Preparation for Communion

Judge not lest ye be judged. That’s the statement bandied about every time someone tries to talk about righteous living.

But most often, we misjudge. Oh, it’s not as though we miss the mark, actually, we’re pretty good at hitting what we’re aiming at. Usually, though, we’re aiming at the wrong thing. We aim at others. This passage tells us to aim at ourselves.

This is what Jesus described as getting picky about the speck of dust in your neighbour’s eye, but failing to see the 2x4 sticking out of your own eye.

This passage is directed at individuals.

I cannot judge for you. Oh sure, I could point out some areas of weakness in your life, if you really want me to. And I’m quite certain you can do the same for me. But this passage says we must examine ourselves. We must look inward. Before we claim, and participate in fellowship with God and with one another, we must examine ourselves.

Tested By God

Like David in Psalm 139, we must invite the Holy Spirit to search us, to see if there is any sinful way within us.

In examining our bodies, we are to recognise where sin is in our lives. Be it pride, or superstition, or drunkenness, or adultery, or lust, or coveting, or greed, or selfishness, or a combination therein. And by Jesus’ standards, we don’t actually have to commit a crime in order to be guilty of it. If a man looks at a woman lustfully, he’s already guilty of committing adultery with her. Not that that’s an excuse to go ahead and do the deed anyway.

Likewise, if a woman covets something her neighbour has, a slimmer waist, nicer clothes, better house, whatever, she doesn’t actually have to go out and steal that stuff in order to be guilty of it.

Now, when we examine ourselves, we must be as critical as the Lord is. He’s set the standard, and it is very high. We must not become tempted to judge ourselves on our own terms.

Some churches have lowered the standards. Those who call themselves Christian, but who are unwilling to accept Christ on His terms pressure these churches to go soft on sin. As a result, Christians are not growing into maturity.

God’s Judgement

There are two apparent consequences from sin. First, it invites judgement from God. Second, it has consequences on the lives of others.

First, if we think we can have fellowship with Christ and with others and still live a life of sin, we deceive ourselves and God’s truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8-9).

A failure to own up to sin, to really recognise that it is there, a failure to repent, brings judgement.

Now, this might need a bit more clarification. What Paul is talking about here is this. A repentant person is one who, yes, still sins, but who gets frustrated at that sin. This individual can look back and see, wow, there were so many opportunities to avoid such a sin. Or, wow, I totally didn’t see that sin coming. But it infuriates me that I fell into that sin! I hate my sin! I readily confess it, and want to get rid of it. I want to just live for Jesus, and not sin.

But not everyone is like that. Some people look at their sin, as they look in a mirror. They look in a mirror; see themselves for who they are, but as soon as they walk away from the mirror, they put their own image of themselves in the place of the mirror image. They immediately forget what they really looked like.

Some people can’t get a real grip on their own lives. Don’t believe me? Watch the opening episodes of American Idol. Truly awful singers leave the judging room still thoroughly convinced that they are the best singer ever. They think the judges are morons. They have about as real a grip on reality as Daffy Duck does.

We must invite the Holy Spirit to come and give us a good going over. We must own up to what the Spirit uncovers. We must confess it, and then hate it. We must turn our backs on it, and strive to live differently.

Then we may participate in the Lord’s Supper. If we don’t do this, the judgement of God will come upon us. King David was familiar with sin, but he was also familiar with repentance. And though he repented earnestly and wholeheartedly, he still was forced to deal with the consequences of his sin. He had to endure God’s judgement.

Similarly, we too have to deal with the consequences of our sin, even if we do repent, but especially if we don’t. Sometimes God spares us, for after all, we all deserve death, but he placed that on His son instead.

Impact on Others

But there’s another consequence for unrepentant sin, of taking communion without confession and true repentance first.

What we do has an impact on others. Paul tells the Corinthian church that they were guilty of abusing the Lord’s Supper. As a result, there was illness, weakness and death in the congregation.

Now, we don’t like to think of this, do we? We don’t like to think that our actions not only might have negative consequences in our own lives, but also negative consequences in the lives of others.

I guess in this modern age, we’d have to call this second hand sinning. That’s where being “innocent bystanders” we are judged and disciplined by God for the sins of others, kinda like second hand smoke.

Once, in a congregational prayer, I asked, “Lord if such and such a person is struggling with such and such a thing because of sin in their life, then let your Spirit lead them to confession. Afterward, some people complained to me for suggesting that God was punishing that person for their sin, but didn’t God punish His Son instead of us?

And well, yes, He did, with eternal punishment. But this passage indicates that while the sickness, weakness and death is not unto eternal death, it is still an element of God’s discipline, loving discipline mind you, toward His people.

The thing that I didn’t really consider at the time is that the sickness could have been a result of my sin! It could have been the result of sin of the congregation.

That’s why we need to invite the Holy Spirit to examine us. Unless we do that, we’ll just be guessing. Now, I don’t know, it hasn’t happened to me yet, that the Holy Spirit has told me that someone is sinning and that’s why he or she’re sick, or so and so in the congregation is sick. But this passage does indicate that some sickness, weakness and death are a consequence of sin.

Don’t Become Complacent

The point of all this, of course is so that we don’t become complacent in our sin. It is very easy to get used to sin. After a while, you stop seeing it as sin. It just becomes a part of life. Eventually, some people try to get it reclassified as orientation, or lifestyle, or disposition, or genetic inclination, anything but sin. So, then the Holy Spirit comes along and wakes us up out of our lethargy.

The danger of this passage is using this as an aggressive campaign against sin, especially if we start witch hunting those around us. No the point of this, way back when Paul first wrote it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and the point of it now is to draw us, individually, inward. The point is so that we’d recognise sin in our lives, confess it, repent of it, and turn away from it. Then encourage others to do the same.

Now turning away from sin, involves turning toward God. You cannot avoid sin by looking at it. And the moment you rejoice in defeating one sin in your life, then next moment, you’ll be guilty of committing another. Our goal is not to be sin avoiders, but rather God glorifiers.

When we turn away from sin, we must turn toward God instead. We must seek God, desire God, and yearn for God more and more. In fact, communion with God cultivates a desire to seek God more and more!

So, suppose someone comes into church on communion Sunday, and they are living in sexual sin. Should we prevent them from participating in communion? Well, out of concern for them, but also out of concern for others in the faith, we should prevent them from participating, because, being united in one body; the consequences of one impact the other.

Chronicles 21 tells us that when King David commissioned the census, he sinned. As a result, the people suffered.

So, when we come to the table, we must not come with false faith. We must come with humility, lest others receive judgement for our sin.

If someone comes and demands to participate, without properly committing themselves to this body, or who comes and demands to participate even though there is unconfessed sin, admitted unconfessed sin in their life, then yes, the elders are justified in preventing them from participating, both out of concern for them, and out of concern for the body.

Judgement first and foremost is internal and personal. Elders concern themselves with spiritual health, because unconfessed individual sin can ripple out and affect the entire congregation. The purpose of confronting people gently is to restore into true fellowship. That’s why this role goes to just a few; and only those who are humble and gifted.

So let us encourage one another, through prayer. Pray for me, that I may be humble and gracious. Pray for my fellow elders that we all will be humble and patient. Pray for one another that we might together be humble and patient. Amen.