Failure to partake of the Lord’s Supper properly can put you to sleep. Not literally, but still the Bible describes this truth in Paul’s first letter to Corinth. The church in that pagan city had copied the pagan festival, and Paul described the results as one eating “his own supper” (11:20-21). He then gives detailed instructions about how Jesus said we should partake.
The results of this perversion of the sacred feast are described using some startling words. The failure to remember Him and examine self is detrimental to spiritual growth. Paul said, “For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep” (v. 30). They were distancing themselves from God and were becoming weaker. Many of them were asleep—not literally but spiritually dead. Failure to observe the Supper properly had brought spiritual death.
This is not the only place the Scriptures use being asleep or being spiritually awake. Paul describes the condition of those who are lost and God’s way for them to be saved. “Awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light” (Eph. 5:14). Those living in the darkness of sin need to wake up, to see the light and enter into the blessings Christ has brought to them. Sleeping and dead men need to wake up and live.
When Paul wrote the church at Rome, he described how they had failed to love each other as Christ had loved them. How did he admonish them? “Do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed” (13:11).
When we are asleep each night, we are unaware of what might be happening in our houses. There could be thieves robbing us of our possessions, and we would awaken to find how they had taken our treasures. We can so easily have Satan, the prince of this world, plundering our lives and our homes, and we are unaware of it. This is the nature of sin. It is truly the silent killer.
Look at the urgency Paul gives to this matter. Instead of using the words “high time to awake,” the ESV translates it this way. “The hour has come for you to awake.” He then adds, “The night is far gone; the day is at hand.”
Think soberly about this concept. Unless we are fully awake, we may not see what sin is doing to the church, to our homes and to each of us. The ravages of sin threaten our families, and we seemingly are oblivious to what it is doing. Our time on this earth is running out, and it is high time to come fully awake and to see what faith allows us to see and what is happening. Look soberly at your life and all that is happening. Are we sleeping while the “thief” plunders our lives?