PORTERVILLE POST | The "RIGHT" Word © ~ with Brother Scott

| “The Confrontation Table” !!!
The Right Word^© - Aug 17, 2025
with Brother Scott : scott@portervillepost.com

I am today going to cast a different light on something that has become a now uncommon practice in many churches, not understood in others, never done in some, infrequently offered in still others, and in some entire denominations calling themselves “Christian” it has become an empty ritual among most of their congregants.
Listen :
Today’s discussion is called “The Confrontation Table” and is a practice better known as the Lord’s Table, the Communion Table, the Lord’s Supper, or Holy Communion. You will understand why I am casting this in what seems to be a negative light as I present my case for the use of the word “confrontation”.

Confrontation: The act of facing something directly in a situation involving conflict or disagreement; it involves an argument at some level for what is true or right. To “confront” means to come face to face with someone about some thing—often an encounter between a false belief and the truth or what is right versus what is wrong. It involves challenges, the presenting of evidence, and the sincere desire to change the belief or practices of another person or a group.

Let me begin by getting right to the point of what many do not understand or if they do, do not take seriously. These following points are the essential elements of what the term confrontation are to shed light on and hopefully correct in our thinking and practice when we approach the communion table of the Lord in our meetings:

𝕋hese following points are the essential elements:

• The bread and the cup are not religious rituals to be thoughtlessly taken or excuse ourselves from but are to be a meaningful spiritual experience before God
• The partaking of the Communion Table is not optional for the truly born again man or woman; it is a command of the Lord. If it is offered and not participated in, it is disobedience on more than one level of the Christian’s life. If a person’s sin is the obstacle, it should be repented of to clear the way to participate at the Table of the Lord. If there are other reasons one declines to enter into this communion, it should be discussed with a spiritually mature leader of the church to seek a resolution.
• There are negative consequences for taking communion if one does it flippantly or without proper regard for what it represents historically and practically in real time
• Eating of the bread and drinking from the cup involves active faith; it is an act of faith—the same faith that is needed to be forgiven, to believe one is washed in the blood of Jesus, born again from Heaven, and has the promise of eternal life

ℍere are some reasons why some decline
partaking of the bread and the cup ...

• I can’t take communion unless it is in my own church and done their way
• I was raised that it needs to be done in a certain way which is not the way this church does it
• I don’t believe we need to have communion every week
• (If offered in a single cup) I can’t drink after someone else, especially after many before me have
• I feel (or am) unworthy; I don’t want to take the chance that I will offend God if there are things in my life that He doesn’t like
• I have certain sinful habits in my life and I don’t want to be a hypocrite
• I have certain allergies and don’t know what’s in the bread or the juice and cannot take any chances
• It doesn’t mean anything to me because I see others taking it that are hypocrites

Now we get to the word “confrontation”. The Lord’s Table (as it can be called) is a table of confrontation—or it should be in the lives of His true followers. “To ‘confront’ means to face something—an encounter between any false beliefs and the truth—or what is wrong [in our lives before God] versus what is to be righteous.” It is never to be something casually partaken-of with little or no thought of what it both represents and is to mean to a believer today. It is a most holy moment in the handling of the bread and the cup and in our eating and drinking. Of that remark, I remind you what Paul said to the Corinthians who (of many) were disrespectful of the table of the Lord.

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† 1 Corinthians 5:7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us [because of sin]: 8 Therefore let us keep the feast [“appointment with God”], not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
† 1 Corinthians 11:27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. 30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

𝕎hen the old nature of sin continues to have a strong influence in our thoughts and actions,
it lies to our mind and heart by saying:

• “It’s okay to do what everyone else is doing—not many here taking communion are worthy either.”
• “Go ahead, repent, ask for forgiveness and participate, you can try and stop sinning starting tomorrow.”
• “The blood of Jesus has washed you from all your sins, even those you haven’t done yet for the rest of your life, so it’s okay to eat the bread and drink the juice.”
• (The lies also say) God knows that you cannot stop your habitual sinning so just do what everyone else does and don’t give it another thought.”

