This is the Table, and it has its rightful place at the center of our lives. What we do here sets the tone for what we do at every other table. This Table is the rudder; it guides and directs all our other table fellowship.
If we are hypocritical here, we will be hypocritical around the dinner table at home. If we are filled with joy and gratitude here, we will be filled with joy and gratitude as we break bread with our brothers and sisters throughout the course of the week. If we think we can fool God here, we will think we can fool God with every other thing we put in our mouths. If we delight in Him at His table, then He will delight in us at our tables.
Sin always wants to divide and separate. This over here, and that over there. Making distinctions is fine, and in a world created by the Triune God, it is most necessary. The Father is not the Son, and the Lord’s Table is not my lunch table. But we may never separate, for God is one, and He encompasses and rules everything. Thus it is that the Lord’s Table is set over against the table of demons, and Christians are not just required to partake here, but also required to refrain from breaking bread in any context or in any manner that is in conflict with what God is doing here.
Have you gone to lunch with a friend in order to gossip about a third person? Then reflect on this Table. Would you lean over while the cup is being passed here in order to share that particular verbal morsel? If not, then let this table define the standard for you, and do not sin over your own cup either. This Table teaches us that whenever we eat, and whenever we drink, we should do it all to the glory of God.
So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.
“… we may never separate”
Oh, come on.
Table separation procedures are integral parts of the playbooks of the PCA, OPC, RCUS, RC, EO and numerous other denominations — thankfully not your RPCUS.
Just because one is a recognized believer of good character doesn’t get you a seat, says they.
And you are saying this impacts our Monday – Saturday fellowship?
You bet it does.