One way that communion has been spoiled is by an incorrect understanding of worthiness. In the middle of his instructions about the Lord’s Supper, Paul warned against participating “in an unworthy manner” and said, “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Corinthians 11:28). We ought to judge ourselves truly, then “we would not be judged” (11:31).

The Lord is serious about who He eats with. Who is welcome at His table on His “holy hill”? Those are welcome who trust in Christ and His righteousness for salvation, those who do not presume on His grace to make their ongoing sin okay.

If you have purposed in your heart to keep on sinning, or think that a blameless life is for someone else, or that truth is optional or bendable, or that how you talk about your neighbors is your business, or that money issues have no bearing on this meal, or that vows are made to be broken (see Psalm 15 for the poetic version of the above list), then you should to examine why you even want to eat the bread and drink the cup of the Lord.

However, worthiness does not require that you be sinless, though the ones who are worthy will have a desire to sin less. More than that, communion is for those who take their sin so seriously that they know that they need a Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave His body and blood to purify a people for His own possession. Examine to see if You trust the Savior, not if you have arrived at a sinless state where you don’t need one anymore. Do you depend on the Lord? Then you should eat His body and drink His blood in an act of dependence.