The Historic Practice of Closed Communion

      The historic practice of “closed communion” in the Church is one that many behold with much confusion and consternation. Questions arise in people’s hearts as to why this practice should be practiced in the Church that Christ established for the inclusion of all. Therefore a brief explanation is in order.

      The supposed issues seem to stem primarily from the term “closed” in connection with the holy Supper of our Lord. Indeed “closed” may not be the best way to define this practice, but in light of the approach taken and the attitude incorporated with other definitions, this term has become the means for expressing the faithful administration of the Sacrament in the Church.

      If not for the confusion that people infuse into the practice, all that would be needed is the term “Communion.” This term in itself is sufficient to express what the proper practice in the Church is.

      The term “communion” is a translation of the word “koinonia.” In 2 Corinthians 13:14 St. Paul blesses the hearers in the name of the Lord, using the term to pronounce what the Holy Spirit creates among those who hear and believe the Gospel and are thereby united in the common confession of the Lord, saying, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”

      In 1 Corinthians 10:16 ff. St. Paul uses this term to explain what God is accomplishing in the Sacrament when people come forward to receive the bread and the wine. He says,

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion (koinonia) of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion (koinonia) of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread. Observe Israel after the flesh: Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar?

      As he says in the preceding verses, this is the means by which we flee from idolatry. The Sacrament is the means by which God turns our hearts away from our own efforts, so that we rely solely upon the merits of Christ crucified. For this reason the dear apostle reverses the order of the elements, placing the cup of forgiveness in communion with the blood before the bread of unity in the body. In this way the apostle reminds us that the unity is not something that we produce but is the result of being united in Christ through Baptism. In this way we are reminded that the old sacrament of circumcision has been superseded by Baptism. The blood of the males of God’s family shed in circumcision was the type that foreshadowed the blood of Christ that is applied to God’s family in Baptism.

      St. Paul here explains the reality that exists for those who partake of the Supper. The consecrated wine is a koinonia or communion or partnership of the blood of Christ and the consecrated bread is a koinonia or communion or partnership of the body of Christ. By the command of Christ, spoken by the pastor in connection with the bread and wine, a partnership is created between the bread and the body, and the wine and the blood. Therefore, all those who partake of the bread and the wine partake of the partnership with the body and the blood and receive them together with the bread and the wine.

      And this partnership extends to those who are partakers of it. Those who partake of the consecrated bread are in partnership with all that is in partnership with the bread, specifically the body of Christ. The body of Christ includes all who belong to Him and are partners with Him in His body, the Church. They are partners in His sacrifice and the forgiveness of sins purchased by that sacrifice. While the sacrifice is not made again and again, the partnership in it is created and proclaimed again and again by Christ and by all who are partners with Him in that once for all sacrifice. This is why St. Paul continues in 11:26-29:

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

      Here St. Paul declares that this partnership is much more than an individualistic participation in Christ’s Supper. It is a corporate participation in Christ and all that He accomplished and commanded for His Church. It is an identification with Christ and His Church that binds them inseparably together. It is a proclamation or profession or confession of all that Christ is and all that He gives to His Church and all that joins the Church to Christ. It is a complete acknowledgment of and participation in all that the Church is and proclaims. Thus, to partake of the Sacrament without properly acknowledging all that Christ has commanded His Church to proclaim is to mock Christ and His Church and His Supper and all that they are and all that they offer to those who are in this koinonia or communion.

      This is why St. Paul admonishes and urges, “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.” Each man must examine himself regarding the communion in which he is participating, so as to discern properly the Lord’s body and not make a mockery of the communion that Christ has established, by participating in a body that is not the Lord’s body. By not properly discerning the body the man actually places himself outside the true communion and makes of himself a pretender or hypocrite. This discernment is necessary both from the point of each man understanding the proclamation made himself, and also the proclamation of all who partake of the partnership. To partake of the meal with those who are not clearly united in the proclamation is to proclaim a partnership that does not exist, or as St. Paul stated in 10:21-22 “a participation in the table of demons” and in so doing to “provoke the Lord to jealousy.”

      This is a far greater issue than a person is likely to grasp immediately. Not only does this involve damage to the one partaking under such false pretenses, but it also causes damage to the body of Christ. If one member of the body suffers, the entire body suffers. Allowing anyone to come to the Supper who is not truly of the body, is to demonstrate a lack of concern for the spiritual safety and welfare of the person and for the Church. Allowing any man to come to the Supper without first publicly acknowledging, professing and confessing agreement in the confession of the Church, is equal to denial of the necessity of agreement in that confession. It is equal to teaching that this confession is not essential to the existence of this communion. It is the same as teaching that unity can coexist with disunity. It is to say that it does not matter that some may deceive themselves so as to think that they are part of the communion, though in reality they are not, and thereby live their lives not embracing the communion and in the end die alone, apart from Christ and His Church.

      St. Paul is admonishing us to continue in the holy communion that God has established in Christ and not to be deceived by our flesh, by the world, or by the devil. This is a continuation of the historic Church practice, all the way back to Adam, but especially demonstrated in the practice that the Lord ordained through Moses. This is a continuation of the communion commanded in the third and fourth commandments, where the life of the family is placed directly under that authority of the father, and then in turn also the mother. Thus we hear, “Let a man examine himself,” that is, let the head of the household examine those whom God has placed under him. This duty is first and foremost the duty of the father of each household that gathers on the Lord’s Day to God’s holy communion. This also is the duty of the father/pastor of each congregation/household.

      This is exactly the way that the Lord prescribed through Moses concerning the Lord’s Passover, from which the Supper of the New Testament is ordained. The Lord Jesus first ate the Passover with His disciples, taking the bread from this meal and consecrating it as the unity of the Church of the New Testament. After the meal was concluded, He also took the cup and consecrated it as the cup of the New Testament in His blood, and commanded that this be received often and by all who are truly Christ’s disciples through being baptized into His body.

      As the continuation or fulfillment of the Old Testament Passover, this New Testament meal is only for those who are truly of the household of God. Why? Because the faith that the Holy Spirit works in Baptism is necessary for receiving the body and blood as God gives it rather than in the judgment of false belief and practice. Partaking of the body and blood unworthily, that is, apart from discerning the true body of Christ, is hypocrisy, which results in hardening one’s heart in self-chosen errors and false belief rather than renewing the person in the grace of God in Christ.

      True love does not allow such things to happen. Love for one another demands that we care for one another, bearing with one another’s weaknesses and confronting one another’s mistaken or false beliefs. Love does not pretend that each person can be right in his own mind and heart apart from the true confession of the Church. Christ’s command that we love one another means that we will go the extra mile for one another, making certain that each individual admitted to the table of Holy Communion truly is in communion with the Church, and not being deceived on account of the negligence of the congregation and pastor. Love also demands that no one who has been baptized into Christ and is truly a member of His body will be excluded from the meal by which God feeds and preserves His children.

      Thus, love is the reason for the historic practice of closed communion. In reality this practice is nothing more than honest concern and care for the body of Christ. It is the honest and open refusal to pretend that communion exists where it does not. It is the open and public proclamation of the Lord’s death until He comes, in order that all may openly hear His word of Law and Gospel and repent of their errors in what they believe or do not believe, and truly be joined in the communion of Christ in His Church and in the Sacrament. The practice of closed communion is the open expression of love for all the world and the desire that all the world would hear the pure Gospel of Christ and be joined in the one true faith unto life everlasting. No one is excluded from this communion except those who exclude themselves by stubbornly refusing to be joined in the communion of the one true proclamation of Christ’s death until He comes. In truth, this historic practice is the only truly open practice of love in the world.