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Paul calls us to avoid eating and drinking the Lord’s Supper “in an unworthy manner,” lest we become “guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:27–31). We are instead to examine ourselves, and so eat and drink. Discernment is required to avoid divine judgment (vv. 29, 31). Eating and drinking at the Lord’s Table in a worthy manner is not optional. It is an urgent priority. What’s more, the high blessing promised to those who participate rightly underscores the importance of coming to the table well prepared. Remember: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (10:16). The table is no mere mnemonic, tripping our memories so that we recall what Jesus did long ago. No, we commune with Christ Himself, spiritually yet truly, feasting by faith on His body and blood as we receive the bread and the wine. It is hard not to conclude that if we understood better the blessing offered to us at the table, we might approach it with much greater reverence and prepare for it with far more diligence. But given that preparation is a duty, the question is: How are we to prepare to receive the Lord’s Supper and enjoy all its benefits? One way to answer that question is to notice that the Pauline instructions about the supper direct our gaze in four directions.
Look inward. “Let a person examine himself,” Paul says (1 Cor. 11:28). Self-examination before coming to the table starts with this simple question: “Am I a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, resting upon Him alone for salvation?” The supper is the meal that Christ has appointed for His disciples alone. It signifies our ongoing communion and fellowship with Him. The most elementary requirement for participation in the supper is that we have been baptized in the triune name (the sacramental sign of our membership in the covenant community) and that we have begun to fulfill the obligations of our baptismal covenant by professing our faith publicly in the Lord Jesus Christ, “receiv[ing] and rest[ing] upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel” (Westminster Shorter Catechism 86). So as Paul urged the Corinthians: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith” (2 Cor. 13:5). Genuine saving faith may be discerned from its fruit. For example, rereading 1 John will help us see the marks of true conversion. In the first two chapters alone, a Christian engaged in self-examination is led to ask himself: “Am I walking in the light as Christ is in the light (1:6–7)? Do I confess my sin (1:8–2:2)? Do I strive to keep His commandments (2:3–6)? Do I love my brothers and sisters in Christ (2:7–11)? Do I no longer love the world or the things of the world as once I did (2:15–17)? Am I continuing in the membership of my local church (2:19)? Do I confess the truth about Christ as the divine Son (2:20–25)?” Examine your heart. Confess your sin. Take all necessary steps to practice the fruit of repentance.
Look upward. Paul reminds the Corinthians of Jesus’ words when the supper was instituted: “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:24–25). The supper was instituted to fill our minds with thoughts of Christ: His person and character, His words and works, His obedience and sufferings. If we are to partake of the elements with profit, we ought to train our hearts in the habit of remembering Christ. A Christian who daily forgets His Savior will not likely remember Him when he comes to the table. Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s counsel was wise: “For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ.” We must not shirk the duty of self-examination, but it must be balanced carefully by a deeper, longer, greater study of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without Christ-centeredness, self-examination devolves into morbid introspection or overconfident self-congratulation. We find in self reasons either to despair or to boast. Both are destructive to our spiritual welfare.
Look outward. Paul told the Corinthians, “As often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death” (1 Cor. 11:26). Every time we sit at the table, we are preaching the gospel to one another and to the watching world. There is an invitation and a summons lacing the symbolism of the supper, calling on the unconverted to repent and believe in the Lord who died for sinners. Every time you eat the bread and drink the cup, your actions preach your utter dependence on the crucified Christ for spiritual sustenance and life. But how can we proclaim the Lord’s death as the fountain of our life when we sit at the table, when we never proclaim His death at any other time? Live and speak among the unconverted such that, if they ever come to church with you, they will see in your solemn participation in the table a graphic dramatization of the gospel that you have been sharing with them. Good witnesses make worthy communicants. Christ came to seek and save the lost. That is why He died. How can we come to the supper to feed on Him without sharing in His burden for those who “make a wretched choice, and rather starve than come?”
Look forward. We are to celebrate the supper, Paul says, “until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:26). There is a future orientation to the Eucharist. Christ is coming back to take His people home to glory. The Lord’s Table was given to the church to sustain us in faith until that day dawns. To eat and drink at that table with profit, we must fan into flame the fires of expectation, longing for Christ’s glorious appearing. At the table, we look not only backward to the cross, where our salvation was secured, but forward to the Lord’s return when it will be consummated. The Lord’s Table is a glimpse of the final banquet when the former things will have passed away and all things will be made new and sin and sorrow and suffering will be no more (Rev. 21:4). When we sit at the table, we catch a glimpse, as though the veil of history was drawn back for a few brief moments, of the barren hilltop where the Savior was hanged, and of the glorious throne room where He reigns in majesty, presiding at the marriage supper of the Lamb.