Stop Not Taking Communion
Imagine you have a rare medical condition requiring regular medication. When your pharmacist meets with you to discuss the prescription, she is careful to point out how not to take the medicine. You must not take this medicine on an empty stomach. She warns you that some have become sick, and others have died by their failure to heed these instructions.
She can tell you’re alarmed by these warnings, so she reiterates the importance of the medicine. It will most assuredly save your life, despite the risks associated with taking it incorrectly. So don’t neglect taking your medicine. And don’t neglect the instructions. Take your medicine, and take it the right way.
If you’re a follower of Jesus, you too have been given a prescription. On the night of His betrayal the Great Physician instructed His disciples to take bread and cup in remembrance of His body and blood. That prescription has been effectively refilled for all of God's people until the day Jesus returns:
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:26).
Taking the Lord’s Supper isn’t like an optional snack or a luxury treat reserved for special occasions. In the life of the believer it’s a life-saving prescription. Why then do Christians sometimes decide to not take communion when it's celebrated in their local churches?
Like any prescription, believers have been given instructions on how to take the medicine of communion properly. We’ve been commanded to examine ourselves and to consider our relationships with other believers (1 Corinthians 11:28-29). We’ve also heard warnings about what could happen if we take this meal improperly. Some have gotten sick, others have died (1 Corinthians 11:30).
Now how should we respond to these warnings? Sadly many Christians respond by avoiding the meal altogether.
Go back to our opening scenario. You've been told not to take the medicine on an empty stomach. You've been warned what could happen if you take the medicine incorrectly. You've been reminded that the risks of taking the medicine wrongly should not keep you from taking the medicine entirely. So when it's time to take your medicine and you realize you haven't eaten yet, what will you do? Will you skip a dose because you don't want to take the medicine incorrectly? Absolutely not! Instead you would eat a meal so you can take the medicine rightly.
Why should the communion meal be any different? The warnings about taking communion wrongly are not given to us so we will avoid taking communion. The remedy is not to "not take communion" when there's unconfessed sin or unreconciled relationships. The remedy is to confess our sin and reconcile our relationships so we can take communion rightly. So Christian, let's follow our Great Physician's instructions. Yes, let's make sure we do it correctly. But let's stop not taking communion.