The Exhortation: An Anglican Perspective

Self-Examination, Repentance, and Receiving Holy Communion in Faith

There are parts of the Prayer Book that Anglicans hear every Sunday, and there are others whose very infrequency can make them especially arresting. The Exhortation belongs to the second category. When it is read aloud, the congregation suddenly hears Holy Communion described with unusual directness.

The Sacrament is a great gift. Christ gives himself to his people. Those who receive with a truly penitent heart and lively faith receive great benefit. But the Prayer Book also refuses to treat the Lord’s Table casually. Saint Paul’s warning is allowed to stand with its full seriousness: Christians are to examine themselves before receiving, repent of their sins, make restitution where possible, forgive those who have offended them, and approach the Holy Table in faith.

The Exhortation therefore does something the Church always needs. It holds together two truths that are easily separated. Holy Communion is a gift of grace, and Holy Communion is not to be received carelessly. Its purpose is not to frighten repentant Christians away from Christ, but to call us away from presumption and toward the very mercy Christ gives in the Sacrament.

Where the Exhortation Appears in the Prayer Book

The Book of Common Prayer 2019 places the Exhortation among the Supplemental Eucharistic Texts on pages 147–148. The Additional Directions concerning Holy Communion also provide for its use within a Penitential Order and state that it is traditionally read on the First Sunday of Advent, the First Sunday in Lent, and Trinity Sunday (BCP 2019, pp. 139–140, 147–148).

Those occasions are significant. Advent calls the Church to watch for Christ’s coming. Lent calls us to repentance and renewed obedience. Trinity Sunday turns our attention toward the God into whose Name we have been baptized and in whose life we are called to walk. On each of these Sundays, the Exhortation asks the Church to remember what it means to approach the Holy Table.

The Exhortation begins by addressing those who intend to receive Holy Communion and directs them to Saint Paul’s warning: “Dearly beloved in the Lord: if you intend to come to the Holy Communion of the Body and Blood of our Savior Jesus Christ, you must consider how Saint Paul, in his First Letter to the Corinthians, exhorts us all diligently to examine ourselves before we presume to eat of that Bread, and drink of that Cup” (BCP 2019, p. 147). The tone is pastoral without being casual. The Prayer Book assumes that receiving Holy Communion requires preparation.

The Biblical Warning Behind the Exhortation

The Exhortation is built directly upon Saint Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 11. Paul warns, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Corinthians 11:27–28, ESV). He then adds, “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Corinthians 11:29, ESV).

Paul’s warning is severe because the gift is holy. The Lord’s Supper is not merely a religious symbol that can be handled without consequence. Christ has given it to his Church, and Christians are called to receive it according to his institution.

The Thirty-Nine Articles reflect the same seriousness. Article XXV says that the Sacraments are not empty badges of Christian identity but “certain sure witnesses, and effectual signs of grace.” It also teaches that those who worthily receive them receive their wholesome effect, while unworthy reception brings judgment (BCP 2019, pp. 781–782). Article XXVIII likewise teaches that those who rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the Lord’s Supper partake of the Body and Blood of Christ (BCP 2019, p. 783).

The Exhortation therefore belongs naturally within classical Anglican Eucharistic theology. The greater the gift, the less sense it makes to approach it carelessly.

“With a Truly Penitent Heart and Lively Faith”

The Exhortation does not merely warn about danger. It also says why Holy Communion is such a great gift.

It describes the benefit received when we come “with a truly penitent heart and lively faith,” spiritually eating the Flesh of Christ and drinking his Blood, so that we are made one with Christ and he with us (BCP 2019, p. 147).

Those two phrases, penitent heart and lively faith, are central. A penitent heart does not mean a heart that has achieved sinlessness. If sinless perfection were required before receiving Communion, none of us could come. Penitence means that we acknowledge our sin before God, turn from it, and do not intend to make peace with it.

Lively faith means more than intellectual agreement that Christianity is true. It is living trust in Jesus Christ and his promises. We come not because we have become worthy through our own moral success, but because Christ has called sinners to repentance and given himself for their salvation.

The Prayer of Humble Access expresses that posture plainly when we pray, “We do not presume to come to this your table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your abundant and great mercies” (BCP 2019, p. 119). The worthy reception of Communion therefore does not mean that the communicant has made himself personally worthy of Christ. It means that we approach in the way Christ commands: repentant, believing, and trusting his mercy rather than our merit.

“Examine Your Life by the Rule of God’s Commandments”

The Prayer Book becomes very practical when it directs us, “First, examine your life by the rule of God’s commandments” (BCP 2019, p. 147). That sentence tells us what Christian self-examination is and what it is not.

Self-examination is not simply asking how we feel about ourselves. Our emotions can accuse us where God has forgiven us, excuse us where God has condemned our conduct, or distract us from sins we have learned to tolerate.

