The desire is, or should be, in the heart of every true believer to remember the Lord in His death by partaking of the Lord’s supper each first day of the week (1 Cor. 11:26; Acts 20:7). What a privilege this is, until He comes! How can we but respond to love like His? Surely it ought to constrain our hearts more and more. However, it is noticeable that, because of its importance, the truth as to the Lord’s table precedes the instructions as to the Lord’s supper in the epistle to the Corinthians.
The Lord’s table is that which has been set up according to His Word (1 Cor. 10:21), where His authority is owned (Matt. 18:16-18; 1 Cor. 5:4) and where the unity of the body is expressed by the one loaf on the table. The local assembly is the expression of this, meeting in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ alone, holding the whole truth of God and also maintaining the holiness of God’s house.
What a privilege it is to remember the Lord in His own appointed way! Though we are not told to invite believers to His table, yet we know they are all represented in the one loaf, and we can teach them the truth of it, receiving them gladly, when we can do so to the glory of God (Rom. 15:6-7). The Lord Himself invites them, but let us bear in mind that although it is the responsibility of each believer who breaks bread to examine himself (1 Cor. 11:28), it is also the responsibility of the assembly to judge evil in its midst (1 Cor. 5:12-13).
God’s assembly is the pillar and ground of the truth, and soundness in faith as to the person and work of Christ are of vital importance as well as a godly walk (1 Tim. 3:15; Psalm 93:5).
The assembly then is responsible to maintain the holiness of God’s house, and when evil has been manifested, whether moral or doctrinal, they have authority and also the responsibility to deal with it. “Put away from among yourselves that wicked person” (1 Cor. 5:13).
Having proof as to the guilt of the person involved, the assembly then acts in obedience to the Word of God in judging it. Each assembly, meeting according to the Word of God, acknowledges the Lord’s authority by bowing to that decision (Matt. 18:18), for God’s assembly in any locality is the local expression of the whole testimony.
Even though an individual Christian may be sound in the faith and godly as to his own personal walk, yet if he knowingly remains in a group where moral or doctrinal evil is allowed, he is having fellowship with the evil and is defiled thereby, for “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (1 Cor. 5:6).
The act of breaking bread is the expression of fellowship with the table where one breaks bread (1 Cor. 10:18-22), and so the Word of God calls upon each believer to purge himself from “vessels... to dishonor” and to “depart from iniquity” (2 Tim. 2:18-22).
The Scripture says, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments” (1 John 5:2). The proof of our love for the Lord and His people is obedience, and so He says, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). How precious are those words, “Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it” (Eph. 5:25). When we give expression to this truth in breaking bread as members of His body in His appointed way, we give honor to Him, our precious Saviour. May He keep us for His glory till He comes!
Till Thou shalt come in glory,
And call us hence away,
To rest in all the brightness
Of that unclouded day,
We show Thy death, Lord Jesus,
And here would seek to be
More to Thy death conformed,
Whilst we remember Thee
G. H. Hayhoe