Who can take communion according to the Bible?

Since the loaf of the Lord's Supper speaks also of the one body of all believers and since our partaking of it together is an expression of our unity and fellowship with each other, the question of who may rightly partake of the Supper should be easily answered. It is only for those who are known and proven members of that body. Only those who know the Lord as their Savior and truly believe on His atoning death for their salvation have a right to His Supper and Table. The Lord's Supper is only for the family of the redeemed, and if one claims to be a child of God that one must prove by his walk that he is truly such, otherwise the confession is but an empty profession. All who are known to be true believers and are walking as such in separation from evil, and are not excluded by Scriptural discipline, are privileged to partake of the Supper in God's Assembly. "Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God" (Rom. 15:7). If unsaved persons or those whose profession is doubtful be allowed to take the Lord's Supper with true believers, what expression of true unity and fellowship can there be in the breaking of bread? Surely none. If we partake of the Lord's Supper with any who are unconverted, we cannot say as Paul says, "We being many are one bread and one body," for some in the circle do not belong to that body.

The Supper then is the common privilege conferred by Christ on all His members, excepting those that justly incur His discipline for bad morals or evil doctrine. If the blessed institution of the Lord is perverted or neglected in Christendom, none the less does it subsist in all its reality for such as adhere to scripture; and faith appropriates it when observed accordingly, which alone carries the stamp of divine authority. In man's hands with this institution were soon mixed worldly elements, which altered its character so that it was no longer His. Nevertheless His Supper is not lost for those who submit in humility to the revealed will of our Lord. When the Corinthians tampered with its nature, the apostle (ver. 20) denied it to be the Lord's Supper, It became their own supper, not His.

Such then is the meaning of the supper; and, as you will perceive, the apostle gives us very solemn warnings against forgetfulness of its import. "Whosoever shall eat the bread, and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation [judgment] to himself, not discerning the Lord's body" (vv. 27-29). There is no question here of being ourselves worthy to partake of the Lord's Supper; but what the apostle deprecates is "partaking in an unworthy manner. Every Christian, unless some sin had excluded him, was worthy to partake, because he was a Christian. But a Christian might come to it without judging himself, or appreciating as he ought, that which the supper brought to his mind, and which Christ had connected with it. He did not discern the Lord's body; and he did not discern, did not judge, the evil in himself." And if he thus ate and drank, he would eat judgment to himself; i.e., he would bring down discipline upon himself; for the Lord judges His people, chastens them, that they should not be condemned with the world (v. 32). He had thus chastened the Corinthians for their careless ways — some with weakness, some with sickness, and some even with bodily death (v. 30). Hence the necessity of examining ourselves as to the manner in which we partake of the Lord's Supper, and of judging every thing which is thus discovered that is unsuited to the presence of the Lord; "for if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged" (v. 31) ; i.e., exercising self-judgment, we should not then be chastened of the Lord.

Who has the privilege of partaking of the loaf and of the cup? It is the Lord's table and He alone has the right to determine who is admitted there. Yet here in verse 17 we have a large part of the answer: 'Because we, (being) many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf.' All who are His may partake, provided they have the capacity to 'judge what I say' (v. 15—to understand fully what partaking of the loaf and of the cup entails), and are not disqualified by immorality (1 Cor. 5:11), or by holding error (Gal. 5:1-9; Matt. 16:6, 12) , or by evil associations (1 Cor. 10:21-22).

UNBELIEVERS HAVE NO TITLE TO TAKE THE LORD’S SUPPER

It is perfectly foreign to Scripture that an unbeliever should partake of the Lord’s supper. It is not sufficient for a man to be a decent living parishioner, and have passed through a course of confirmation. There must be conversion, there must be real faith in the Lord Jesus before a man is privileged rightly to partake of the Lord’s supper.

And all God's children, whom the Lord has received, have a right to the Lord's table and gather thus around His blessed Person. The only things which bar from the Lord's table, are evil doctrines and an evil walk. And the Lord's supper may be eaten unworthily. He, who comes to the Lord's table without self-judgment, eats and drinks of it unworthily. We eat and drink unworthily when we partake without discerning the Lord's body and blood represented by the bread and the wine, for we do not then show to God the death of Christ. Let a man examine (judge) himself before eating or else he eats for his own judgment. This is God's way of producing and maintaining holiness in the church. And the Corinthians had experienced that the Lord dealt with a number of them in judgment. Upon many the Lord had laid His hand, many were weak and stricken with disease, while others had fallen asleep. It was mercy, "but when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world."

And now, having shown from the scripture, who ought to be at the breaking of bread, we shall proceed to consider who ought not. On this point scripture is equally explicit: in a word, then, none should be there who are not members of the true Church of God. The same law which commanded all the congregation of Israel to eat the Passover, commanded all uncircumcised strangers not to eat; and now that Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us, none can keep the feast which is to extend throughout this entire dispensation, nor yet break bread, or drink wine in true remembrance of Him, save those who know the cleansing and healing virtues of His precious blood. To eat and drink without this knowledge, is to eat and drink unworthily — to eat and drink judgement, and, like the woman in Numbers 5 who drank the water of jealousy, to make the condemnation more manifest and awfully solemn.

Thirdly, as those at the Lord's table professedly participate in the result of the atoning work of Christ, none but Christians in truth have a place at it; for the Lord's supper does not give life, but it is for all who have everlasting life, unless for the time being under the exercise of church discipline. Eating Christ's flesh and drinking Christ's blood (John 6:53-54) gives life; eating of the supper does not. As the Bread from heaven, the Lord presents Himself to the world (John 6:33, 51); but the supper was instituted only for disciples. If the supper could give life, those of whom Peter (2 Peter 2:13) and Jude (12) wrote would have had it. None however should eat of the supper, who have not first eaten of His flesh, and drunk of His blood; for who have part now in the blessed results of His death, but those who believe on Him? To the Lord's table then baptism by water can give no admittance, though none unbaptized ought to be seated thereat. For an unconverted person to sit there and partake of the bread and of the wine is a solemn thing, since he professes by his act that which is not true of his condition.

The Lord's Supper is for all saints. Every believer, spiritual in walk and doctrine, is constituted a worthy partaker by the LORD HIMSELF:

Well, every believer – who is not disqualified. Why every believer? Because this is a privilege of every member of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:17). So what about the ‘disqualification’? How can this happen? Well, there are mainly three reasons: