Preparation for the Lord’s Supper

Colin Vincent (Bexleyheath)

Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body (I Corinthians 11:28-29).

Some people are so worried by this warning of the Apostle that they frequently absent themselves from the Communion Service. This is very sad. They are usually no less worthy to partake than anyone else, but they have sensitive consciences and feel that particular sins have disqualified them from partaking. This is not the way we are intended to look at this text. Paul wrote these words in the context of correcting the unloving attitude of some of the Corinthian Christians as they met together for the breaking of bread. He is saying that as we come to the table, we are to be at peace with one another. The Lord’s Supper is intended to be the highlight of our fellowship as members of the Body of Christ. It is an expression of our oneness in the Lord; in our union with the One who is the Bread of life and in our dependence on the merit and cleansing power of his shed blood.

A repentant spirit

For this unity to be real and meaningful, each one of us must be resting in the finished work of Christ. We need to be enjoying communion with him as those who are gratefully aware of our dependence on his grace for our salvation. This does not mean that we are without sin. If we waited for that happy condition to be achieved, none of us would ever attend the Lord’s Table. It means we are relying on his shed blood to cover our sin daily. It means that we know we bring nothing with us that makes us worthy of God’s favour, but we come with all our sin, conscious and unconscious. We come with sins which have been specifically confessed and with those which have not been named before God, because there are so many of them. We lay all our sins before the Lord in a repentant spirit, saying: ‘Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling’.

Our hearts are prepared to partake of the elements when we are truly grateful to the Lord for shedding his blood and allowing his body to be broken for us. We need to have a real and heart-warming awareness of his saving love as we come to the Table. If we are forgetful of his sacrifice and of our personal participation in his atonement for sin, then we are not discerning the Lord’s body (v 29). We need to be aware that, if the Lord were to begin naming those who were responsible for the Saviour’s death, he would be absolutely fair in saying to us, as Nathan said to David: You are the man (2 Samuel 12:7). If we are coming in a worthy manner, we shall be saying in our hearts, I have sinned against the Lord. Yet we will be full of joy because we shall have the promise that David had: The Lord has put away your sin (2 Samuel 12:13). However unworthy we may feel, we shall be able to say with quiet conviction, ‘He bore my sins in his own body on the tree’. This is what it means to discern the Lord’s body.

A loving spirit

When we approach the Lord’s Table in such a spirit of repentance and thanksgiving we are ready to enjoy fellowship with our brothers and sisters in the Lord. This is the other indispensable factor in our partaking of the supper ‘in a worthy manner’. The sad situation at Corinth was that some approached the Table in a selfish and intolerant spirit. Paul rebukes them because there were divisions among them. Each one takes his supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk. Whatever this may mean, it is evident that they were not consciously appreciating each other and enjoying harmonious fellowship in the Lord. They were forgetting that the church is the Body of Christ and that through his death the members had been reconciled to God in one body through the cross (Ephesians 2:16). So they were partaking of the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner. In this second sense, they were not discerning the Lord’s body. They were not appreciating the beauty, the immense value and the God-honouring joy of uniting hearts and minds in that highest expression of unity in Christ, the Lord’s Supper.

Therefore, as we prepare our hearts to approach the Table, we are required to walk in the light with our brothers and sisters, as we walk in the light with the Lord himself. Sometimes we need to take positive steps to restore peace with a brother or a sister and to cultivate a true spirit of harmonious fellowship before we can come worthily to the Lord’s Table. This doesn’t mean we should make a show of public confession of an offence which has only been between ourselves and other individuals. This is not helpful, especially in the context of the Communion Service itself. But what is required is a quiet and sincere expression of loving forgiveness and confession towards the one from whom we have been estranged. Bitterness and division; a proud or unforgiving spirit; these are the specific sins which cause us to be unworthy to partake of the supper. ‘Communion’ means fellowship; firstly with the Lord, but, as a direct result of this, fellowship with one another in him. Both are essential to a sincere and meaningful participation in the Lord’s Supper.

The Lord will bless us as we meet around his Table, no matter how many sins we are aware of committing since we last came, just as long as we prepare our hearts in three ways: firstly, with genuine sorrow for our sins because we love the Saviour; secondly, with a sincere desire to honour the Lord out of gratitude for his immense sacrifice for us; thirdly, as we put on love, which is the bond of perfection and let the peace of God rule in our hearts, to which we were called in one body (Colossians 3:14-15).