Principles of Communion:
When I was going through a particularly difficult time in my marriage I counselled with the pastor of the church I was attending at the time. The pastor encouraged me to refrain from communion until I had received counselling concerning some sin in my life and the abuse that I had suffered from my husband. Later, when I was attending a different church and was again in a rough patch with my husband, a dear woman of God stated that refraining from communion- even when harboring unconfessed sin- was not necessary and could even border on disobedience to God. Such a concept was novel to me... but her reasoning was sound.
We are humans: full of sin; faulty; ignorant; stubborn; temporary. At no point in our walk as a Christian will EVERY sin in our life be confessed (for multiple reasons). When the Bible refers to taking communion undeservingly God states simply (though obviously not so simply) that the bread and the cup are communal representations of the bond we share as believers... but not with unbelievers.
