Next Sunday (Feb. 26) we celebrate the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. As we prepare ourselves to participate let us pay attention to the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:23-32.
23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
27 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. 30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.
Paul tells us to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5). While the primary application of that passage is that we are to make sure that we have trusted Christ and Christ alone for our salvation we also need to do an inventory of our conduct and our attitudes. Have we allowed practices into our lives which do not bring honor to Christ? Are we speaking and acting in a way which would cause an observer to doubt that we are experiencing the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives? If so we need to confess our sin to God and repent.
The Apostle John tells us “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) The Greek word homologeó, translated confess means “to speak the same, to agree”. What God requires of us is that we hold the same attitude toward our sin as He does.
Metanoeó, the Greek word translated repent in the New Testament means “to change one’s mind or purpose” with the sense of a change so profound that it involves a 180 degree change in direction. To repent of our sins means not just to turn away from them but to turn from them and toward God.
Before reaching out to take hold of the elements of the Lord’s Supper we need to let go of anything we may be holding on to which interferes with our relationship with Christ. To do otherwise is to risk partaking in an unworthy manner and thus eating and drinking judgement to ourselves.
Spindale Covenant Brethren Church 