The Ignorant & Scandalous At the Table?

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms:

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.

Continue here...