Is it not allowed to take the sacramental bread when you are not yet married?
This question deals with the Lord’s Supper which the Lord Jesus instituted the night before His crucifixion. As we shall see, He used a loaf of bread and a cup of wine to symbolize His body which He would offer up in death on the cross and His blood which was shed from His body after He died to prove that He had truly died. We will look at two things: 1) The institution of the Lord’s Supper, 2) Who should be allowed to partake of the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper. We will be reading from the KJV.
1) The INSTITUTION of the Lord’s Supper. In Luke 22:19-20 we read, “And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; this do in remembrance of Me.’ Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.” Christians have called this the “Lord’s Supper” since its inception because the Lord Jesus Himself instituted it and because the focus of the supper is the Lord Jesus and His death on the cross for sinners. We also refer to it as the “Remembrance Meeting” because the Lord said “This do in REMEMBRANCE of Me.” This supper is NOT a ritual we go through to be forgiven but it is a simple supper we partake of BECAUSE WE ARE FORGIVEN through faith in His finished work on the cross. The bread and the wine do not magically change into the Lord’s physical body and blood as some teach; rather they are merely SYMBOLS of His body and blood that was offered up on the cross to redeem and forgive the sinner who believes on the Lord Jesus as their Savior. They REMIND us of what He did to redeem us and thus when we eat the Lord’s Supper our minds and hearts travel back to Calvary by faith.
2) The PARTAKERS of the Lord’s Supper. At the time the Lord instituted the Lord’s Supper eleven of His twelve disciples participated in the supper. Judas Iscariot, who betrayed the Lord, left the room at the end of the Passover Feast and then the Lord instituted the Lord’s Supper using the bread and wine that had been used in the Passover. The Passover ended after the host gave a piece of sop (bread) to a favored guest. In John 13:21 Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.” He went on to say, “He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon” (verse 26). What we read next is most solemn, “And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly…He then having received the sop went out IMMEDIATELY: and it was night” (verses 27 & 30). If you compare the other accounts regarding the Passover and the Lord’s Supper you will see that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper AFTER the Passover so we know that Judas did NOT partake of the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper. This teaches us WHO the partakers should be; only BELIEVERS in Christ should participate in the Lord’s Supper for only believers are forgiven and can truly remember what the Lord Jesus did for them on the cross so they could be forgiven. Judas was NOT a believer: he was a thief who would eventually betray the Lord (see John 6:64-71).
After Jesus died, rose again, and ascended back to heaven, believers “continued steadfastly…in the breaking of bread” (Acts 2:42). The Lord’s death on the cross for them was so precious to them that we read in verse 46, “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and BREAKING BREAD from house to house.” In other words, they remembered the Lord in His death for them every day! In time it became their custom to partake of the Lord’s Supper on the first day of the week as we see in Acts 20:7, “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread…” We have learned in these passages that it was BELIEVERS in Christ who partook of the bread and wine. It is our FAITH in Christ that makes us eligible to participate. It has nothing to do with our being married. Having said that, if believers are a living in unjudged sin they are not allowed to participate and they will be put out of fellowship in their local church until they judge their sin (see 1 Corinthians chapter 5). But we are encouraged to judge any sin in our life before it needs to be judged by the local church. We see this in 1 Corinthians 11:27-28, “Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But LET A MAN EXAMINE (judge) HIMSELF, AND SO LET HIM EAT OF THAT BREAD, AND DRINK OF THAT CUP.”
What precious truth we have reflected on today! If you are a believer in Christ, may you count it a privilege and a blessing to respond to His request, “This, DO, in remembrance of Me.” If there is any unjudged sin in your life, judge it immediately and then join your fellow brothers and sisters at the Lord’s Supper and partake of those blessed emblems that draw our hearts back to the cross where Jesus paid the ultimate price to redeem us. “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold…but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter1:18-19). (DO) (638.5)