Nor is Christian self-examination governed by the moral assumptions of the surrounding culture. What a society celebrates, excuses, or condemns changes from generation to generation. The rule is God’s commandments.

The Ten Commandments give the Church a durable framework for such examination. Have we loved God above all things? Have we treated his Name lightly? Have we neglected his worship? Have we honored rightful authority? Have anger, hatred, cruelty, or contempt taken hold of us? Have we violated marriage or sexual holiness? Have we stolen, cheated, or withheld what we owe? Have we lied, slandered, or distorted the truth? Have envy and covetousness governed our hearts?

Jesus deepens rather than relaxes these commandments. He shows that murder begins in the anger of the heart, adultery in lust, and love of neighbor extends even to enemies. Christian self-examination therefore reaches beneath outward respectability and asks what we have desired, loved, resented, feared, and pursued.

The Exhortation puts the same point comprehensively when it tells us to consider where we have offended “either by thought, word, or deed” (BCP 2019, p. 147).

Self-Examination Is Not Self-Salvation

There is a danger in speaking strongly about self-examination. A Christian can begin to imagine that the purpose is to make himself sufficiently pure to deserve Holy Communion. That is not what the Prayer Book teaches.

The Exhortation does not ask us to search ourselves until we discover that we have no sin. It asks us to search ourselves so that sin may be confessed rather than hidden. The distinction matters because the Christian life is not a movement from sinner to self-sufficient saint. It is a life of continuing repentance and faith. The closer we draw to the light of God’s Word, the more clearly we see both the holiness of God and our need for grace.

Self-examination therefore serves the Gospel when it leads us away from excuses and toward Christ. It becomes distorted when it leads us into endless self-measurement, as though assurance depended upon proving that our repentance is emotionally intense enough.

The question is not whether we have made ourselves worthy. The question is whether we are coming honestly, repentantly, and in faith to the Savior who is worthy.

Confess Your Sins and Intend Amendment of Life

After commanding self-examination, the Exhortation directs us, “Wherever you have offended, either by thought, word, or deed, confess your sins to Almighty God, with the full intention to amend your life” (BCP 2019, p. 147).

Confession and amendment belong together because Christian repentance is not simply regret. We may regret embarrassment, consequences, damaged reputation, or the pain created by our actions without truly turning from sin. The Prayer Book asks more. We confess our sins to God and intend amendment of life.

That intention will never be carried out perfectly in this life. Christians still struggle, fail, repent, and return. But genuine repentance does not plan to continue deliberately in sin while asking God to bless the arrangement.

That is why the Exhortation can say with startling directness, “Therefore, repent of your sins, or else do not come to God’s Holy Table” (BCP 2019, p. 147).

This is not spiritual cruelty. It is pastoral truthfulness. The Church must not tell someone that deliberate persistence in known sin is compatible with the repentance Christ commands.

At the same time, a repentant sinner should not hear those words as though weakness itself excludes him. There is an enormous difference between fighting sin and defending it, between falling and intending to remain fallen, between crying out for mercy and insisting that repentance is unnecessary. The Holy Table is not reserved for people who no longer need forgiveness. It is given to sinners who are turning to Christ.

Restitution and Reconciliation

The Exhortation continues by telling us, “Be ready to make restitution for all injuries and wrongs you have done to others; and also be ready to forgive others who have offended you” (BCP 2019, p. 147).

Repentance has a horizontal dimension because sin does not only affect our private relationship with God. If we have stolen, repentance may require returning what was taken. If we have lied, repentance may require correcting the falsehood. If we have damaged another person’s reputation, repentance may require acknowledging what we have done. If we have withheld what we owe, repentance may require making it right where possible.

Restitution does not purchase God’s forgiveness. Christ has already offered the sufficient sacrifice for sin. Restitution matters because repentance cannot honestly say, “I am sorry,” while deliberately clinging to the fruit of the wrong.

The same principle applies to forgiveness. Jesus repeatedly joins receiving mercy with becoming a merciful people. That does not mean every broken relationship can immediately be restored or that forgiveness eliminates the need for safety, accountability, boundaries, or justice. But the Christian cannot nurture hatred as a cherished possession while approaching the Table where Christ gives himself to a reconciled people.

Holy Communion joins us not only to Christ but also to one another. As Saint Paul writes, “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:17, ESV). The Exhortation therefore prepares us to receive a sacrament of communion by calling us toward reconciliation.

What Does “Unworthily” Mean?

This is one of the most important pastoral questions raised by the Exhortation. Saint Paul warns against receiving in an unworthy manner, and the Prayer Book says the danger is great if we receive the Sacrament unworthily. But this does not mean that Communion is only for Christians who feel spiritually worthy.

