What Is Communion? Meaning, Bible Verses and Questions

Communion — also called the Lord's Supper, breaking of bread, or the Eucharist — comes from the night Jesus was betrayed. He took bread, gave thanks, broke it and said: "This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19).

What the bread and cup mean

The bread — his body, given for people.
The cup — his blood: "This cup is the new testament in my blood" (Luke 22:20).

"New testament" — new covenant — is the key phrase. Jesus said this at a Passover meal, a meal that already commemorated the exodus and the lamb's blood on the doorposts. He redirected what the meal points to.

For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.1 Corinthians 11:26 (KJV)

Where the traditions differ

How the bread and cup relate to Christ's body is one of the few genuine divisions between traditions:

Catholic — transubstantiation: the bread and wine become the body and blood in substance.
Lutheran — Christ is really present in and with the bread and wine.
Reformed — a real spiritual presence, received by faith.
Baptist and others — memorial: a sign kept in remembrance.

All four hold that Jesus instituted it and that it is to be kept. The disagreement is about how he is present, not about whether to do it.

How often

Scripture sets no frequency. Acts 2:46 describes the first Christians "breaking bread from house to house" daily; churches today do it weekly, monthly or quarterly. Frequency is a church's decision, not a biblical command.

What Paul's warning actually means

1 Corinthians 11:27 — eating "unworthily" makes one "guilty of the body and blood of the Lord" — is often read as "you must be good enough to take it". The context settles it. Paul is confronting a church where the wealthy ate their fill first and the poor went hungry (11:21). "Unworthily" describes keeping a class system at the Lord's table, not personal holiness falling short.

If the bar were being good enough, nobody would qualify.

Who may take it

Practice varies, but the broad consensus is: those who have come to faith in Christ and been baptised. If you are visiting and unsure, sitting quietly and letting it pass is entirely proper — ask someone afterwards.

Read Luke 22 beside 1 Corinthians 11 in the BiblePro app — one is the institution, the other the earliest practice and its correction. And do look for a local church, where this is actually shared.