You examine yourself before Communion and find sin. The same impatience. The same resentment. A confession you have made before. Then you remember Paul’s warning about receiving unworthily, and the examination begins to sound like a reason to stay in the pew.
Before drawing that conclusion, look at the word Paul uses.
The Word
ἀναξίως (anaxiōs) is an adverb: unworthily, or in an unworthy manner. An adjective describes a person or thing; an adverb can describe how someone acts. Here it describes the eating and drinking. Paul warns about receiving the Lord’s Supper in a manner unworthy of what is being received.
That distinction does not make his warning less serious. It tells us what the warning is about. The question is how we receive Christ’s gift. Nothing in the adverb establishes a class of people whose moral achievements entitle them to it.
Range of Meaning
The contrast is between conduct fitting the occasion and conduct that dishonors it. The word itself does not list every way of dishonoring the Supper. For that, we read the paragraph.
In Corinth, some were going hungry while others became drunk; those who had nothing were being shamed (1 Corinthians 11:21–22). Paul recalls Christ’s institution of the meal before giving his warning. Their treatment of one another belongs in the account of how they were treating the Lord’s gift.
Where You’ll Meet It
Paul describes the reception as “in an unworthy manner” (1 Corinthians 11:27, NET). The NET makes the force of the adverb plain. The warning concerns Christ’s body and blood, and the next verse explains what the hearer should do:
“A person should examine himself first, and in this way let him eat the bread and drink of the cup.” (1 Corinthians 11:28, NET)
Examine, and eat. Verse 29 adds the warning about receiving without discerning the body. Self-examination belongs to receiving the Supper faithfully; it is not a search for proof that we have ceased needing forgiveness.
What Confessional Lutherans Hear
The Small Catechism locates worthy preparation in faith in Christ’s words of giving and forgiveness. Fasting and bodily preparation have their place, but the promise is what faith receives. The worthiness in view is received from Christ, not accumulated through a successful week (Small Catechism, Sacrament of the Altar, question on worthy reception).
This keeps repentance and comfort together. We confess the sins we actually have. We trust the Savior who gives his body and blood for their forgiveness.
Where People Get It Wrong
It is easy to hear the warning as a command to make ourselves worthy before coming. A troubled conscience can then turn every discovery of sin into a disqualification. Meanwhile, someone confident of his own goodness may see no difficulty at all.
The grammar corrects that reading without excusing unbelief or impenitence. Receiving carelessly, refusing repentance, or disregarding Christ’s body remains serious. Being grieved by your sin and seeking his forgiveness is a different thing.
So What
Bring the sins you found in your examination to confession. If the warning has become tangled with fear, speak with your pastor; let him help you distinguish Christ’s warning from the accusation that his forgiveness cannot be for you.
The Supper does not reward you for reaching the end of your need. Christ meets you in that need with a gift. Faith receives what he says he gives.