Coming Together for the Good

The Context of Corporate Worship in 1 Corinthians 11–14

Take out your Bibles with me and open them to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. We're going to be looking at verses 17 to 34. Might be better if I turn that on. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 17. But then the following instructions I do not commend you.

Because when you come together, it is not for the better, but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part.

For there must be factions among you, in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal.

One goes hungry and another gets drunk. What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this?

No, I will not. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then. And so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judge ourselves truly, we would not be judged.

But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home.

So that when you come together, it will not be for judgment. About the other things, I will give directions when I come. Father of mercies and of all glory, we come to you in Jesus' name. And Father, as we look to open this text together and to look at the wondrous truths that are contained within it, I pray as I always do, Father, that you would keep me from error.

For Lord, I know of my own fallibility. I know of my own failures. I know of my own weaknesses. And Lord, I don't want to bring them into the text. But I pray, Lord, that you would protect me from that and protect your people.

For the sake of their conscience, for the sake of your name, for the sake of my own heart. God, keep me from error. And Father, as we go to this text today and we look at the wondrous truths of it and the amazing amount of impropriety which was happening in the Corinthian church.

Lord, may we not allow such impropriety among us. May we not let the devil have his hand among us. May we not give the devil a foothold to stand upon in our church. To cause these types of divisions which are ungodly, irrational and unloving.

Father, may we be united in the person of Jesus Christ and in his ministry. And it's in his name we pray. Amen. We have arrived at a text which contains one of the most well-known sections of the New Testament.

In fact, if you have been a believer for any length of time, you have probably experienced the Lord's Supper and heard someone read the portion of text that I just read to you. At least a portion of it.

Verses 23 to 26 are some of the most common words read at the institution of the table. And a lot of people have them memorized because they've heard them so many times. I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that on the night that he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread and broke it and so on.

We're familiar with that text because of how common it is. It's interesting too that that particular section represents what would be the oldest written account of that event. First Corinthians was written before Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.

So in the scheme of writing, even though in the narrative it comes later, it was written earlier. So this is the first written account of the words of Jesus on the night that he was betrayed. And there are two things that I want us to consider regarding the context before we ever even get into the text itself.

The first thing is this. Chapter 11 through chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians is in a specific context where Paul is addressing the subject of corporate worship. You understand, he's talking about what we're doing right now.

We have gathered together today as the corporate body of Christ to worship together in communion with one another. We are in union with one another. That's why we are here. And in chapter 11 through chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians, it's all about this.

He talks about the distinction of men and women. He talks about communion. He talks about spiritual gifts. He talks about the priority of love. He talks about the misuse of gifts and how people ought not be doing things in church and how things ought to be done decently and in order in the church.

And that's all 1 Corinthians chapter 11 through 14 is focused on, the priority of corporate worship and the propriety of corporate worship. How is it to be done? So that's the first step when we think about the context.

What's the context of this? The context is corporate worship. But then also, I want you to notice, if you open your Bibles to chapter 11, look at where we just looked at, verse 17, where he says, I commend you.

Rather, he says, I do not commend you in verse 17. If you go back to verse 2, he says, I commend you. So what we have there, I mentioned this last week, is bookends. Paul says in the beginning of 1 Corinthians chapter 11, I commend you that you have remembered me and that you've kept the traditions that I taught you.

But then in verse 17, he says, but in this, I do not commend you. So he's changing his attitude. He's changing his point here. He's gone from giving a commendation to a condemnation. Wherefore, I'm going to tell you what you've done well.

Now I'm going to tell you what you're doing wrong. As a result, what we need to understand is verses 17 to 34 is corrective in nature. It is corrective in nature. The Corinthians have done wrong, they are doing wrong, and Paul is coming to them with a stern criticism and an important warning.

I have learned over the years, and I am not immune from this, but I have learned over the years that people do not like to be corrected. I didn't hear many amens, so maybe it was the grunts of, well, maybe he's talking about me.