No Christian is worthy in himself of the gift being received. The problem in Corinth was not that imperfect Christians had dared to come to Christ. Paul was addressing serious disorder, division, selfishness, and failure to discern the Lord’s Body. The very meal that should have proclaimed communion in Christ had become an occasion for contempt and judgment.

The issue is therefore not the worthiness of Christ’s guests considered apart from grace. It is the manner in which they receive. The Prayer Book answers the question positively. We receive rightly with repentance and lively faith. We examine ourselves, confess our sins, intend amendment, seek reconciliation, and come trusting Christ.

Article XXVIII states the point with admirable clarity: those who “rightly, worthily, and with faith” receive the Lord’s Supper partake of Christ, and “the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith” (BCP 2019, p. 783).

Faith does not make Christ present by the strength of our believing. Faith receives the Christ who gives himself according to his promise.

When a Christian Should Not Receive

The Exhortation takes seriously the possibility that there are occasions when a Christian should not receive Holy Communion. If we know ourselves to be deliberately persisting in serious sin and refusing repentance, abstaining from Communion can be an honest recognition that we are not presently prepared to receive rightly. The answer is not indefinite separation from the Sacrament. The answer is repentance.

Likewise, if we have seriously wronged another person and are refusing an act of reconciliation or restitution that lies within our power, the Exhortation tells us not simply to ignore that contradiction. The point is not shame for its own sake, but to bring our lives into the light.

The Exhortation also challenges the assumption, found in some churches, that hospitality requires inviting anyone present to receive Holy Communion without regard to baptism, Christian profession, repentance, or faith. Historic Anglican practice has ordinarily understood the Lord’s Table as the sacramental meal of Christ’s baptized people, received with repentance and faith rather than as a general symbol of welcome. The Exhortation therefore calls those who receive to come with a truly penitent heart and lively faith.

At the same time, Christians should be careful not to confuse temptation, weakness, or sorrow over recurring sin with a settled refusal to repent. A person who hates his sin, falls, confesses, seeks help, and continues to struggle is not in the same spiritual posture as one who has determined that God’s command no longer applies. Pastoral counsel can be especially important when the distinction is difficult to see clearly.

The Troubled Conscience

The Exhortation does not end with warning. It turns directly toward the Christian whose conscience remains troubled, saying, “If you have come here today with a troubled conscience, and you need help and counsel, come to me, or to some other Priest, and confess your sins, that you may receive godly counsel, direction, and absolution” (BCP 2019, p. 148). It then explains the purpose: “To do so will both satisfy your conscience and remove any scruples or doubt” (BCP 2019, p. 148).

This is an important balance because the same Exhortation that warns the presumptuous also comforts the scrupulous. One Christian needs to hear, “Stop excusing what God calls sin.” Another needs to hear, “Stop acting as though Christ has not forgiven what you have confessed.” The Prayer Book speaks to both.

This is also why the Exhortation connects naturally with the Reconciliation of a Penitent. Private confession is not a separate spiritual system. It is one pastoral means by which the Gospel can be applied to the conscience when ordinary self-examination has uncovered a burden the Christian cannot resolve alone.

The Exhortation Leads to Thanksgiving

After its warnings, the Exhortation turns decisively toward Christ, saying, “Above all, each of us should give humble and hearty thanks to God for the redemption of the world by the death and passion of our Savior Jesus Christ” (BCP 2019, p. 148).

That movement is essential because the Exhortation is not an exercise in prolonged introspection. It does not end with the congregation staring inward. It moves from self-examination to redemption.

Christ humbled himself to death on the Cross for sinners. Through him we are made children of God and raised to the hope of everlasting life. Because of his great love, he instituted these holy mysteries as pledges of his love and a continual remembrance of his death and passion, “to our great and endless comfort” (BCP 2019, p. 148).

The destination of self-examination is therefore not ourselves but thanksgiving. We examine ourselves so that we may repent. We repent so that we may turn again toward Christ. And we come to the Table because Christ has given himself for us.

The Exhortation and the Anglican Understanding of Holy Communion

The Exhortation also teaches us something important about how Anglicans understand the Eucharist because it refuses two opposite errors.

The first is to treat Holy Communion as a bare memorial whose reception requires little more than attendance. The language of the Exhortation is far too strong for that. The benefit is great, the danger of unworthy reception is real, and the communicant spiritually feeds upon Christ.

The second error is to imagine that the efficacy of Communion rests upon human merit. The Prayer Book is equally clear that we come trusting not in our own righteousness but in God’s abundant mercy.

Article XXVIII expresses the same balance. The Lord’s Supper is “a Sacrament of our Redemption by Christ’s death,” and those who rightly, worthily, and with faith receive it partake of Christ. The Body of Christ is received “after an heavenly and spiritual manner,” and the means of receiving is faith (BCP 2019, p. 783).

The Exhortation therefore prepares us not merely for a church ceremony, but for communion with Christ according to his promise.

