Question:
Why do we believe in a closed [or guarded] table, instead of an open table for anyone who is a Christian to break bread?
Answer:
In regards to who we as Christians break bread with, we know that the Lord Jesus only desires those who are Christians to “come together” and fellowship in the breaking of bread.
Why we know this is because we are given the doctrine, teaching (the meaning) of the bread and cup in the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 10:15-17: “I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say. 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.”
You will remember that when the Lord instituted His supper that He first broke the bread and then passed the cup. But when the Spirit of God through the apostle Paul presents the meaning of these emblems, He first mentions “the cup of blessing”! It represents that from which all blessing flows: “the blood of Christ.” Why is the cup mentioned first? Because a person must have “communion” or fellowship with the blood of Christ to partake of the Lord’s Supper.
Therefore this is one reason we know that the Lord Jesus only desires those who are Christians to “come together” and fellowship in the breaking of bread.
In order to keep this exclusive for Christians only, we have to guard the local table (usually where we are breaking bread) from those whom the assembly does not know.
The word “communion” in 1 Corinthians 10:16 & 17 means fellowship. We have to know a person to have fellowship with him. Also, not only must a person be saved but he must know he is saved. He must be able to say as the apostle without doubt: “I am not ashamed: for I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day” (2 Timothy 1:12). Also, since the Lord has given the local assembly the responsibility to receive a person to fellowship in the breaking of bread (Matthew 18:17-20; Romans 15:7), the assembly is to know that the person is saved by their actions. The Lord says: “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20).
Also, there were those who were put out of their local fellowship and lost their privilege to break bread because of unrepented sin (see 1 Corinthians 5:9-13). We have to honor God’s discipline in other assemblies.
The reason for this is because Christ announced: “I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). After He died and rose again, God “put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church,
which is His body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23). “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). So there is only “one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling” (Ephesians 4:4). Each assembly is linked with every other assembly that seeks to represent the one church, the one body of Christ.
So Paul wrote to the assembly at Corinth: “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours” (1 Corinthians 1:2). Distance is the only thing that should keep the assemblies apart. We have the same teaching, the same Head (Christ) and the same Holy Spirit. Though the Lord has given the responsibility to the local “two or three” who are gathered unto His name to judge those who are within the assembly or desire to come in (1 Corinthians 5:12-13; Matthew 18:17-20).
If a person was put out of a “church” in another area and showed up at a local assembly, we are bound to check this person out before they are allowed to break bread. This can’t be done 2 minutes before remembrance meeting.
We are also not to have any fellowship (that is what we are doing, by the way, in breaking bread) with those who hold doctrinal evils (see 2 John 7-11). We believe that a local assembly must be responsible for who it allows to break bread, not the person who wants to break bread. (See Matthew 18:17-20; 1 Corinthians 5:4-13).
Many misuse the verse: “Let a man examine himself and so let him eat” (1 Corinthians 11:28) to mean that it is up to the individual who shows up at the breaking of bread to decide for himself whether he has the right to break bread there. If you read that verse in context, it applies only to those who were already received in fellowship at that location.
First Corinthians was written to those already in fellowship: “Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours” (1 Corinthians 1:1-2).
“But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup” (1 Corinthians 11:28-32), is a test each person should do before we eat of the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:20). We should examine (judge): (1) the company we keep, (2) the habits we have, (3) our affections; (4) our motives; (5) our thoughts.
If we allow anyone who shows up at the Lord’s Supper to partake on the basis he says he is a Christian, we could allow many cult members to remember the Lord. Ask any Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons if they are Christians, and they will say, “Yes.” However, their doctrine says they are not Christians for they do not believe that Jesus is God. This is why the assembly has the responsibility to ‘check out,’ “judge them that are within,” so as to not fellowship with evil in this most holy and sacred privilege we have as believers.
The Scriptures give as reason for a guarded table to be that evil, whether doctrinal or moral, defiles! “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Corinthians 15:33; Haggai 2:12, 13 (JND); see Dan Kasper’s article on the guarded table). The reason why the man living with his father’s wife had to be removed from fellowship in the assembly was: “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:6-8).
Leaven or yeast is always used in the Scriptures to represent evil. The only thing that stops the yeast from being active is to put it in the fire. Likewise, the only thing that stops the working of unjudged sin is to judge it: “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged” (1 Corinthians 11:31). The judgment of the assembly is in view of the person who is sinning to judge the sin before the Lord and then to the person/s he has wronged which includes his brethren in the assembly.
In the case of the man in 1 Corinthians 5, the apostle wrote for the assembly at Corinth to restore him. “Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. . . . To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also: for if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Corinthians 2:6, 10-11).
Also, the assembly at Corinth had been wrong in not judging the man before Paul wrote his first letter to them: “And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you” (1 Corinthians 5:2). In 2 Corinthians 7 the apostle tells of their sorrow to repentance: “Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter” (verses 9-11).
If you are saved, not practicing sinning and you agree with the doctrines of those who are in fellowship, you should be breaking bread. All you have to do is ask for your place to begin experiencing this great blessing and honor to worship the Lord and break bread.
In our assemblies, those who are allowed to break bread also receive the liberty to teach, use their gifts, and preach. Surely an assembly would be in trouble if someone who could not pass the scriptural requirements of fellowship in the breaking of bread, were then allowed the privileges in the classroom and pulpit. These things do work together. (See 1 Corinthians 12:13-31; Ephesians 4:7, 11-16; Romans 12:3-8.)
(Italic is by the—Editor.)