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The Lord's Supper
(10th in the series of expositions on Communion delivered on Nov 12, 1978)
We read in 1 Cor 11:20-22:
When you meet together, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal, and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
And v27-32:
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we should not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
Why is it that you are not eating the Lord's Supper? (See v20) It is because the attitude is entirely wrong. If you come with a wrong attitude, not only that the Communion would not be a blessing to you but it would become a condemnation to you. This is why when we come to the Communion, we must ask the Lord to search our heart and see if we have the right attitude.
What then is the right attitude? And why did Paul say that it is not the Lord's Supper? (See v20 once more.)
The Communion used to be a feast for the disciples together, and is called a "love feast", which is different from today's practice. The disciples used to have meals and suppers together, because this supper is done in obedience to God's word and at the conclusion of the supper there is the breaking of bread, therefore it is also called "the Lord's Supper". So it was at first a love feast, then followed by Communion. But today, these two things are entirely separate from each other, and no meals are being held together and we just have the breaking of the bread. Communion was practiced almost daily in the early days. They often went to the Communion straight from work so some came early and some came late. Thus, those who were hungry would start the meal first and those who came late might find all the food and drinks gone, and therefore were unable to partake Communion. Paul rebuked them severely, for each person cares only for himself rather than to care for the others; they did not wait till everybody arrived. So, without this attitude of caring for the other person, what we partake of in Communion is no longer a blessing to us but becomes a source of condemnation.
We must also remember that not everybody in the Corinthian Church practiced in this way, otherwise the church would become a selfish one. The Corinthian Church is no different from any church today. Although we do not understand Paul's thinking why the whole church is being rebuked when only one person (or a small minority) sinned, yet Paul did rebuke the entire church (another example is in Chapter 5). It is enough if only a small number of people sinned that the whole church should be rebuked. If the church does not care for each other, then sin could be allowed to grow without being realized. A little leaven is enough to leaven the whole lump.
The Lord is concerned that we should have the attitude of caring for others. If we partake the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner, we will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord (v.27). "Unworthy" (in the context of partaking the Lord's Supper) refers to the attitude that you don't care for anybody else. Today the church is full of this individualism and this is regarded as unworthiness.
In v29 which reads: "He who eats and drinks without discerning the body...", the word 'body' is very interesting. Since the word 'drinks' is being used, we would have expected the word 'blood'. But 'body' is used instead. Paul often uses the 'body' to refer to the church - we are one body of Christ. The 'body' here may refer to the church also, as in 1 Cor 10:17: "there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the same loaf." Thus, to partake the Communion without discerning the body of Christ is partaking it unworthily.
That we are partakers of the body of Christ means that we are all one body and we have been bought by the price of the blood of Christ and therefore we belong to one another. Our whole individualistic thinking has to be changed in such a way that we must have a new heart of concern for each other. Such is the concern of the Lord that in the middle of the Lord's supper, as described in John 13:2-15, wherein during the supper the Lord got up and washed His disciples' feet and gave bread even to Judas (who was the person who did not discern the body). The Lord wanted to show us how to care for each other. Serving each other is inseparable from the Communion. Therefore in the middle of the supper, He did these things.
We have often said we love the Lord therefore we have Communion, but is there evidence and proof of our love? In Jn 21:17 the Lord told Peter that if he loves the Lord then he was to feed His sheep; there is a connection between "loves the Lord" and "feed His sheep". Our love for God has to do with the caring for His people. If anybody says "I love the Lord" but walks in the darkness, he is a hypocrite, the truth is not in him.
When we come to the Communion, have we discerned His body in such a way that we care for each other? Can we honestly say that we just have to get right with God and that's it? We can't get right with God without getting right with each other. Therefore we can't talk about the relationship with God without the relationship with each other in the church.
So, Paul says in v33, "So, then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another."
And in v34 he continues with: "If any one is hungry, let him eat at home - lest you come together to be condemned...". Let him go home and eat first, then come to join the Communion later. Then he will not be condemned due to the unworthy manner which is the lack of love with one another.
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Communion Series:
- Worship
- A Sharing in the Body of Christ
- God's Expression of Love to Us
- Pressing toward the Mark of the High Calling
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