The Ignorant & Scandalous At the Table?

How the Church is to Guard the Lord's Supper From Unrighteousness

Good Morning,

Well, today in our time in the Directory of Public Worship we are going to look at what can easily be seen as the shortest section we have ever looked at together. In some ways it is also the most controversial. We do not live in a day and age that much cares for distinctions nor for laying out requirements and sticking to them, and it is especially the case in the church that we live in fear of disciplining church members mostly for the fact that we know that it is unlikely that other congregations will honor that discipline. So instead of dealing with it we just either meekly passive aggressively ignore it or praise it in our inaction. When it comes to the Table of Christ we witness that the Bible does not care about our feelings, only what is right and good.

Every time we gather for the Supper at Bethany I read 1 Corinthians 11:23-30. I do it for a couple of reasons. One, for the purpose of reminding us of the means of grace at offer at the Table, but also to remind us that if we believe, as we do, in the real presence of Christ and that the eating of the bread and drinking of the cup actually accomplish something that benefits us spiritually that the opposite is also true. Paul’s admonitions about not taking the meal rightly and the consequences to both physical and spiritual health are not empty threats. He means it, God means it, and we best take it seriously, hence why the sentence below is in the DPW. Read it:

The ignorant and the scandalous are not fit to receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.

There are two categories that the DPW is concerned about: ignorant and scandalous. We’ll take them one at a time, the less difficult one first. When the directory uses the word ignorant it is not to be understood pejoratively. Often the way people use it today it can mean that, but it doesn’t need to be taken as a rude description. I am ignorant about how to write code. I am ignorant about the Chinese language. To say someone because of their ignorance cannot come and eat of the bread and the cup we are testifying that they do not understand what is taking place. This could be for the reason that they are infants and cannot reasonably comprehend the ideas present and certainly cannot verbally express themselves to the elders who guard the table. It is the practice of every confessionally reformed Presbyterian body that you cannot be actively partaking of the Supper unless you have professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. While we certainly agree with Scripture that babies can praise God and recognize the Savior (John the Baptist) it is certainly also the case that the Old Testament and New Testament are clear that this in no way gives precedence for those little ones to partake. There is something else necessary.

Unlike Baptism which is the initiatory rite of membership in the church, admittance to Communion is only for those who having been publicly recognized to have been regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit. Who are then not ignorant of the promises of the covenant and are ready and able to confirm their assent to what is happening at the table. This kind of ignorance is different from a child who cannot grasp the actions at the Lord’s Supper. To be relieved from this type of unfamiliarity is how the Bible describes people who have come to faith. Their eyes have been opened, their ears unstuck, and their hearts made new to see and love the Lord Jesus Christ. It would be like me going from a man who can barely change a tire to one who can rebuild an engine. There is an awakening, a teaching time, and a desire to really know how that works. The same is true of the difference between an unbeliever and a believer when it comes to ignorance. It’s why elders must guard the table from the leaven of unrighteousness. It is as much to protect those eating for good reason as those who eat unworthily. It is an act of love to put up a hedge around the place of communion. You wouldn’t let someone just go out and randomly select mushrooms to eat. Only a person who knows what to look for and what is good for human consumption can do so and benefit from it. The same is true of the ignorant at the Lord’s Supper. Those who know have a duty and a responsibility to watch over and shepherd those who are not Christians, or infants, and therefore lack knowledge so that they do not bring harm on themselves. We are to encourage the ignorant to become educated through the preaching of the Word and the evangelistic outpouring of the gospel so that they can then come as brothers and sisters to the feast of Jesus and receive all the blessings available at the meal.

The second group under consideration in this one line from the DPW are those people classed as scandalous. What is this referring to? When you think about what that word means apart from what we are talking about here it usually refers to someone who has committed such a heinous act, normally as a person in power, that scandal has been brought to the office and to the nation. It is something wildly outside the norms of decent society. For our purposes in its relation to the Lord’s Supper it is not really that much different. A scandalous person is a man or a woman who is a professing Christian, active in the church, bold about their faith who commits a sin worthy of repentance and refuses to do so. We are not here concerned with sinners coming to the Table. If that was the case none of us could eat and drink. The idea here is someone who is in an active adulterous relationship or openly cavorting with gambling or doing something disruptive in the community of faith or the community at large, etc... whose presence at the Supper brings ill-measured tainting to the love feast. Elders are to once more guard the table from this danger.

In closing, it is worthwhile for all of us to take stock and prepare ourselves before we come to the Table of Christ to make sure that not only are we not ignorant of the meaning of the meal, but that we are right with the Lord and our conscience before we gather there. This is part of the reason why a communion season (a series of preparatory services) used to be the norm in Presbyterian circles. If we are open with ourselves we can admit that we do not take as seriously as we should the work of being made ready. Let us learn from this one small line from the DPW to consider the warnings of the Apostle Paul before we come, for we do so only by the grace of our Lord, and by His free invitation. And that is ever more the reason to seek knowledge.

Here’s a last word:

https://gentlereformation.com/2024/11/13/to-commune-or-not-commune-a-few-thoughts-on-paedocommunion/

Blessings in Christ,

Rev. Benjamin Glaser

Pastor, Bethany ARP Church