Baptism and the Lord's Supper

Who Should Take Communion?

The Lord's Supper · The two ordinances Jesus gave his church

Scripture calls those who come to the Lord's table to examine themselves first, so that they eat and drink with faith, repentance, and love, discerning the Lord's body. The table is for those who belong to Christ and come honestly, not for the flawless but for the forgiven. Christian traditions honestly differ on who is welcomed to receive, from open to more guarded practice, and this page names those differences fairly while centering the invitation of Jesus.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.1 Corinthians 11:28 (KJV)

The command to examine yourself

The clearest guidance on who should take communion comes from Paul, writing to a church that had been coming to the table carelessly. His counsel is not to stay away in fear but to come with self-examination.

To examine oneself is to pause and ask the honest questions. Do I trust Christ, whose death this meal proclaims? Am I turning from my sin rather than clinging to it? Am I at peace, so far as it depends on me, with my brothers and sisters? Self-examination is not a test to pass before one is good enough. It is the searching of a heart that wants to come rightly to the One who gave himself for us.

Discerning the Lord's body

Paul warns that the Corinthians were eating and drinking unworthily, not discerning the Lord's body. The problem was not that they were sinners; everyone at the table is a sinner saved by grace. The problem was that they came thoughtlessly, treating a holy meal as a common one and despising the poorer members of the church while they did it. To discern the Lord's body is to recognize what the meal is, the sign of Christ crucified, and to honor the church that is his body by coming in love.

So the warning against coming unworthily is not meant to drive humble believers from the table. It is meant to wake careless ones up. The remedy Paul gives is never stay away; it is examine yourself, and so come. The table is guarded by honesty, not by perfection.

For the forgiven, not the flawless

It is worth saying plainly, because tender consciences so often get this wrong: the Lord's Supper is for sinners who trust Jesus, not for people who have stopped sinning. If only the sinless could come, the table would be empty, for the first communion was given to twelve men, one of whom would betray him and another deny him that very night. The bread and cup are medicine for the weak and food for the weary. The question at the table is not have you been good enough, but do you belong to Christ and come to him in faith.

This means the anxious believer, the one most afraid of eating unworthily, is usually exactly the one Christ is glad to feed. Come repentant, come trusting, come longing for him, and you come rightly.

Where Christians differ on who is welcomed

Here is an honest difference worth naming clearly. Christian traditions do not all draw the circle of the table in the same place, and this platform does not take a side.

Many churches practice what is often called open communion, welcoming all who trust in Christ and are right with him, whatever their denomination, to receive. Some welcome all the baptized. Others practice a more guarded table, sometimes called close communion, inviting those who share the church's confession or who are members in good standing of a like-minded congregation. Some, including the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, ordinarily reserve communion for members of their own communion who have been prepared to receive, out of a deep conviction about the unity the table expresses. Many traditions also ask that a person be baptized before coming to the table, and many reserve it for those old enough to examine themselves.

These practices flow from sincere convictions about what the Supper is and what it confesses, and faithful Christians hold them in good conscience. Because The Living Bread is non-denominational, the wise and respectful path is to honor the practice of the church whose table you are at, and to ask its leaders if you are unsure whether you are welcome to receive.

Coming reconciled to one another

Self-examination looks inward to faith and repentance, but Jesus taught that it also looks outward to our brothers and sisters. In the Sermon on the Mount he said that if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has anything against you, you should first go and be reconciled, and then come and offer your gift. The Lord's table, where the many share one loaf, is exactly the place this applies. Paul's whole rebuke to the Corinthians was aimed at a church coming to the Supper divided, the well-fed shaming the hungry. To come rightly is to come at peace, so far as it depends on us, with the family we are about to eat with.

This does not mean waiting until every relationship is perfect, for that day may never come. It means coming with a forgiving and humble heart, willing to seek peace, refusing to hold a grudge across the table of the Lord who forgave us everything. The Supper both requires reconciliation and helps to work it, drawing quarreling believers back into one body around the one bread.

Children, preparation, and the age to receive

Traditions also differ over when in life a person begins to receive, and this too is worth naming plainly. Because Paul calls those who come to examine themselves, many churches welcome to the table those old enough to understand and profess the faith for themselves, whether after a personal profession or after a season of instruction. Some traditions admit children earlier, after baptism and preparation suited to their years; the Eastern Orthodox Church, for instance, gives communion to the baptized from infancy. Others prepare children for a first communion at a set age. None of these customs is treated here as the single right one. Each seeks, in its own way, to honor both the seriousness of discerning the Lord's body and the welcome of Christ to the young. If you are raising children in the faith, the loving path is to learn and follow the practice of your own church and to teach them what the meal means.

A word to those who feel unworthy

If reading about self-examination has left you feeling that you could never be worthy, take heart. No one is worthy of the table on their own account; that is the whole point of the cross. Worthiness at the Lord's Supper is not a level of goodness you reach but the righteousness of Christ received by faith. Come confessing your sin, and it is met by his forgiveness. Come empty, and you are the very one the meal was made to fill. The table belongs to the Lord, and he is far more willing to receive humble sinners than they are to come.

What unites us at the table

For all the differences over who is welcomed and when, Christians agree on the heart of the matter. The Supper is for those who belong to Christ. It calls everyone who comes to examine themselves, to come in faith and repentance and love, and to discern the Lord's body. And it is, at its center, an invitation, the crucified and risen Jesus setting bread and cup before his people and saying, this is for you. Wherever you worship, come to his table the way he asks, and be fed.

A note for all traditions: baptism and the Lord's Supper are kept across the whole church, yet Christians practice them in genuinely different ways. Where believers sincerely differ, the main views are named here fairly and without taking a side, because The Living Bread is non-denominational. What unites us is greater than what divides us: obedience to Christ, remembrance of his death, and union with him.

Related: The Lord's Supper explained · How Christians differ on the Lord's Supper · The meaning of the bread and the cup · Baptism and the Lord's Supper