“Lift it up before the Lord,” says one popular televangelist, leading his congregation in the Lord’s Supper. “Say, Lord Jesus, by your stripes I am healed! Make me whole. My youth and strength are renewed like the eagle’s. My body is restored to that of a young man or young woman. By your strength, through Your grace, I will live to be 120. My eyes are not dim, my strength not abated—completely strong and healthy.”
The promise of God’s power manifesting through a simple act of faith is deeply comforting.
Only this isn’t an isolated incident. It’s not unusual to hear preachers calling on their people to lay hold of health, vitality, and promises for long life, through the communion elements. Across different churches—including many within Africa—similar words are spoken, placing similar expectations upon the bread and the cup.
And it’s easy to see why this resonates. In a world where health struggles, economic hardship, and uncertainty are daily realities, the promise of God’s power being made manifest through a simple act of faith at the Lord’s Table is deeply comforting. Lifting up the bread and cup with the hope that God will meet one’s need for healing can seem like a natural extension of trust in him.
Have You Been Doing Communion Wrong?
But is that what the Bible teaches?
Does the Lord’s Supper guarantee healing? Or have we allowed our desire for perfect health to redefine one of the most sacred gifts Christ left his Church? These are important questions, because how we understand and practice communion reveals much about where we place our hope.
Does the Lord’s Supper guarantee healing?
In what way, then, should believers understand and properly approach the Lord’s Supper? Traditionally, Protestant believers have held one of three views, which you can learn more about here. In this article, however, we’ll take time to carefully examine the specific practice of taking communion to obtain physical healing. My prayer is that, together, we will recover the true essence of communion—one that draws us back to the heart of the gospel.
Christ Must Always Be at the Centre
On the night he was betrayed, Jesus gathered with his disciples for the Last Supper. In Luke 22:19-20 we read: “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood’” (see also Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-25).
The words, “Do this in remembrance of me,” reveal an important reason why we partake of the Lord’s Supper. It’s an invitation from Jesus to remember him. To remember his work. Each time we hold the bread and the cup, we are meant to look back at the cross, to reflect on his body broken and his blood shed for our salvation. It’s a moment of gratitude, worship, and deep reflection on the cost of our redemption.
Scripture clearly centres communion on proclaiming Christ’s death and second coming.
Paul goes further, echoing this in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. He reminds the church that whenever we eat the bread and drink the cup, we are “proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes.” So at its very heart, the Lord’s Table is about Jesus. It draws our attention to him and the living hope he purchased for those who longingly anticipate his return.
These simple observations raise an important question. If Scripture so clearly centres communion on proclaiming Christ’s death and second coming, how have some come to teach that it’s primarily about physical healing, renewed youth, or long life?
A lot of this comes down to how they interpret 1 Corinthians 11:29-30.
Discerning the Body in 1 Corinthians 11
“Anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body,” writes Paul, “eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.”
Some argue that this means if you don’t separate the bread from the cup, you fail at discerning the body. In this view, the bread isn’t simply a symbol of Christ’s broken body, but a special provision for physical healing, while the cup represents forgiveness of sins. According to this teaching, the reason many Christians are sick is that they only look to the bread and cup for forgiveness but don’t “claim” the bread for healing.
Some argue that if you don’t separate the bread from the cup, you don’t discern the body.
To reinforce this, people often turn up Isaiah 53:5. “By His stripes we are healed.” The stripes, so their argument goes, were borne on Christ’s body, so discerning the body is said to be crucial. This interpretation insists that believers must see the bread as Christ’s broken body that carries healing for their physical bodies. In other words, failing to discern the body in this way is what supposedly leaves people sick or weak and leads to premature death.
In this line of teaching, if the believers in 1st century Corinth had rightly discerned the body—that is, if they had claimed healing through the bread—they wouldn’t have “fallen asleep.” Perhaps they’d still be with us today.
But both Isaiah and Paul are talking about something much deeper. In Isaiah 53, the “suffering servant” bears our sins. So healing there is first and foremost spiritual. It is the restoration of our broken relationship with God, through Christ’s atoning sacrifice. Peter confirms this when he quotes Isaiah 53 in 1 Peter 2:24. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” The focus is clearly on sin and justification.
The Problem at Corinth
To discern the body, then, isn’t about us assigning healing power to the bread, apart from the cup. This doesn’t fit with Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 11. Rather, he’s addressing the serious issue of division and selfishness among believers.
Paul was addressing the issue of division and selfishness among believers.
The believers in Corinth had turned the Lord’s Supper into a chaotic event. It had become dishonouring to Christ. Instead of waiting for one another and participating as one body of Christ, the wealthy members were eating and drinking in abundance while the poor went hungry (1 Corinthians 11:20-22). In doing so, they were failing to recognise that the church is one body in Christ. To discern Jesus’ body is to rightly acknowledge both the sacrifice of Christ and the unity of his people who make up his body.
Therefore, Paul’s warning in 1 Corinthians 11:29-30 isn’t about missing out on physical healing. It’s about taking communion in a careless and divisive manner. Those who treated the Lord’s Table carelessly were showing contempt for Christ’s sacrifice and for their brothers and sisters. As a result, God’s judgment came upon some of them in the form of illness and even death. However, that wasn’t because they’d failed to claim healing. They had, instead, failed to honour Christ and his people.
Don’t Dishonour Christ in Your Desire to be Well
Ironically, when we approach the Lord’s Table seeking physical healing, we risk repeating the very error of the Corinthian church. We end up dishonouring the table and losing sight of the gospel it proclaims.
Approaching communion seeking healing we risk repeating the very error of the Corinthian church.
Yet this is only one side of the story. The growing practice of using communion for healing has also led to an even broader trend where the Lord’s Supper has been transformed into something resembling a ritual for good fortune. In my next article, we’ll take a closer look at how this distortion has taken shape, and why it’s not only profoundly unbiblical but also dangerous.
Related Post: The Damning Theology of the Word of Faith Movement
This articles was originally published on The Gospel Coalition Africa website.
