Who should receive Communion?

It is tempting to think that if God delivers forgiveness through Communion, then He (and we) should want everyone to receive the Lord’s Supper. However, that line of thinking does not reflect the teaching of Scripture or the historical practice of the church. The Lord’s Supper is a meal that Jesus gave to the church and intended for people who profess the faith of the church. It is not meant to convert someone to the faith who is an unbeliever, but rather to strengthen and sustain the faith of a believer. A passage from 1 Corinthians 11:27-29 demonstrates the seriousness of this question and helps us with the answer.

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and the blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drink judgment on himself.

Notice the implications. It is possible to take the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner and, by doing so, profane what God is doing and giving through the meal. The word “profane” denotes a guiltiness or accountability for sin. Verse 29 also states that an unworthy reception will bring God’s judgment upon the recipient so that His anger or wrath is experienced rather than His grace.

In this passage, the Bible says that those who receive Communion should examine themselves. This self-examination will reveal that none of us are or ever can be worthy on our own to participate in the Lord’s Supper. Sin has made us unworthy and how we pray or how good we are in the week leading up to Communion or how focused we are when we take Communion… none of these things make us worthy to approach the altar. Our worthiness comes solely through our connection with Jesus through faith. What God gives you through the Lord’s Supper, He gives solely by grace, not because of anything you have done. Worthy reception thus begins with a self-examination that shows our sin and causes us to cling to who we are in Jesus as forgiven and loved children of God.

1 Corinthians 11 also indicates that those who receive Communion should do so while “discerning the body.” This means two things. That we understand what we receive; that we believe that by the power of God’s Word we are truly receiving the body and the blood of Jesus in a sacramental or mysterious way. In addition to understanding what God is giving, to discern the body also means that you understand what God is doing. You believe that God is fulfilling His promise that the bread/body and the wine/blood are given for the forgiveness of sins and that in the meal He is doing that for you.

Our worthiness to participate in the Lord’s Supper is not our own, but rather has been credited to us through faith by God’s grace and is rooted solely in the life and the death of Jesus. When we come to the altar in faith and seeking forgiveness, we also come with a repentant heart. To repent means to turn away from sin and to turn toward God. In other words, we sincerely desire that our lives would be emptied of sin and lived to the glory, honor, and praise of God. As we come seeking forgiveness, we don’t just want God to take away the guilt, penalty, and consequences of our sin, we also want Him to eliminate the sinful thoughts, words, and actions themselves. Repentance naturally flows from faith. It is one of the things that God is bringing into our lives through the work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, a faithful practice of the Lord’s Supper occurs when those living publicly in a sin without a repentant heart are not allowed to participate. Someone with an unrepentant heart denies the will and the work of God in his/her life by either refusing to acknowledge or turn from sin. To allow such an individual to receive Communion would falsely convey that God is willing to give forgiveness and grace without repentance by communicating that the church and God “are OK” with the sin that persists in the individual’s life.

For further biblical reading, passages like 1 Corinthians 5:11, Matthew 5:23-24 and 18:15-18, James 5:19-20, 2 Timothy 3:16, 1 Timothy 5:20 all speak of our need to correct one another in the midst of sin. Ezekiel 14:6, Matthew 3:2 and 8, and Luke 24:47 give some additional insight about repentance.