Communion is an act of remembrance for what Jesus did for us. We see this in the Bible a lot. The passage that I believe best describes it is 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26. “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night He was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” Christians continue to remember Christ by taking communion together regularly. Some people take it every Sunday and some people take it monthly, but it is a tradition that all Christians would do well to practice.
To take communion the church gathers together to take bread and wine (or sometimes juice). We take these as we remember Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross. In many denominations this practice is viewed as purely symbolic. We say we eat the body of Christ as a metaphor, but some people believe it is literal (I talk about this in the Eucharist section).
Now that we know what communion is, I think that it’s important to discuss who can take communion. There has been a lot of debate on who can take communion. Many churches say that if you are not saved you should not take communion. I even believed this growing up, but now I’m not so sure. First, we need to recognize that nowhere in the Bible does it say certain people cannot take communion. If you look at the purpose of communion, which is to remember Christ, I don’t think it could do any harm for non-believers to take it. That being said, if you are not saved yet and you decide to take communion make sure your heart is in the right place and be respectful.