Conditional Security – 1 Corinthians 11:29-32

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 judged 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. – 1 Corinthians 11:29-32

Come on Paul, condemned with the world?

We can never be condemned with the world!  Believers are rescued from this present evil world (Galations 1:4) and Jesus promised that we have overcome the world.

I personally believe there are no contradictions in our God breathed Bible.  So how dare Paul break my security bubble by saying that if we are not disciplined, there is the risk of being condemned along with the world.

Note he says along with the world – with, by association, companionship, resemblance, possession, instrumentality, addition, etc.

I thought when we first got saved, condemnation along with the world was forever removed from our lives. And yet Paul brings this topic up to believers in Corinth.

As some who follow, I have written posts regarding the difference between judging and condemning, and found that judging may have a positive connotation to it. Think of when you win a formal debate, or a foot race. The audience judges you the winner!

The word Paul uses in this verse is condemn, and is not used in any sense of a positive judgement as described above. Check out the list below for all the times this word “condemn” is used, and consider the context of our verse in consideration today, as it relates to believers.

Can believers be condemned with the world? Take note of the multiple times Paul refers to judgement by ourselves or the Lord, previous to his using the “c” word.

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New Testament verses containing the Greek word katakrinō, translated as condemn.

Matthew 12:41, 42 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

Matthew 20:18 “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death

Matthew 27:3 Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders,

Mark 10:33 saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles.

Mark 14:64 You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?” And they all condemned him as deserving death.

Mark 16:16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Luke 11:31 The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

Luke 11:32 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

John 8:10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

John 8:11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

Romans 2:1 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.

Romans 8:3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

Romans 8:34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died–more than that, who was raised–who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Romans 14:23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

1 Corinthians 11:32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

2 Peter 2:6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;

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