Well, people have an allergy to correction. Who are you to criticize me? Why do you have to be so judgmental? I've heard that more times than I can count. Common attitudes in the church. Nobody wants correction.

And yet the Bible says that correction and rebuke is one of the most loving things that we can do for a brother or sister in Christ. Proverbs 27 says, Better is an open rebuke than a secret love, and faithful are the wounds of a friend, but profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

Your enemy comes up and he kisses on you, and he pretends to be your friend, and he pretends to love you, but the faithful friend will tell you like it is. And even if it hurts, he'll be honest with you.

Proverbs 28, Whoever rebukes a man will afterward find favor, more favor than he who flatters with a tongue. I can always tell when somebody's flattering me. Not that I get it that often, but every once in a while.

People will flatter me, and I hate it because I can tell when it's happening. I can tell they're either trying to gain status in my life or they're trying to gain status maybe here at the church or maybe in some other area of my life where I have some position of leadership and someone's trying to get that.

And I can always tell because they never have a negative thing to say. It's always just, right? Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss. But that's, is it profuse are the kisses of the enemy, but faithful are the wounds of a friend, right?

Psalm 141 says this, Let a righteous man strike me. It is a kindness. Let him rebuke me. It is oil for my head. A rebuke can be oil for our head, right? Now I say all this, you say, why are you talking about this, Pastor?

Because this is what Paul is doing. Paul is attempting to apply oil to the head of the Corinthians in the form of a rebuke. He's attempting to apply to them what they need to hear because you aren't even going to believe what they're doing.

Some of you who've never studied this passage, this whole section is amazing. And when we get to what's actually happening here, you're going to be amazed at what's being allowed to happen within the Corinthian church.

And Paul is providing for them a rebuke. This ought not be. And remember this, Paul is not doing this in anger. He's not doing this out of spite. He's doing this out of fatherly love. You know what the Bible says about fathers who don't discipline their children?

It says they hate their children. It says a father who doesn't discipline his children does not love his child. I've often heard people say, well, I love my child too much to get on to them. No, you don't love them enough.

You love yourself too much to get on to them. Same thing with Paul. Paul's not their father, but in spiritual matters, he is their authority. He's their leader. He's the apostle. And he's giving them words of rebuke.

And my hope is this. This is my hope for today's message. One is that it doesn't go two hours, but that's a secondary hope. But my primary hope, because I got a lot to say, but my primary hope is that by hearing the corrective words of Paul to the Corinthians, that we too might have our own hearts corrected in any way in which we have erred, not only in the Lord's table, but in all aspects of fellowship and corporate worship.

Because that's the point. The church has come together, Paul says, not for the better, but for the worst. The title of today's sermon is, we need to come together for the better. Always, never for the worse.

Divisions in the Church and the Repetition of “When You Come Together”

All right, so let's go to verse 17, and we'll begin to go down. We're gonna look at the first four verses as a whole. He says in verse 17, but in the following instructions, I do not commend you, because when you come together, it is not for the better, but for the worst.

For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear together there are divisions among you, and I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.

When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. Notice the repetitious phrase. And I've taught this before. If you've ever sat in, I teach how to study the Bible and teach hermeneutics.

I say, one of the things you always look for when you're doing a Bible study of a passage, look for the repetitive phrase, right? Anytime you see a repetition of words or a repetitive phrase in a particular section, that lets you know there's a focus on that point that you need to key in on.

And the repetitive phrase that's here is the phrase, when you come together. It's in verse 17, when you come together. Verse 18, when you come together as a church. It's in verse 20, when you come together.

Then later, it's in verse 33 and 34, when you come together to eat, and when you come together, it will not be for judgment. That phrase is five times in just this short section of text. So this tells us the coming together is the focus.

And notice in verse 18, Paul adds the word church, when you come together as the church. And by the way, the church, you've heard me say it a thousand times, it's not the building. And I've heard people say, you don't go to church, you are the church.

