I think this exposes a weakness, or lack of development of COG (Cleveland) theology and Pentecostal theology in general.The church in Corinth had some collective responsibility to deliver the fornicator sleeping with his father’s wife over to Satan, not to keep company with him, and not to eat with him. It was for his own good ‘that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.’ And it was for the churches good– because a little leaven works its way throughout the lump of dough. Paul speaks of keeping the feast, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. The Lord’s Supper was instituted at Passover.In Hebrews, the author warns the readers to look diligently lest a root of bitterness spring up that defiles many–lest there be a fornicator or profane person among you. A lot of people think of bitterness as just unforgiveness, but there is a connection here to fornication. We have a collective responsibility to see if fornicators or profane people spring up among us. Jude speaks of false teachers. In 12a, the book says,12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear:Peter’s very similar passage on false teachers says in 13 b ‘Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;’Peter uses this language in I Peter 1:19 in describing Christ like a Lamb without spot and without blemish. These refer to the flaws that an animal was not allowed to have if it was to be sacrificed in the temple or tabernacle.The church had love feasts. I think that refers to communion. Some believe the eucharist ceremony was taken from a larger love feast ceremony. If a love feast is not communion, then it isn’t really a part of our doctrine, but I think it is the same thing or intertwined.Having false teachers or false brethren at the love feast was contaminating. It was like those flaws on a sacrifice to God that were not allowed. God was displeased with such sacrifices in the Old Testament. Jesus had something against the whole congregation in Laodicea– tolerating ‘that woman Jezebel’ who taught people to fornicate and to eat meat offered to idols.In II Timothy 2:16-21 Paul warns against vain babblers, names two men, including Hymenaeus, who taught the resurrection had occurred, then said for the vessels of honor to purge themselves of the vessels of dishonor. From I Timothy 1:20, we can see that Paul had delivered Hymenaeus over to Satan that he should learn not to blaspheme.When we partake in communion, we have fellowship with the body of Christ. I Corinthians 10.16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?17 For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.I Corinthians 12:27 says ‘For ye are the body of Christ…’ In chapter 11, people in the church were hungry while others were drunken. After describing the way they partook of their supper and the origins of the Lord’s supper, Paul warned that in verse 29 that he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.We may think that examining ourselves before the Lord’s supper is just an individual thing, but we should also consider our responsibility both in rightly regarding other members of the body of Christ, and our individual responsibility as a part of our collective role as a body not to tolerate false teachers and to bring restoration and confrontation to sin.
I had to read your post three times before it finally sunk in to my foggy brain. My thoughts are centered around your last two paragraphs, primarily because I’ve had to deal with the examples of fornication you mentioned. Well, I tried to deal with them but the pastor blew me off. Serving communion to people who are living in sin(unmarried), and who you know are not living a good life is not something my conscience agrees with. I’ve said this many times, that a church cannot expect God’s blessings when there is sin in the camp________________“Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”
This is a great post, and I thought it deserved a bump, especially because of an experience I witnessed involving communion at Seacoast Church in Charleston, South Carolina.Seacoast Church is a large charismatic congregation, not affiliated with the Church of God (COG). If you’re familiar with the history of Seacoast Church, you’ll know that it’s one of the most progressive large churches in the United States. The church, led by Greg Surrat, has recently introduced the practice of communion stations during praise and worship. This allows anyone in the service to get up, go to a station, and conduct their own communion ceremony.This practice raises questions in some orthodox belief systems. In these belief systems, it is considered a grave sin to take communion without first dealing with sin in one’s own life. For example, I remember when Soulforce, an LGBTQ protest group, came to Lee University and tried to convince students to participate in a communion ceremony with members of their LGBTQ team. They hoped to capture photos of poorly trained young college students engaging in communion.The introduction of communion stations at Seacoast Church has me concerned. The possibility of anyone participating in communion, including transgender and same-sex couples, creates a margin for error that could lead to activists seeking to make a spectacle at their church.What is the right answer? I know that in my past training, we always sought forgiveness before communion to ensure we were right with God. It was considered a grave sin to participate if we weren’t right with God. Our church even avoided doing communion on Sunday mornings so that the people who participated were strong believers. I even know a COG pastor’s son who, while at a family member’s hospice bedside, declined to take communion and walked out due to the conviction he felt over sin.