Conflict and Communion
A friend refused communion. Though unnoticed by most, she later confessed that she was holding a grudge against one of the Pastors of the church. She felt she needed to “get right” with him before she participated in communion.
This left me some questions about communion.
Recently, it became necessary to investigate this internal conflict over communion as I was upset with someone (who had no idea I was upset) and I thought I should refuse communion. This was a tactic that I thought would force me to deal with the person rather than remain silent.
On the way home, my husband asked why I had not taken communion. He had suspected what the problem was and asked me for my biblical stance. I gave him Christ’s words from Matthew 5:23- 24: Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
He pointed out that this passage is talking about our tithes and offerings – our gifts – not taking communion. He called it “excommunicating myself” by refusing communion.
I had just assumed my friend was right in her stance as she had been a Christian much longer than I and this was the only verse I could find that seemed to apply.
But, 1 Corinthians 11:26 instructs us, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
Participating in the ordinance of Communion is a profession of our faith, not an offering of a gift. Rather, it’s the remembrance of the gift that God has given us (1 Corinthians 11:24).
Later, Paul talks about taking communion in an “unworthy manner.” He has previously rebuked them for divisions in the church, for eating the meal without waiting for others (treating it as though it were like any other meal)) and for being drunk. So, we are to examine ourselves prior to taking communion and should confess our sin before God. Unless we intend to defy God and remain in our sin, we should take communion.
Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 1 Corinthians 11:27-29.
Our participation in communion is not about our relationships with other people. It is clearly, according to Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 11, a proclamation of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, a remembrance of what He has done for us.
God has given us the sacrament of communion to offer us an opportunity to remember the shedding of Christ’s blood and the sacrifice of His body on the cross. He suffered and died in taking the punishment that we deserve for our sin. Why would we ever “excommunicate ourselves” from this kind of love?
Conflicts with other people need to be resolved and if we have responded to them in an “unworthy manner,” then we need to confess that to the Lord before we come to His table. But, we need to come to His table to “do this in remembrance of Him”(1 Corinthians 11:24-25), and to “proclaim His death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26).