Well, kind of. That's true. But let me correct that too. Because I've heard people say, well, I am the church. I don't go to church. No, the church is assembly. You are not the church by yourself. We are the church in assembly.

Because that's what the word ekklesia means. So, no, it means the called out ones. Ekklesia does mean called out or the called out ones. But televizio means far seeing. Tele means far, vizio means to see.

But we know the television has a word meaning that means different than far seeing, right? That's etymology. That's not how you do understanding of words, right? So ekklesia doesn't just mean the ones who are called out.

It means the assembly of those who are called out. That's the point. In fact, I get into a way different subject now. The point is the word church in the New Testament, everywhere the word church is used could be translated assembly.

And oftentimes should. Because that's what the church is. It's the assembly of those who have been called out. It's the assembly of the faithful. That's the point of this text. The assembly of the faithful.

And what is he saying about them as they come together as a church? He's saying when you come together, when you form the church, when you create the assembly, it is not for the good. I actually like the NIV.

And I know. Oh, don't shoot me. I'm going to tell you, I like the NIV here. I look at you. Let me tell you what the NIV says here in the following directives. I have no praise for you for your meetings.

Do more harm than good. That's actually what Paul. That's the that's the dynamic equivalent of what Paul is saying. Isn't it amazing that sometimes when people come together for worship, they do more harm than good.

You say, but the Bible commands us to assemble together. Yes, but some people have the attitude. Well, well, it's better to gather than not gather. So I'm going to gather however I want and do what I want when I get there.

And I don't care what kind of heart I bring when I go. And as long as we call it church, then God's going to accept it. Tell that to Nadab and Abihu. You know who Nadab and Abihu were? The sons of Aaron.

They offered up the strange fire before the Lord and the fire came out and consumed them where they stood and they died before the presence of the Lord. Yeah, do it your way. Do worship your way. That's smart because there's great precedence for that.

Ananias and Sapphira, they're going to offer it up their way. Do it their way. They lied to the Holy Spirit. They died. They were dead right there. God will reject worship that is not governed by his word.

Some people believe God is obligated to accept any kind of worship as long as it's sincere. I will tell you this, God is not obligated to accept anything sincere or not. You know what it says in the book of Malachi chapter 1?

Listen to this. This is the prophet speaking on behalf of God. Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the door of the temple that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain. I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.

God decides how we are to worship. God regulates worship. And Paul says, when you gather together, you're so out of order. It'd be better if you didn't gather. You're doing it so wrongly. It'd be better if you didn't do it at all.

It's not for your betterment. In fact, it's for the worst. That's verse 17. Now, verses 18 and 19, he says there's divisions among you. Now, I want to tell you, this is going to be a three-part sermon.

This week, next week, and the third week, I've already planned everything out. Next week, it's Reformation Sunday. We're celebrating next week. I'm going to preach just verses 18 and 19 on the divisions and why divisions sometimes point out those that are true.

Because that's what Paul says. He says, I believe there's divisions among you. It must be because the divisions show the true from the false. And we're going to talk about the history of the Reformation and how the history of the Reformation divided the true from the false church.

So that's next week. So instead of dwelling on that today, let me, in a sense, skip over verses 18 and 19 to get to verse 20. Because verse 20 sets up the focus of this message. Because in verse 20, he says, when you gather, it's not the Lord's Supper that you eat.

Because that's the focus. That becomes the central conflict of the rest of the chapter. The thing that has brought division in the Corinthian church was the Lord's Supper. And that's what makes their worship for the worst, according to the Apostle Paul.

And Paul actually says that they were, that things were so bad that it wasn't even the Lord's Supper they were eating anymore. They had deviated from God's command regarding the supper and thus it was no longer the supper.

But how had they deviated? Verse 21. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?

What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. Now, this makes very little sense to us. That whole section, verses 21 to 22 there, that makes very little sense to us. Because most of us don't understand the context that's going on here.

