Who should be allowed to take communion?

Communion was never meant to be a meal for everyone in the room regardless of what they believe. It is a family meal for those who belong to Christ, a visible declaration of union with Him and with His people. This is why the New Testament ties participation not to age, denomination, or church attendance alone, but to genuine, personal faith in the gospel the meal represents.

This does not mean churches should turn communion into an interrogation before every service. It means the invitation is meaningfully directed at those who have trusted Christ, not extended indiscriminately as though the meal has no spiritual meaning at all.

Think of it like a wedding anniversary dinner shared by a married couple. Friends might be welcome to celebrate nearby, but the meal itself commemorates a covenant that only the two people in that marriage actually share. Communion works similarly, celebrating a covenant relationship with Christ that only those who have entered it through faith can meaningfully partake in.

Paul's instructions in 1 Corinthians 11:27-29 are sobering. He warns that eating the bread or drinking the cup in an unworthy manner, without genuine faith, without repentance, while nursing unconfessed sin against another believer, makes a person guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Some in Corinth had grown ill, and some had even died, because they treated the Lord's table carelessly.

This is why believers are told to examine themselves before eating and drinking, not to achieve sinless perfection, which no one can, but to come honestly, trusting Christ's grace rather than approaching the table complacently or with unresolved, unrepented sin.

It is worth noting the context Paul was addressing in Corinth. Believers there were dividing along social and economic lines, some going hungry while others got drunk during what was meant to be a shared meal (1 Corinthians 11:20-22). Their unworthy manner had less to do with private doubts and more to do with treating fellow believers with contempt while claiming to remember Christ, a reminder that self-examination includes how we treat others in the body, not only our private sins.

Churches practice communion with varying degrees of openness. Open communion welcomes any baptized believer present, regardless of church membership, trusting each individual to examine their own heart. Close communion restricts the table to members of that local church or churches of like faith, wanting leaders to have some pastoral knowledge of who is partaking. Closed communion, more common in certain traditions, restricts the table to members of that specific denomination or congregation exclusively.

None of these approaches is explicitly commanded in Scripture as the only right method, and each reflects a different balance between welcoming genuine believers and guarding the table from careless or unrepentant participation.

Most conservative evangelical churches practice some version of open or close communion, welcoming any baptized believer who professes faith in Christ and is not living in unrepentant, unaddressed sin, while trusting the Holy Spirit and the individual's own conscience to do the deeper work of examination that no pastor standing at the front can fully verify in a moment.

Most churches wait until a child has made a credible, personal profession of faith and can meaningfully understand what communion represents before including them at the table. This is not about age itself, but about the capacity for genuine self-examination and understanding that Paul assumes in 1 Corinthians 11.

Parents and church leaders should walk alongside children thoughtfully here, neither excluding a child who has genuinely trusted Christ and understands the meal, nor rushing a child to the table before they grasp what it means.

Fencing the table, as this practice is sometimes called, is not about excluding people out of suspicion or unkindness. It is an act of love, protecting both the meaning of the ordinance and the spiritual well-being of those who might otherwise partake carelessly. A pastor who clearly explains who the table is for, and why, is caring for the congregation, not gatekeeping unnecessarily.

If you are a believer who has trusted Christ, been baptized, and walks in ongoing repentance, you belong at the Lord's table. Come not because you are worthy on your own, but because Christ has made you worthy, and the meal exists to remind you of exactly that.