Every Sunday morning at Hillside, we take communion. We do it to follow the example of the early church (Acts 20:7), who made a point of gathering on the first day of the week to eat and commemorate the Lord’s death.
It’s not designed to be a simple meal with a couple of random elements. The Lord’s Supper is arguably the most important part of our worship service. It’s a time of reflection, fellowship with other believers, and thankfulness for God’s great sacrifice.
But it’s also a time to measure ourselves.
Paul chastised the church at Corinth for taking what was supposed to be a meal that brought believers together and turning it into an opportunity to exalt themselves over each other (1 Corinthians 11:17-22). They couldn’t be thankful to God if they were too busy thanking themselves for being so awesome.
Immediately after that section in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul tells the church that they need to “examine themselves” during the Lord’s Supper. What were they supposed to examine, exactly? For starters, whether or not there was anything unrepented of that kept them out of fellowship with God. The perfect standard of Jesus gives us a continual model to strive for.
God has always designed His sacrifices and feasts—the periods of communion with Him—to be performed by people who were clean. Not perfect, obviously—no one can meet that standard (Romans 3:23). But clean. People who acknowledge their sins and repent of them in order to be made more in His image.
That’s why God wanted those who took of the peace offerings in Leviticus 7 to check themselves before taking part in the offering. If they knew they were unclean and yet still involved themselves in a holy sacrifice, it would contaminate the whole thing.
Perhaps just as bad, their involvement would signal to a holy God that His holiness doesn’t matter.
Think about it in different terms. If I’m invited to someone’s house, and I know that they’ve spent a significant amount of time cleaning before we came over, would I walk in with mud on my shoes? Not only would it destroy their hard work, but it would show a blatant disrespect for their home and their efforts.
That’s how we can get when we come to God in Worship. None of us will ever appear before Him spotless and sin-free, but we should take some time to prepare our hearts. Examine ourselves to make sure we’re living by His commandments so that we can come to Him clean. That’s the way we can truly enjoy the peace He brings to us.