Because what's happening here in the early church is something called the agape. Now, most of you are probably familiar with this term in a different, maybe a different accent. Agape. You've heard that phrase agape.

Right? What is the agape or the agape? In the first, the word agape means love. But in the early church, the agape was actually a meal. It was a meal, but it was called the love feast. In fact, if you look up Jude chapter 1, which is only one chapter of Jude, if you look up Jude verse 12, it says that there were false teachers who came in to their love feasts.

Right? The false teachers had infiltrated their church meals. And we think about a church meal, we think about it like, okay, we come in and have worship, we're going to do worship, then we're going to stop doing worship, we have a benediction, and then we're all going to go and have our fried chicken and our sweet tea.

Right? Because that's the anointed bird of the southern church. We go and we have our, we have our chicken and our sweet tea and that's how we have a meal. That's not how the first early church did it.

Their worship included the meal. Worship was centered around the meal, much like the Passover was centered in worship around a meal. The early church had their worship around what they called the agape.

And during that, a leader would take a piece of bread, he would break it, he would pass it out, he would share it with the community in remembrance of the body of Christ, and he would take the goblet of wine, he would drink from it, he would pass it around, and everyone would share.

This was the event that was happening. And in Corinth, it had become distorted. Paul tells us that people were eating their own food and refusing to share it with those who did not have. What was supposed to be communal and in a sense generous and open was now personal and cut off.

Instead of graciously sharing, they were stingily not sharing. They were selfishly being stingy with what they had. John Calvin, in referencing Christostom, who was an early church father, said this, he said, Christostom is of the opinion that the love feast originated while the rich had become accustomed to bringing with them from their houses the means of feasting with the poor indiscriminately and in common, but then afterwards began to exclude the poor and to guzzle, that's the word, guzzle over their delicacies by themselves.

Calvin says this in addition. And I want you to hear this, but I'm going to explain it. He said, it is truly wonderful and next to a miracle that Satan could have accomplished so much in a short time.

Did John Calvin just say Satan was wonderful? What he meant in that phrase is full of wonder. Isn't it wondrous or full of wonder that Satan could get so much influence in the church so quickly? It's almost like a miracle because it starts with those who have sharing with those who don't have and they come together as a church and they share this meal and everybody gets to eat, but then eventually the rich and those who have begin to see the ones who don't have and boy, he's eating too much of my fried chicken, or boy, I know they didn't have fried chicken, whatever, he's eating too much of my food, I don't want him to have it.

So they would come with their food early and they would gulp it down and they would guzzle their food and drink their wine to the point of excess and drunkenness and when the poor people showed up they said, well, there's none left for you.

It'd be like this, it'd be like if my wife cooked a really good roast and it was church Sunday and we all showed up at 8 because nobody gets here before 8 .30 and we came in at 8 o 'clock and we guzzled it down so that we're sitting there with our shirts unbuttoned and our big bellies are open and we're so full.

Thankfully, we didn't have to share it with any of you. You say, that sounds so drastic. That's what Paul's dealing with. That's why it's such a big deal. It is drastic. Such a drastic and horrible thing is happening.

The meals began as an open opportunity for the people of God to share in their love for one another and it became a place of division between the haves and the have-nots and the people of God became like the man in Luke 16 who would not even allow the poor person to eat the crumbs that fell from his table.

And look at the passage, it says, those who have nothing. You remember the Corinthian church is a mixed bag, right? Just like every church, there are people in this room of all different economic backgrounds.

Some of you have more than others when it comes to what your job provides or what you're able to make or maybe what you were able to save in life. Some of you are retired and you were able to save more than others who have retired.

And the same way in the Corinthian church, there was a mixed bag of economic backgrounds. You had the very poor and you had the very rich and they were in community together and the poor would look forward to the agape.

Can't you imagine? That the poor would look forward to getting to eat with the rich and instead of being happy to share those who were willing to separate themselves from those who didn't have, did so with no intention of sharing.