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† 1 Corinthians 10:15 I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say. 16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion (sharer, a partnership, intercourse) of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? ... 10:21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. 22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?
† 1 Corinthians 11:27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily (Gr. not fit, without due reverence), shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine (test, approve of) himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.

We should be living lives that allow us to with peace and thanksgiving and an undercurrent of joy to take the bread and hold the cup with only a cursory look at our present heart—an honest but brief look that sees no reproach before our God and Savior.
But with so many distractions in this day and age that steal our time with the Lord, with so many temptations that result in uncleanness before Him (soiled spots that we look lightly upon), and the ease at which many believers can lie, steal, use filthy language, fail to love or forgive, waste huge blocks of our lives’ time, and be otherwise lazy toward God’s plan to redeem us daily—how can there not be a confrontation at the Communion Table unless we have become comfortable in such a state?

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† 2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine (from ‘put yourself on trial’, scrutinize, discipline) yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? [What does the most current evidence say for or against your relationship with our holy God?]
† Psalm 26:2 Examine (investigate, [put me on] trial) me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.
† Psalm 139:23 Search (penetrate [go deep], examine) me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
† 1 Corinthians 11:31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

When we hold the representative elements of the body and blood of Jesus in our hands for a few moments, it should be at the very least like taking a look at ourselves in a full-length mirror. Unless we do, how do we know how we look to God.
Are we spiritually naked or wearing the filthy rags of our own righteous works or are we clothed in the unspotted white robes of His righteousness by a life of faith and holiness?
Are our hands and face dirty from living in the world but having not stayed clean of its contamination? Is our hair disheveled because we jump right up each day and rush off in our busyness and have not bothered to spiritually groom ourselves for the day as a follower of Jesus Christ?
In such a mirror, has unconfessed sin without shame manifested itself as a black eye, a bloody nose, or a case of acne all over our face and neck?

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† Revelation 3: [Jesus says to the large Laodicean segment of today’s church:] 17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

When you look into a mirror you are confronted by what you see that you don’t like. When we approach the Communion Table we need to look closely at ourselves and with the help of the Word and the Spirit of God judge ourselves “worthy” as Paul warns—and if we are not at that moment, we are expected by God make it right and with a commitment to keep it right.
If you are living for self and not for God daily—the Table is first a confrontation in the Presence of a Holy God before it can be communion with Him.
In conclusion and in their contexts, let me rehearse in your ears what Jesus said, what Luke recorded, and what Paul said on this subject, some of which I have already used specific to certain statements about the seriousness of what Holy Communion is to mean to us and how we are to approach it.
𝕋hese texts are our full-length mirrors:
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† John 6:47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. 48 I am that bread of life. 49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. 50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh (lit. body), which I will give for the life of the world. 52 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? 53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. 58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever… 63 It is the spirit that quickeneth (vitalizes); the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
† Luke 22: [The night of His betrayal:] 14 And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him. 15 And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer…19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body (from Gr. to save, heal, make whole) which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. 20 Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.
† Acts 2:41 Then they that gladly received his [Peter’s] word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. 42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread [Communion], and in prayers. 43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. 44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common; 45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. 46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and [Communion] breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, 47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
† 1 Corinthians 5:1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you… 6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 8 Therefore let us keep the feast [not optional], not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: 10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. 11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
† 1 Corinthians 11:23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: 24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do [not optional] in remembrance of me. 25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. 27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. 30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

I am not a communion cop or an enforcement officer on this issue but one that is informing you that as a true follower of Jesus you and I are to participate in the communion table. It is a command of Jesus and it is life for our regenerated human spirits.
To refrain from the Table is to disobey and to starve ourselves of His life—whether you or I understand how that works or not. To take of His spiritual meal but with unconfessed sin is to be unfit to be at the Table and irreverent toward God.
As we are offered the opportunity to eat and drink at the Lord’s Table, it is to be the ultimate confrontation to clear ourselves from the sin that nailed Jesus to the cross and be forgiven and cleansed from it.

𝕊elah

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† Isaiah 30:20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: 21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

~ Brother Scott ... With ... The Right Word^© ... For Today~

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