Which Can Be Taken Up Again
Question
Who tin can take communion according to the Bible?
Answer
Nearly every church building practices some form of communion, or the Lord's Table. At the aforementioned time, there is much diverseness in the actual performance of the ceremony, and dissimilar churches also have unlike views of who is allowed to take communion.
Some churches exercise a radically open communion, which they might call "open up table": in an attempt to be "fully inclusive," they invite anyone and everyone to participate in communion, regardless of spiritual standing or evidence of open sin. Nearly churches, however, place some restrictions on who tin take communion: most require at least a profession of faith in Christ. Most also require that the recipient exist in expert standing in the church building—that is, he or she is not living in unrepentant sin. Some churches also crave baptism prior to taking communion, and some crave official church membership.
Questions about who can take communion go back to the very early church building. The issue is addressed in the first-century Didache, which taught that baptism was a prerequisite to taking communion (Didache 9:10–12). In the second century, Justin Martyr laid downward three requirements for taking communion: belief in the church's teachings, baptism, and "then living as Christ has enjoined" (First Apology, Affiliate LXVI, trans. past Dods and Reith).
The Bible's educational activity on the Lord's Supper is constitute in 1 Corinthians 11:17–34 and promotes participation for believers who are walking in fellowship with the Lord. All those who have personal religion in Jesus Christ are worthy to partake of the Lord'south Supper.
Biblically, there are two types of people who should not have communion: the unregenerate and the unrepentant. Communion should non exist open to those who are non born once again or those who are living in known, unconfessed sin.
Biblically, communion should not exist express to a particular church or denomination. Information technology'southward the Lord's Table, non whatever i church'southward tabular array. What's important is that the participants are born-again believers walking in fellowship with their Lord and with each other. Communion is a fourth dimension of remembrance (Luke 22:19) and a time of reflection. Before partaking of communion, each laic should personally examine his or her heart and motives (1 Corinthians 11:28).
The word communion is related to union. Communion is the outcome of a union with Christ, the sharing of common thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Sharing in the decease and burial of the Son of God is a foundational role of salvation (Romans 6:3–5), and that decease is symbolized in the ordinance of communion. If a person has no spousal relationship with Christ, the human activity of taking communion has no significance (John one:12; Romans x:9–ten). A person who has not been spiritually regenerated has no means past which to commune with God (Ephesians 2:3; Colossians i:21). Therefore, an unbeliever taking communion is practicing hypocrisy, and it may place that person in danger of God'southward judgment.
For a kid of God to take communion in a country of unrepentant sin is some other form of hypocrisy. "Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy fashion will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:27). Believers are to undergo a self-examination (verse 28) and and so avoid God's subject area in their lives (verses 27–30). Harboring sin in 1'south heart, refusing to be reconciled to a fellow believer, or stubbornly resisting to acknowledge 1's demand for forgiveness, especially given its availability (ane John 1:8–9), is a sign of a hard eye, not of "common union" with Christ.
According to the Bible, those who take communion must exist humble, born again, free of unconfessed sin, and living in obedience to God. Whether or not living in obedience includes baptism in every example is something for individual churches to decide. For the converted, repentant sinner, the Lord'due south Table is a welcome identify of knowing God's provision and resting in His grace.
Questions about the Church
Who tin can take communion according to the Bible?
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This page last updated: January four, 2022
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