And I've told you, I think, imagine this at dinner on the grounds. Everyone comes with something to share, but during the meal we say, OK, if you didn't bring anything, you don't get to have any. If you didn't bring anything today, you're not welcome to stay.

I've seen that happen. I've seen that attitude, if not the words, I've seen the attitude. They didn't bring anything. They don't deserve to stay and eat. What? The very essence of our faith is to love and share with a gracious heart.

What if they have nothing to bring? Or what if they don't understand the value of bringing something yet? In Corinth, you had some eating and some not eating and it was a shameful and humiliating reality.

And it was so humiliating and so shameful that it had made its way all the way to the Apostle Paul, who is writing this letter from a great distance. So not only was the shame known in the church, and one commentator said this, he said the houses in that day and age had different areas of the house.

And what had probably happened was the poor people had probably been pushed to one area of the house where the food just wasn't there. So you had the banquet room and then the poor room. And this scandal had become so, and I know some of you are looking at me like, I can't believe this is happening.

It still happens, just a different attitude, different way, the same attitude. And Paul hears of it and he addresses it. And I love his question, by the way. If you look at the text, Paul says, don't you have homes?

He said, what does that mean? Why would you come to church to be stingy? You could have eaten your food at home. If all you were going to do was eat your own food, why'd you even come? If you had no intention in sharing, if you had no intention in showing love, if you have no intention of being a community in this meal, why didn't you just eat at home?

You think you're going to be commended just because you show up at church? Not with that attitude. You will not be commended for doing that which is wrong just because you come to that place which is right.

You will not be commended for doing that which is wrong just because you're assembled as a church. Again, earlier, as I said, just because you assemble doesn't mean you're assembling for the good. Paul says you're assembling for the worst.

The Lord’s Supper, Unworthy Manner, and Fencing the Table

Now, in response to their shamefulness, Paul goes through verses 23 to 26, explaining the meaning of communion and the words of Christ and instituting. And just like I did with verses 18 and 19, I'm about to skip a little section because in two weeks, I'm going to go through that whole section very clearly, verse by verse.

But because I'm trying to keep a context here, I want to jump ahead just a little because Paul gives the words of institution, verses 23 to 26. And then in verse 27, he says these words. And I know you know this.

If you've ever been here long enough, you've heard this. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.

And let me tell you something. So much ink has been used to write and identify what the phrase unworthy manner means. But I'm going to tell you what it means right now. Because honestly, the word unworthy manner can apply to a ton of things.

It can apply to unbelievers. It can apply to a believer who's unrepentant. It can apply to somebody who's underdisciplined. There's a lot of things that it could apply to. And certainly those applications are not wrong.

But there's one that it does apply to. It's the immediate context and it's the person who comes to church without a desire to worship and fellowship and communion with other believers, sharing what they have and giving of themselves.

That's the unworthy manner that Paul's addressing in this context. The primary unworthy manner. And like I said, it can apply to other things. It can apply to unbelief. It can apply to discipline. It can apply to all those things.

But the primary unworthy manner is selfish, greedy, unloving, and unwelcoming hearts. That's the primary unworthy manner that Paul's addressing. Selfish, greedy, unloving, unwelcoming hearts. Jesus said, if you say you love, or actually John said, if you say you love God and do not love your brother, then that is a lie.

What worse way could we approach the table than with hatred toward our brother who has less than we do? Or a feeling of superiority about our brother who has less than we do? When we participate in communion, it is a community act of corporate worship.

And if we are treating each other with contempt outwardly, or even inwardly, we are guilty of profaning the body and blood of Jesus Christ. What's one of the primary rules of worship according to Jesus?

You might not remember it, but it's in Matthew chapter 5. Primary rule for worship. If you are offering your gift at the altar, and you remember your brother has an offense against you or has something against you, leave your gift at the altar and go and reconcile with your brother and then come and offer your gift.

