Can a church reach a point when it is better for them to stop meeting than for them to come together? The apostle Paul once felt that way about the church in the city of Corinth. It lost its way from the gospel and found its way into divisions. There were leadership factions, moral dilemmas, doctrinal issues, and socio-economic tensions between people. All the conflict in the Corinthian church affected how they approached the Lord’s Supper.
In this context, the apostle Paul wrote these tragic words about their participation in the Lord’s supper, “When you come together it is not for the better but for the worse” (1 Cor. 11:17-19). In other words, “If you don’t set right how you come together, it is better that you don’t come together.”
Why did Paul give such importance to this meal? What is the Lord’s Supper? How can we understand its meaning and prepare our hearts to enjoy our communion with God and with each other through Christ?
Understanding the Lord’s Supper
Communion is a biblical and historical means of grace that forms and shapes the life of a church and the hearts of its people. When we gather together as God’s people, we expect God’s Spirit to move in us. We want him to change us by the power of God’s grace as we participate in this meal.
A Meal of Thanksgiving
The Lord Jesus instituted the Lord’s Table on the night he was betrayed. In it, he gave thanks to the Father, who was providing a way of salvation for his enemies to become his family. Since then, followers of Jesus approach this meal with the same attitude of thanksgiving for the gift of God’s grace through Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 11:23-24).
Whenever we come to this meal, we give thanks and celebrate our new identity as beneficiaries of the cross. God fills our hearts with gratitude because he has made us people whom he has forgiven and loved through the atoning work of Christ.
The cross of Jesus is the great equaliser
Gratitude matters because it displaces feelings of superiority and inferiority. Thanksgiving takes our eyes away from ourselves and helps us look to Jesus without pride or shame.
The Lord’s Supper reminds us that the most high became the most low so the lowly can be lifted high (Eph. 2:6). The cross of Jesus is the great equaliser (Gal. 3:28).
The Lord’s Supper reorients our imagination around the gospel. It shows us we are neither greater nor lesser than others. Instead, God sees the full extent of our sin and has shown us the full extent of his love through the sacrifice of his son Jesus Christ.
A Meal That Unites Us
The Lord’s Supper is rightly called communion because it helps us to experience unity with Christ. But it also helps us experience unity with each other.
Jesus told us his broken body and blood are “for you” (1 Cor. 11:24). In one moment in history, the broken body of Jesus was forming the spiritual body of Christ by grace.
The Lord’s Supper reminds us we belong to something much larger than ourselves. We are united to one another in Christ. This was the crux of Paul’s teaching to the Corinthian church. This meal reminds them of the unity they were beginning to forget.
St Augustine, an early African theologian and pastor, puts it like this: “just as many grains are mixed and baked into one loaf, just as how individual grapes are crushed and poured out together in one vessel as wine, we too brothers and sisters, who were many, cut off and isolated were brought together as one body through Jesus.”
A Meal of Christ’s Presence
Jesus said this is his body and his blood. The apostle Paul calls it a participation in the body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16).
Though there is debate among traditions on what this means, Paul says we actually participate in his body in some spiritual way. When we eat and drink this meal by faith, Christ is present in a meaningfully symbolic and powerfully spiritual way. The Holy Spirit lifts us up to commune with Christ and he is present with us in a real way.
Jesus knows our forgetful nature and gave us this meal of remembrance
In this meal, we do not put our faith in the elements but in what they point us towards—the work of Christ. We want to feast on his presence and power. He is our true food and true drink. Each week we come to him hungry and tired of trying to satisfy our longings with food that does not satisfy. We come so with expectation that he will meet us in this meal of his presence.
A Meal of Remembrance
Jesus instituted this meal to remember him. We forget the gospel all the time. We lose sight of his nature, his Word, and our identity in Christ. When this happens, we revert to our performance, possessions, achievements, or the approval of others to tell us who we are. In dark nights of the soul, it is tempting to believe we are nothing more than the sum of all our sins.
Jesus knows our forgetful nature and gave us this meal of remembrance (1 Cor. 11:24-25).
But what exactly are we remembering? We remember we are united to God in Christ. All God’s promises are yes and amen in Jesus. We remember that we are washed, accepted, heard, and free from sin, death, and Satan. Through the gospel, we are the righteousness of God in Christ.
We are remembering that our past, present, and future are completely covered by the work of Christ—his life, death, resurrection, and return.
A Meal of Hope and Longing
When we participate in the Lord’s Supper together, we are trusting that one day we will eat this meal with Jesus (1 Cor. 11:26). We eat today looking forward to a great wedding banquet in a new heaven and earth, completely restored, where God will make all things new (Rev. 19:6-9).
In spite of the burdens we carry today, this meal reassures us that one day he will return for his bride. Then we will see him and be with him forever and he will satisfy all our deepest hunger and thirst.
Preparing Ourselves for the Lord’s Supper
The Lord’s Supper is a precious meal of great significance. There is a way to eat this meal in an unworthy manner (1 Cor. 11:27-32). So the apostle Paul calls for the Corinthians to “examine” themselves.
Examining Ourselves
According to Paul, God disciplined some Corinthians who took this meal in an unworthy manner. Under God’s corrective love, many were weak and ill and some even died (1 Cor. 11:30). God gives them a taste of temporary discipline to recuse them from eternal judgement. What does it mean to take this warning seriously today? How can examine ourselves today?
No Legalism
Firstly, Paul is not issuing a warning against unworthy participation, not unworthy people. Sometimes people refuse to participate because of a struggle with sin that makes them feel unworthy. But this is exactly whom this meal is for—needy sinners, willing to repent. If someone feels unworthy, this meal calls them to repent and remember the gospel. To skip the meal because we feel unworthy is to miss the gospel and descend into legalism.
There is only one way to come to this meal—needy and hungry.
As a means of grace, this meal calls us to remember the Gospel and to see ourselves through God’s eyes. God’s Spirit strengthens us through participation in this meal so we can humbly and joyfully move towards reconciliation. There is only one way to come to this meal—needy and hungry.
No Flippancy
Secondly, Paul is saying God’s people can participate in this meal in an unworthy manner. The Corinthian church did not “discern the body” (1 Cor. 11:29). They did not see the power of God at work in the lives of others in the body of Christ. Instead, they let their disputes and cliques divide the body of Christ. The opposite of discerning the body is dishonouring and distancing yourself from one another in church. Such subtle hostility is more sinful than if someone walked into the service and physically flipped the Lord’s table upside down.
As often as we come to this meal, God calls us to examine our hearts and ask the question, “Am I making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace?” (Eph. 4:3). It is a meal that calls us to keep short accounts.
We love the spiritual body of Christ because God loved us by offering up the physical body of Christ.
