the chastening of the believer by

the Lord. Those who are "In Christ Jesus" can never come into the condemnation

(Rom. 8: 1). While the believer can never share this condemnation with the unforgiven

and unjustified world, he can and does experience "chastening" which touches him in

body and estate. Chastening is the act of a Father, condemnation is the sentence of a

Judge.  Heb. 12: will be examined presently, in which this relationship of true son,

father, and chastening is more fully developed, but before we turn to that chapter, there

are other passages in  I Corinthians  itself that bear upon our theme that must be

We have observed that in  I Cor. 5: and 11:,  there are references to a present

"chastening" as over against a future "condemnation", and must now supplement this

examination by the consideration of an earlier and perhaps key reference found in

chapter 3: This chapter of I Corinthians is a part of the larger portion contained in

1: 10 - 4: 21, introduced by the words "It hath been declared unto me" and the chief

failure of these Corinthians dealt with in this opening section was their carnality

expressed, not here, as in chapter 6: by gross immorality, but by their tendency to

division and faction. They ranged themselves as opposing sections under the leadership

of "Paul" and "Apollos" and thereby revealed their spiritual immaturity, the consequence

being that the damage done to the faith exposed them to severe censure here and now, as

well as before the Lord in that day. In chapter 3:, the Apostle reverts to these divisions