WE meet to worship God as redeemed by the blood of Christ, born of God, indwelt by the Holy Ghost, and as members of the body of Christ, and members one of another, and professedly in subjection to the Holy Ghost, and in obedience to the Word of God. At the Lord's table, then, none have really a place who are not converted. for how could any one be there who has not communion with the blood and with the body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16)? How could any eat of that supper, showing thereby the Lord's death, who has no part in redemption by His blood (1 Cor. 11:24-26)? How could unsaved ones remember Him in this His own appointed way?
Again by partaking of the one loaf we own that we, with all Christians, are one body, and thus show it (1 Cor. 10:27). And the aspect in which the body of Christ is here viewed is the general, not the local, aspect of it. When writing of the latter to the Corinthians, the Apostle said, “Ye are the body of Christ " (1 Cor. 12:27). Here he says, " We being many are one body, one loaf, for we are all partakers of that one loaf." In no other way, then, can we fitly and fully show that all Christians are one body, for in accordance with the truth of 1 Cor. 11 there is but one Lord's table on earth, however many may be the places in which Christians are gathered together around it. We worship, too, by the Spirit of God (Phil. 3:3) I as the Apostle, we believe, really wrote; consequently, the Holy Ghost must have room to act as He will, and subjection to His guidance should characterize those gathered together unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Further, the written word teaches us the character of the service at the table (1 Cor. 11:24, 25), that it is eucharistic, and how Christians should conduct themselves when come together in assembly, or worship (1 Cor. 14), as well as the purpose for which we meet on the Lord's day (1 Cor. 10;11, Acts 20:7).
Fellowship, then, at the table with those who would allow the privileges of the body of Christ to such as have given no sign of being really Christians would be utterly wrong. Hence Christians should not, and if in subjection to God, would not, have fellowship with those who would allow it. Fellowship, too, with such as meet on denominational ground would be, on our part, a practical denial of the truth of the one body. How could we on such ground endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit at all (Eph. 4:3). Again, fellowship with any who do not professedly submit to the guidance of the Spirit when assembled, or who do not own His personal presence in the Church of God (John 14:17, 1 Cor. 3:16, 2 Cor. 6:16, Eph. 2:22) would be incongruous for those who profess to own both. And fellowship with those who are not really acting in obedience to the Word by allowing in themselves or others that which the Lord Jesus declares disqualifies the offender for the enjoyment of the privileges of His table, whether it be a question of doctrine or of practice, would be direct disobedience to Him whose children we are, and by whose word we profess to be guided.