1 Corinthians 11:23, This is my body. We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Yeshua (Heb 10:10).When we eat the bread of communion, we are “eating” Yeshua who is the incarnate and Living Torah Word of Elohim (John 1:14). We are announcing that Yeshua is the spiritual bread of life from heaven that leads to eternal life (John 6:48–51), and we are announcing our desire to live by the totality of his Word (Matt 4:4). 

The bread symbolizing the body of Yeshua was unleavened, which is a picture of Yeshua’s sinless life. By eating this bread, we declare our faith in his sinless life by which he was able to pay for our sins. We also declare our identification with his sinlessness as an example for us to follow.

Yeshua took the unleavened bread and broke it signifying our deliverance from our sin nature by the breaking or death of his sinless body. The unleavened bread broken during the Passover meal speaks of our deliverance from the power of sin by the death of our old man. The rite of baptism is a picture of this (Rom 6:4–13). This paves the way for us to live a sanctified (sin-free) life.

We become unleavened or sinless (known as sanctification) because Yeshua our Passover Lamb was sacrificed for us (1 Cor 5:7). Our body of sin died with Yeshua when we were baptized making us unleavened (or sanctified, Rom 6:6). Let us therefore live in accordance with the new man, or new spiritual creation we have become through Yeshua (1 Cor 5:8; 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 2:20). When we eat the unleavened bread at the communion part of the Passover service, we remember that we are sanctified by grace and that the power of sin (or Torahlessness, see 1 John 3:4 cp. John 14:15) has been broken in our lives.

In the first Passover, the children of Israel were delivered from the penalty of their sins by the blood of the lamb on the door, which pointed forward prophetically to Yeshua’s sin-atoning death on the cross. But when they ate the unleavened bread, this speaks of their being delivered from their slavery to sin and oppression in Egypt. They were now to leave Egypt (a spiritual picture of the old man and life) and go toward the Promised Land (a spiritual picture of the new man) taking with them, on their knees, the dough of the unleavened bread. This points to the fact that the redeemed saints are to walk in the newness of a spiritually unleavened or sanctified life as pictured by their eating the communion bread. When we eat the bread of communion, we memorialize the events surrounding the Exodus, and recognize the present reality of freedom from sin in our own lives.

1 Corinthians 11:25, My blood. By the blood of Yeshua we are redeemed, liberated or released from the bondage of sin (Matt 26:28; Rom 3:25; Eph 1:17; Col 1:14; Heb 9:22; 1 Pet 1:18; Rev 5:9) and from sin’s death penalty claim on us (Rom 6:23; Ezek 18:4) brought on by our disobedience to YHVH’s instructions in righteousness, the Torah (which defines sin, 1 John 3:4). His blood also sanctifies (or separates, Heb 9:13–14; 13:12) us from past sin (Rom 3:25) or Torahlessness allowing us to become a new spiritual creation before YHVH (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 2:20) in order to become a pure and special people who are zealous for good works (Tit 2:14), who will serve YHVH in righteousness, which is the good works of the Torah (Ps 119:172).

1 Corinthians 11:26, Eat this bread.  When we eat the bread of communion, we are remembering the death of Messiah, and we are appropriating to ourselves through YHVH’s law of spiritual identification Yeshua’s death as our own and declaring the death of our old sinful man.

1 Corinthians 11:30, For this reason. Why are many among us sick and dead prematurely? Because we have not discerned the (unity of the) Master’s body (v. 30), and because we have been the cause of strife and division. Furthermore, in pride, we have failed to properly examine, evaluate or pass judgment on own actions (thoughts, words and deeds) to determine where we err (v. 31). Because of our failure to examine or pass judgment on ourselves, YHVH has to pass judgment on us, which is why we’re sick or dead both physically and spiritually. This is the reason that David asked YHVH to search his soul to find hidden sin (Ps 139:23–24). Because we don’t “wait for [Gr. ekdechomai “to receive from, to accept, to expect or accept] one another” (v. 33), or treat each other with respect, esteem others better than ourselves (Phil 2:3), love our neighbor’s as ourselves (the Shema), do unto others as you had have do unto you (the golden rule from Matt 7:12). Furthermore, Beale and Carson (quoting Hugenberger) in their comments on this verse point out that Paul’s threatening statement in verse 30 “reflects the nature of the Lord’s Supper ‘as a covenant-ratifying oath-sign’ implying ‘a self-maledictory symbolism’ such that ‘our infidelity deserves the same dreadful curse which overtook Christ, whose death is symbolized in the elements.’ This is consistent with Paul’s depiction in 10:8–10 of the judgment that fell on Israel as a result of their infidelity to God’s covenant” (Commentary on the NT Use of the OT, p. 736). In summary, many in their pursuit of legalistic head knowledge. have, perhaps, forgotten the fundamentals of how to be nice to one another, and thus have offended YHVH thus bringing judgment upon themselves for breaking the unity of the Spirit and dividing the body of Yeshua because of their selfishness, arrogance and strife-causing pride. We need to repent of this and to start following Yeshua’s golden rule and to practice doing the Shema, not just reciting it!