It is possible to go through the motions of worship while forgetting the One we are worshiping. In 1 Corinthians 11:17–27, Paul confronts a church that was still gathering, still eating the bread, and still drinking the cup—but had lost the heart of the Lord’s Table. Their divisions, selfishness, and contempt for other believers revealed the deeper problem: they had stopped remembering Christ. As Pastor Jake explains, the repeated words “in remembrance of me” are at the center of this passage. When Christ is forgotten, worship can become little more than performance.
The Corinthians’ treatment of one another was especially grievous because it contradicted the very gospel the Lord’s Table proclaimed. Some came with plenty while others were left hungry, and those who had more were actively shaming those who had less. Paul calls them back to the night Jesus was betrayed—the night He took bread, gave thanks, and willingly gave Himself for those who would betray Him. The bread pointed to His body given for them, and the cup to the new covenant secured through His blood. To remember Christ is to remember that we came to Him spiritually bankrupt and were loved entirely by grace. That gospel leaves no room for pride, contempt, or treating another member of Christ’s body as though he or she does not belong.
Paul’s warning about partaking “unworthily” is therefore not a call to anxiously search for every forgotten sin before coming to the Lord’s Table. In the context of the passage, he is confronting believers whose manner of worship openly contradicted the Christ they claimed to remember. The same truth reaches far beyond Communion: whether we gather for worship, study God’s Word, or serve in ministry, everything we do for the Lord should flow from remembering what He has done for us. Christ loved us, served us, and gave Himself for us; remembering Him should move us to worship sincerely and to love one another with that same grace.