Advent, Lent, and Trinity Sunday

The BCP 2019 says that the Exhortation is traditionally read on the First Sunday of Advent, the First Sunday in Lent, and Trinity Sunday (BCP 2019, p. 140).

Advent is a season of preparation and watchfulness. The Church remembers that the Christ who came in humility will come again in glory. Self-examination belongs naturally to that expectation. To watch for the Lord is also to ask whether we are living as those prepared to meet him.

Lent makes the relationship even more obvious. The season intensifies prayer, fasting, self-denial, repentance, and works of mercy. The Exhortation prevents Lenten discipline from becoming vague spirituality by directing us toward the concrete commandments of God, actual sins, restitution, forgiveness, repentance, and faith.

Trinity Sunday may seem less obvious at first, but it also fits. The Christian life is life before the Triune God: created by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. The Sacrament draws us into communion with the God whose Name we confess. The Exhortation reminds the Church that worship of the Holy Trinity is not merely correct doctrine spoken with the lips but a life of repentance, faith, holiness, and thanksgiving.

These traditional occasions therefore make the Exhortation a recurring examination of the Church’s Eucharistic life.

A Historic Anglican Practice

The 2019 Exhortation stands in a long Prayer Book tradition.

The 1662 Order for Holy Communion contains exhortations associated with preparation for the Sacrament, including one beginning, “Dearly beloved in the Lord, ye that mind to come to the holy Communion…” Its themes are immediately recognizable: Saint Paul’s warning, self-examination, repentance, faith, amendment of life, reconciliation, and preparation to receive the holy mysteries.

The 2019 text is therefore not an isolated modern addition. It receives and reshapes a historic Anglican pastoral practice of preparing Christians to receive the Lord’s Supper seriously and faithfully.

That history reveals something important about Anglican worship at its best. The Prayer Book does not assume that frequent Communion and careful preparation are enemies. Nor does it assume that grace means the Church should stop warning Christians about sin. Grace teaches us both to come and how to come.

Not Morbid Introspection

Because the Exhortation is searching, it can be misused by Christians prone to excessive introspection. There is a difference between self-examination and self-absorption.

Christian self-examination has a defined standard, God’s commandments, and a defined goal, repentance and faith. Once sin has been identified, confessed, and turned from, we are not commanded to keep circling endlessly around ourselves.

The Exhortation itself prevents that distortion because it eventually says, “Above all,” give thanks for the redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ. That phrase tells us where the weight finally falls: not upon our failure, our examination, or the intensity of our sorrow, but upon Christ and his redemption.

That is what makes the Exhortation genuinely evangelical rather than merely severe. It tells the truth about sin precisely because it has something better to proclaim than denial: forgiveness, reconciliation, communion with Christ, and everlasting life.

Preparing to Receive

What, then, might an Anglican actually do when the Exhortation is read?

We can begin simply. We can pray through the commandments slowly and honestly. We can ask where our thoughts, words, and deeds have departed from God’s will. We can name those sins rather than hide behind vague admissions. We can confess them to God. We can ask what amendment of life requires. We can consider whether restitution or reconciliation is needed. We can examine whether we are withholding forgiveness. We can seek a priest’s counsel when our conscience is burdened or confused.

Then we can come to Christ, because the purpose of preparation is not to stand at a distance congratulating ourselves on having prepared correctly. It is to receive the gift. The invitation at Holy Communion says, “The gifts of God for the people of God.” The communicant receives the Body and Blood of Christ with the words that it was given and shed “for you” (BCP 2019, p. 120).

The Christian who has examined himself, confessed his sins, repented, and come in faith therefore does not need to hover indefinitely at the edge of the Table wondering whether grace is really meant for sinners. Grace is exactly what sinners need.

Conclusion

The Exhortation is one of the Prayer Book’s clearest calls to serious preparation for Holy Communion. It refuses to make the Sacrament casual, but it also refuses to make Christian assurance depend upon our worthiness.

We examine our lives by the rule of God’s commandments. We confess where we have sinned in thought, word, and deed. We intend amendment of life. We make restitution where we can. We forgive those who have offended us. When our conscience remains troubled, we seek pastoral counsel, confession, and absolution.

Then the Exhortation turns our eyes away from ourselves. Above all, we give thanks for the redemption of the world by the death and passion of Jesus Christ.

That is the final movement the Exhortation teaches us. We do not approach the Holy Table because our examination has revealed that we are righteous enough to come. We approach because Christ has died for sinners, calls us to repent and believe, and gives himself to his people as the pledge of his love and the comfort of those who trust in him.

The Exhortation therefore does not stand between the Christian and the Table. It prepares the way to it, teaching us to come neither carelessly nor fearfully, neither presumptuously nor despairingly, but with what the Prayer Book asks of Christ’s people: a truly penitent heart and lively faith.