Romans 15:7; 1 Corinthians 10:16,17
Receive ye one another, as Christ hath also received us to the glory of God.
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): Paul says that as we partake of Christ, we become one; we become, if you like, one loaf. There are some who say that verse 17 should be translated: “For we being many are one loaf—not bread—and one body.” So as we come to the Communion Service, and as the bread is broken, we are reminded at one and the same time of the parts, and of the whole.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): The Lord’s Supper demands that the body be fully recognized: if the one body be not recognized, it is but sectarianism: the Lord Himself has lost His place. If the table be spread upon any narrower principle than that which would embrace the whole body of Christ, it is become a sectarian table…The celebration of the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper should be the distinct expression of the unity of all believers, and not merely of the unity of a certain number gathered on certain principles, which distinguish them from others.
ROBERT MURRAY M’CHEYNE (1813-1843): When Rowland Hill had preached in a Baptist chapel where none but baptized adults were admitted to the Lord’s Supper, he wished to observe it with them, but was told respectfully, ‘You cannot sit down at our table.’ He only calmly replied, “I thought it was the Lord’s table.”
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): They forgot, when they denied fellowship in the outward act of eating bread and drinking wine, that the essential spirit of communion was far too spiritual to be thus restrained. The Holy Ghost will go into every member, and you may try to check Him by Church decrees, or to stop Him by your trust-deeds and your ordinances, that such-and-such a Church shall never be loosed from the bands of ancestral bigotry, but communion will go to all who are in Christ.
ROWLAND HILL (1744-1833): The Baptist congregation at Northampton has at all times held a warm place in my affections, as it respects their love to all who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity, and prove the same by a holy correspondent life and conversation. In this sense only we should hold what may be called strict communion, but when our communion with each other is found inadmissible because of our less important differences about the mere circumstantials of religion, or the administration of a religious ordinance, this should not be called strict but sectarian communion.
C. H. SPURGEON: When I hear “strict communion” talked of, it reminds me of a little finger which was washed very clean, and therefore thought the rest of the body too filthy to have fellowship with it, so it took a piece of red tape and bound it tightly round itself, that the lifeblood might not flow from itself into the rest of the body.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): There should be a happy medium between sectarian narrowness and the world’s ‘broadmindedness,’ between compromising the truth and turning away from some of the Lord’s people because they differ from us on non-essentials. Shall I refuse to partake of a meal because some of the dishes are not cooked as I like them? Then why decline fellowship with a brother in the Lord because he is unable to pronounce correctly my favourite shibboleth? It is not without reason that “endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” is immediately preceded by “forbearing one another in love, ” Ephesians 4:2,3.
WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): This brings to mind the following occurrence―I was one day to dine with John Ryland at a friend’s house: while waiting for dinner, a minister asked Ryland’s opinion concerning strict communion and excluding pious men from the Lord’s table. “You decide the thing by calling it the Lord’s table, he replied. “Suppose, sir, when I entered this room, I had said, ‘Mr. such-a-one, you shall not sit down at this table; and Mrs. Such-a-one, you shall not sit down at this table?’ What would the master of this house, say?―‘Why, John Ryland, you are not the owner of this table. The table is mine, and I have a right to invite them; and I have invited them; and is it for you to forbid them?’ So in the church: the table is the Lord’s; and all who are called by His grace are His guests, and He has bidden them.”
ROWLAND HILL: What sort of evil is sectarianism? It is the cruel iron wedge of the devil’s own forging, to separate Christians from each other.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: If there be any term of communion proposed, save the all-important one of faith in the atonement of Christ, and a walk consistent with that faith, the table becomes the table of a sect.
ROBERT MURRAY M’CHEYNE: The early Reformers held the same view. Calvin wrote to Cranmer that he would cross ten seas to bring it about. Baxter, Owen, and Howe, in a later generation, pleaded for it; and the Westminster Divines laid down the same principle: “Saints, by profession, are bound to maintain an holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God—which communion, as God offereth opportunity, is to be extended unto all those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.”
C. H. MACKINTOSH: If we could only bear in mind that the Lord Himself presides at the table to dispense the bread and wine; if we could hear Him say, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves,” we should be better able to meet all our brethren on the only Christian ground of fellowship which God can own. In a word, the person of Christ is the centre of union; the word is, “Receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.”
ROBERT MURRAY M’CHEYNE: I have no doubt from Scripture that, where we have good reason for regarding a man as a child of God, we are permitted and commanded to treat him as a brother; and, as the most sacred pledge of heavenly friendship, to sit down freely at the table of our Lord, to eat bread and drink wine together in remembrance of Christ. If we have solid ground to believe that a fellow-sinner has been, by the Holy Spirit, grafted into the true vine, then we have ground to believe that we are vitally united to one another for eternity.
HUGH MARTIN (1822-1885): Those that are Christ’s are welcome; those that are not are forbidden…In the name of Christ, who spreads this table and presides over all its fellowship, we invite those that are Christ’s, those who have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts―to come to the table of the Lord.
C. H. SPURGEON: What food luxurious loads the board,
When, at His table, sits the Lord!
The wine how rich, the bread how sweet,
When Jesus deigns the guests to meet!
R. C. CHAPMAN (1803-1902): With Jesus in the midst, we gather round the board,
Tho’ many, we are one in Christ, one body in the Lord.
MARY B. PETERS (1813-1856): Around Thy table, holy Lord, In fellowship we meet,
Obedient to Thy gracious word, This feast of love to eat.
Here ev’ry one that loves Thy name, Our willing hearts embrace;
Our source of life and hope the same, all debtors to Thy grace.
