Are You Worthy for the Lord's Supper?

I Corinthians 11 gravely warns about partaking in the Lord’s supper unworthily. Unfortunately, this warning has been misused to the extent that some people who should be partaking in the supper are led to exclude themselves because they feel they are burdened by too much sin or because they don’t have the right subjective “inner devotional feelings”.  Or maybe just because they had a bad week. And yet, this is tragic because who needs to partake in the Lord’s supper more than the dejected and struggling Christian!?!?

But the purpose of Paul’s statement in I Corinthians 11 is not to prevent needy, imperfect Christians from coming to the table! Rather, it was to prevent a certain type of unworthy, *undiscerning* receiving of the Lord supper. And it must be stated that Paul’s prescription was NOT to absent oneself from the table, but rather to go through some self examination before partaking (nowhere will you find Paul instructing believers to act on their own initiative in absenting themselves from the Lord’s table). The clear implication is that all true believers, no matter how dejected and weak, would partake.

It seems to me that the crux of this lies in a misunderstanding of the purpose of the Lord’s supper. Who is being set forth at the Lord’s supper? Is it you? Or is it Christ?  What is the focus, what you bring to Christ in your hand or what Christ is going to put into your empty hand?  The Scriptures are crystal clear, Christ is the focus, not what we offer. Christ Himself said “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19)  When we take the Lord’s supper, we should not focus on what we bring to God, but what God gives to us through Christ!

You see, when we inordinately fret about being “unworthy” for the Lord’s supper and exclude ourselves because we aren’t “good enough” or “don’t have the right inner feeling”, it shows that we are looking to present something at the table, rather than receive from Christ.  God says “Come, partake in Christ”, and if we exclude ourselves from this, we are excluding ourselves from the great blessings He has for us. Ultimately, we are called to examine ourselves. But not as a “giver” but rather as a “receiver”. A “worthy” giver offers up something of intrinsic value, something that is “good enough”. A “worthy” receiver is one who yearns to receive a thing and has an empty hand to receive it. When you come to the Lord’s supper,  your concern is to be a “worthy” receiver, not a “worthy” giver.  The focus is not on whether you are good enough to be presented to Christ, but whether your desperate enough, empty enough, hungry enough, and thirsty enough to RECEIVE from Christ!

As the London Baptist Confession of Faith says: “Worthy receivers…do then also inwardly by faith…spiritually receive, and feed upon Christ crucified, and all the benefits of his death”.  Are you a Christian, albeit weak and faith-vanquished? Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? Are you tired of your sins? Are you needy? Then partake of the Lord’s Supper. God feeds you this way.

A quick relevant anecdote:

An old pastor was giving the story of a person who came to him seeking help, she said “I’m not going to come to communion until I conquer this [sin]“.

And he told her, “Well, your greater sin now, is your stubborn refusal to receive Christ’s welcome to His table, because I’m sorry young lady, you don’t have the authority to excommunicate yourself. The elders and I fence the table, you don’t.”

Obviously that pastor was quite blunt, but its a good point. If Christ welcomes us, as believers to graciously partake of the Lord’s supper, what authority do we have to say “No.. Sorry, I’m not good enough to partake”.