A number of people within our body have asked if we will/should partake in the Lord’s Supper (aka Communion) in our homes during this time of not gathering together due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a good question and represents a good longing that all of us should feel.
While we know and respect that some churches are encouraging this practice, the position of the elders of 2 Pillars Church is that we will not be partaking in the Lord’s Supper “virtually”. This position is based on two important reasonings: the nature of the ordinance and the nature of the church.
THE NATURE OF THE ORDINANCE
The Lord’s Supper is an “ordinance” of the church, meaning it was given (or ordained) by Christ Jesus himself to the church. While we celebrate the Lord’s Supper as an act of remembrance of all that Jesus is and all that he has done for us as individual believers, it’s also much more than simply a remembrance: it is a means of grace and act of nurturing and portraying our unity as Christ’s body. In other words, there is a very important “corporate” aspect central to the very nature of the ordinance.
Notice the repeated emphasis on the word “together” in 1 Corinthians 11:17-22:
[17] But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. [18] For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, [19] for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. [20] When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. [21] For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. [22] What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
The “coming together” in this passage was aimed at the entire church in Corinth. In fact, Paul goes so far as to contrast this coming together with eating (not together) in their homes in verse 22. The central problem being addressed in this text is that what the Corinthians were calling the Lord’s Supper was not, in fact, the Lord’s Supper because, they were not waiting until they all came together to partake in it. Later in the same passage, Paul therefore urges,
[33] So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.
Why this emphasis on coming together? Because the Lord’s Supper portrays our unity as Christ’s body.
More than that, though, the nature of the ordinance is such that it also nurtures this unity. We see this in 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 where Paul is also talking about the Lord’s Supper when he writes,
[16] 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? [17] Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
Notice Paul does not say that there is one bread because we’re one body, instead he actually says the opposite. We are one body because there is one bread. In other words, there is a sense in which our partaking in the Lord’s Supper together makes us the one body. This is inherent to the nature of the Lord’s Supper. Jesus gave us the Supper to mark us as one—or we might even say, make us as one.
Bobby Jamieson in his helpful little book, Understanding the Lord’s Supper, puts it this way:
“There is a gorgeous simplicity to God’s design for the church. What does it take to make a church? Gospel preaching that creates gospel people who participate in gospel ordinances. The church is the shape into which the gospel and its ordinances form God’s people. Baptism binds one to many, and the Lord’s Supper binds many to one.”
The nurturing of our unity is also evident in Paul’s instructions to examine ourselves (1 Corinthians 11:27-29). In context, what the Corinthians were to be examining themselves for was unity. They were to be “discerning the body”, discerning any divisions that might be present. To eat and drink at the Lord’s Table without consideration for the unity of the body was to partake in an “unworthy manner.”
An important aspect of the nature of the ordinance, then, is that it nurtures our unity. Every time we partake together, we’re portraying with our actions that we are united together by the blood of Jesus as one family. And by our very act of taking the Lord’s Supper together, we are also nurturing that unity. Tending it.
This aspect of the Supper demands physical presence. It’s simply not the same to partake “together” when we’re apart. When we’re apart, we’re not together and therefore we’re not really portraying and nurturing our unity (our “togetherness”) by partaking virtually.
THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH
One of the things that makes this topic difficult is a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the church. The local church is not an otherwise organized collection of random individuals. As the prior section made clear, we are one. We have been united together by the blood of Jesus! Our life is not our own any more, we belong to Jesus and we belong to one another. We have brothers and sisters. We are brother or sister. In a culture strung out on the narcotic of individualism, the Lord’s Supper drives us to detox.
When Jesus lifted up the cup and said, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” The words “new covenant” ought to jump right out of the Bible at us.
Part of what Jesus was instituting at the Lord’s Supper was the new covenant community. When we drink of the cup, we’re reminded, that we belong. We’re no longer outcasts. We have a Father in heaven who loves us and sent His Son for us. We’re reminded that by believing in Him, we become sons and daughters—adopted into the family—which the Bible calls the new covenant community.
When we partake in the Lord’s Supper together, there is a sense in which the new covenant (instituted by the blood of Jesus and represented in the wine at the Table) is renewed week after week after week and we’re reminded of the new covenant blessings time after time after time.
But also, the new covenant blessings do not exist apart from the new covenant community which means you cannot commit to the new covenant apart from committing to the new covenant community—which finds expression in the here and now in the local church.
To receive Christ at his Table, is to receive all those seated next to you at that Table, as your brothers and sisters: regardless of class, regardless of race, regardless of political affiliations, regardless of socio-economical diversity, or history. In Christ, we’ve been made new, and united into one body.
We are not our own. We have been adopted into a family, a body. This is our understanding of the nature of the church. And our understanding the local church and our understanding of the Lord’s Supper go hand-in-hand. If we have a low view of one, we’ll inevitably have a low view of the other. One of the reasons Jesus instituted this ordinance, was for us to have high view of both.
In other words, the Lord’s Supper ought to shape how we think about the nature of the local church and the nature of the local church ought to shape how we think about the Lord’s Supper. Our oneness is portrayed and nurtured at the Table and this is absolutely central to who we are as the church. We’re one.
All of that is easily lost when we’re not together. We can very easily overly-individualize the Lord’s Supper by partaking of it when not together. When we do, we also overly-individualize what it means to be a part of the new covenant community to begin with—the very new covenant community that Jesus referred to when lifting the cup and saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.”
MORE ARGUMENTS, CHARITY, & LONGING
Additional arguments could be added for not administering and partaking in the Lord’s Supper virtually including the ordinance being administered by elders, fencing the Table (i.e. preventing non-believers or those in unrepentant sin from partaking in the Supper), and guarding from a sense of false assurance or easy believism. With that said, in this article we’ve chosen to focus strictly on the nature of the ordinance and the nature of the church.
It should also be said that this issue is not nearly as clear cut as we’d like it to be in Scripture. There is no one single passage that explicitly prohibits virtual Communion. Therefore, in no way do we wish to cast stones at devoted brothers and sisters who study the Scriptures and come to a conclusion on the other side. What is represented here is our attempt to hold fast to the Word of God (our ultimate authority for faith and practice) and guard ourselves from being led more primarily by pragmatism.
Lastly, may this article be used to increase your longing to gather together as you reflect on the nature of the Lord’s Supper and the nature of the church.