Communion – Beware Lest You Bring Judgment upon Yourself

        By Patrick Hawthorne

Communion – the Lord’s Supper – a symbolic act performed by the Church whereby we break bread and drink wine (or grape juice) to celebrate Jesus and to reflect on and recall all that God, through our Lord Jesus, has and will do for us.  It is a time of remembrance and reflection…or is it?

With the drive-through, fast-food mentality of today, has Communion become just another symbolic ritual to temporarily silence the sounds of our spirit crying out for all that is holy?  This might not go over well with certain groups of people, but could it be that your particular church (your personal congregation) has become powerless – stale and stagnant – because it has taken lightly the sacrament of Communion?

Communion is a very serious subject that has become so watered down in many churches that it has become a “Ho-Hum” affair.  If you don’t believe me, read words of a particular minister within a certain denomination.

“Today’s busy Christians simply just don’t have the time these days to sit in an uncomfortable church pew for an hour or longer, bumping their feet against the kneelers, listening to, let’s face it, usually windy and ill-conceived sermons and mumbling along to un-singible hymns while they wait to receive the Holy Sacraments.”

This is an extremely dangerous attitude.  It not only demonstrates the ignorance and the apostasy of this leader, but breeds an attitude among his congregants that it is acceptable to pervert God’s grace.  Let me ask you this, if this subject was so important to Jesus that He personally appeared to Paul with the instructions on how to institute it, should we not also take it seriously?

Paul had to rebuke the Church at Corinth because they had taken lightly the act of Communion.  Notice what he said.  “For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep (have died.)”’

Many had become sick and some died because they were guilty of the body and the blood of our Lord Jesus.   They ate and drank in a manner unworthy of the Lord, therefore BRINGING JUDGMENT ON THEMSELVES, by not discerning the Lord’s body.  Communion had become a commonality to them.  It was a “thing,” a ritual that held little to no meaning.  (1 Cor 11:27-32)

I am not passing judgment on any denomination or any congregation.  I just feel of late that I have been giving the task of writing in a direction that will help the Body of Jesus Christ to wake up out of the slumber we have been in for a long, long time.  It is time for the Church (the Body) to rise up and once again operate in the power of God.

The next time you take Communion, STOP!  First examine your heart.  Pray and ask the Lord to reveal anything within you that needs fixing.  Also, take time to reflect on all that Jesus has done for you.

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”  In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying,“This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26 NKJV)