Chronically-ill Christians who do not believe in spiritual healing of the sick today should examine their participation in Holy Communion as to why they remain sick.

The Lord's Supper (Eucharist or Holy Communion according to your tradition) consists of two elements: The cup representing Jesus' shed blood, and the bread representing His broken body (I Corinthians 11:23-26).

Traditional doctrine teaches us that the Lord's Supper is to keep us mindful that, as Christians, we are part of the Body of Christ, that we are one in Christ through the Gospel (I Corinthians 15:1-4), and that He shed His blood for atonement of sin, and rightfully so.

But Paul had grave concern for something more in partaking the Lord's Supper that was killing his brethren. It lies at the very root of God's Scheme of Redemption, which is inclusive of healing body, spirit, and soul (salvation).

Paul states that the lack of discernment of the Lord's body (I Corinthians 11:29) is cause for damnation and is why many of us are sick today. The Greek word for body (soma) literally refers to the physical fleshly body of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ, by His perfect life, sacrificed His body for our healing and blood for atonement of our sins. These two realities both occur on the Cross.

Through the shedding of His blood, Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law of sin and death (Galatians 3:13). But the broken body of Jesus is not for the forgiveness of sin-It is for healing to be made possible. For without His broken body, there could be no healing of any kind (Romans 11:36; Colossians 1:15-18), either before or after the Cross. This is where many Christians lack discernment.

It is through His shed blood that we find forgiveness, not His broken body (Hebrews 9:22; Leviticus 17:11). And it is through His stripes (His suffering and torment in the flesh) that we are healed today (Isaiah 53:5; I Peter 2:24).

With this understanding in mind, consider the words of Pastor Henry Wright, Author of A More Excellent Way:

"If we come to a Communion service and partake of the cup and the bread but we deny healing and deliverance as part of the atonement today, we eliminate the provision of God in our lives as a human being apart from salvation and eternal life in that day. For that reason, because we eliminate the broken body, but we celebrate it, and we don't believe it, then we cannot partake. For that reason many of us are filled with disease and insanity today because we have said in our heart that it (miraculous healing) passed away two thousand years ago, yet we still participate in the sacrament of Communion which represents its reality for today."

Celebrating the Lord's Supper can either deny or provide us healing by how we accept or deny the spiritual healing power of the fleshly body of Christ. Could it be many of God's people are chronically-ill today because they have eliminated half of the sacrament of Communion?

Think on this matter the next time you partake of the Lord's Supper. Our salvation is made complete in body, spirit and soul through both the literal blood and flesh of our Savior. But, Paul said many of us are weak and sick because we fail to recognize (have faith in) Christ's body (soma).

This means those of us who are sick, while we recognize (have faith in) the blood of Jesus Christ to save our souls, we do not recognize (have faith in) His literal body (soma) to heal our literal bodies of disease-here-now. Friends, I did not say that, the inspired Apostle, Paul, did!

Jim Lynn, a minister in the church of Christ, is the author of The Miracle Of Healing In Your Church Today, available on Amazon.com and http://godshealingword.org