Remember that? That's a primary focus. What that means is this. Is that our relationship with God and our relationship with the table is often dependent on our relationship with others. If we're holding hatred in our heart, if we're holding animosity in our heart, if we're holding pride in our heart, and lack of humility in our heart, then that creates a divide between us and the Lord that we need to reconcile before we come and feast on the bread and cup which represents His body and His blood.

And here's the thing you have to remember. This text says that whoever takes in an unworthy manner, I want to tell you this straight up. None of us are truly worthy. You understand that, right? That none of us by ourselves are truly worthy.

We are made worthy because of the work of Christ which means this. At the foot of the cross, all of the ground is level. I don't care if you make more money. I don't care if you have more things. I don't care if your toys are bigger or your house is better.

At the foot of the cross, there is no economic inequality. At the foot of the cross, there is no racial inequality. At the foot of the cross, there is no sexual inequality. At the foot of the cross, there is no national inequality.

Every person at the foot of the cross is equally deserving of the punishment of God and because they're at the foot of the cross, equally recipients of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the sacrifice that He made.

And He didn't pour out more blood for you than He did for me. He poured out His blood once for all. And so there's great equality at the foot of the cross. None are worthy. But if we come thinking we are or more worthy than another, then that's taking it in an unworthy manner.

So verse 28, so let a person examine himself. We examine ourselves. We examine ourselves on two fronts. Where are we with God? Where are we with others? Where are we with God and where are we with others?

Do we need to repent? Do we need to reconcile? If reconciliation is not possible because you know it's not always possible, have we a forgiving heart? Not everybody is willing to reconcile with me, but I have to stand ready and willing and able to forgive them even if they have hurt me badly.

You know what the Bible says? It says as much as it depends upon you, live at peace with all men. Sometimes it doesn't depend on you because some people are going to hate you regardless, but you have done all you can do to love them.

And then he says in verse 29, for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak or ill and some have died. You mean to tell me people have died because they mistreated the Lord's Supper?

According to this text, I have no other answer but yes. According to this text, this, what? They've eaten, drank, and judgment on themselves. And this is why many of you, many, have become weak or ill and some have died.

Like Nadab and Abihu who offered up strange fire before the Lord. Like Ananias and Sapphira who lied to the Spirit. There are those who have sinned against the table of the Lord and have died as a result.

You understand that's why we fence the table, right? You say, what are you talking about? There's an imaginary fence around this table. There's an imaginary line that we draw around this table. I say it every week.

Every time I administer the ordinance of the Lord's table, I say this. I say, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, that's first. Right? Primary fence. Number one line. If you're not a believer, the table isn't for you.

And then I normally add the words, and you've examined yourself. Because that's what Paul says, right? That's the second line of defense, right? The second line of defense is, you don't just come up here willy-nilly.

You don't come up here with a flippant attitude, but you've examined yourself and you're ready to partake. You're discerning the body and the blood and you're discerning the bread and the cup and what it represents.

And so we put that invisible fence up. And then it's up to you. Oftentimes I'll add the phrase, if you've been baptized, and the reason why for that is simply an issue of priority. Because in the issue of the ordinances, baptism is once for all and the Lord's table is a continual ordinance.

And so in priority sense, it seems like baptism would come first. Not always necessarily, but at least in the sense of priority, I will say, have you been baptized? Because if you're taking the Lord's Supper and you're a believer, because you have to be a believer to take the Lord's Supper, it would seem to me like you should be baptized.

Maybe you haven't, and that would be a call to that, right? So that's the reason why I often introduce that as well. But the most important thing is you're a believer and you have searched your heart.

You know where you stand with the Lord and where you stand with others, and you're ready. You've discerned the body. You're there. That's why we fence the table and we don't open it up to everyone. It is not for everyone.

And it's dangerous to be flippant with that which God calls holy. And God calls the table holy. Verse 31,. But if we judge ourselves truly, we will not be judged. That means if we're serious about how we look at ourselves, we will protect ourselves from judgment because we'll actually have judged our intentions of our heart and we'll say to the Lord when we stand there, Yes, I have examined myself.