I will now turn to another and important mark of God's assembly given in chaps, 10. and 11. of the first epistle to the Corinthians, viz.—a due regard for the Lord's Table and supper. Upon these points the Corinthians had doubtless been fully instructed by the apostle, during the year and six months of his ministry among them (Acts 18:1111And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. (Acts 18:11)); nor does he bring them forward as new, but says he had received of the Lord that which also he delivered (past tense) unto them. Yet how little did they know the power of the truth, and how feeble, nay, how stagnant, their jealousy for the honor of Christ! A mere knowledge of the letter of the truth will not at all suffice to preserve the soul; the truth must be held in communion with God in the power of the Holy Ghost, or the soul is but little profited, and the Lord but little glorified in His saints.
It will be observed that the apostle presents two different ideas in the two chapters referred to; first, the Lord's table, and afterward, the Lord's supper—various aspects of the same thing, I know, but the distinction should be kept clearly before our minds. In chap. 10. the great thought before the mind of the Spirit is fellowship, which will explain the fact of the cup being placed before the loaf; for apart from the precious blood of Christ (of which the cup so expressively speaks), how could there be any fellowship of saints? And further, the apostle adds a truth concerning the loaf which is not found in chap. 11., viz., that it sets forth the “one body,” of which all the saints on earth form a part, and of which Christ in glory is the Head. In chap. 11. the great point is the remembrance of Christ: in chap. 10. rather, as I have said, the fellowship of saints, and therefore the added truth. It is important to see that eating and drinking is, according to this scripture, an expression of fellowship, which the Corinthians had apparently entirely lost sight of. Else how dare they enter the temple of an idol, and eat things offered there in sacrifice? especially as idol-worship is in reality the worship of demons. In doing so they were provoking the Lord to jealousy—a serious consideration at all times for the saints; as the apostle solemnly asks, “Are we stronger than He”? A right understanding of the truth conveyed in chap 10, will deliver the Christian from independency and unholiness, two serious evils which, without doubt, go hand in hand. If we really believe that all the saints on earth form one body—Christ's body, how can we harbor the thought in our hearts of independency? and if we really understand that eating and drinking means fellowship, how can we be indifferent as to the persons with whom we sit down? The truth, evenly held in the power of the Spirit, and bowed to in all its parts, will preserve the soul from these and the many other snares laid by the ever watchful foe for our feet.
Passing to chap. 11., the apostle says, “I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you.” Paul was not one of the privileged few who sat with the Lord in the upper chamber on that memorable night; but the Head of the church had not left him to glean the particulars of the precious feast from the twelve, but chose, in divine wisdom, to make it a subject of special revelation to him. Not so did the Lord act with regard to that other Christian institution, baptism; we have no record of any special revelation concerning that to Paul, though he was himself baptized, and practiced baptism as a servant of Christ. Why the difference? Surely because the supper is the great standing expression of the church's unity (and was not Paul the apostle of the church?), whilst baptism is an individual thing, expressive of the believer's identification with Christ in His death, but in no way connected with the assembly. The Lord's supper is a memorial feast; it brings before our hearts not merely the Lord's work, important though it is, but the Lord Himself in His sufferings and death. While breaking bread thus, we are gathered to a living Christ, Who is ever in the midst where the two or three are gathered to His name; but we remember a dead Christ. How loudly does the loaf speak of His holy body prepared for Him by divine power (Psa. 40.), formed without a taint of sin, and offered up once for all! (Heb. 10.) And how powerfully does the cup speak of that precious blood, which alone makes atonement for the soul, shed forth at the altar—the cross of Calvary! Well does the Spirit say, “As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come.” What shall we say of the pseudo-spirituality which regards the precious memorial as a carnal ordinance, with the Spirit's own plain words before us, “till He come”? Not till that day are those who love His name, and who would do His will, free from the responsibility and privilege of breaking bread in remembrance of Himself. The words as often raise an important question, which the scriptures answer plainly to a simple mind. Acts 20:77And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight. (Acts 20:7), shows the custom of saints in Paul's day: “Upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread,” &c., and the words are even a little stronger than they appear, for the best authorities read, “when we came together.” What can the simple mind, desirous of doing the Lord's will, want more? Such words are a plain intimation that saints in the church's early days, met on “the first day of the week” to remember their Lord in His appointed way. And surely this is not too often where the heart's affections are towards Christ? where is the love of the one who finds it irksome to show the Lord's death so frequently? and what day more suitable than that which bears witness to His resurrection—the Victorious One, alive for evermore?
There is urgent need for care in handling such precious memorials, as the apostle shows in 1 Cor. 11:27-2927Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. (1 Corinthians 11:27‑29). The Corinthians had not so far departed from the truth as to welcome unworthy persons (that was reserved for the Christendom of a later day); but there was a danger of themselves eating in a very unworthy way, and this the apostle solemnly points out: “Whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” The saints to whom these words were written were eating and drinking with unexercised hearts, in utter forgetfulness of what they were doing. It is for saints to examine themselves in the light of the Lord's presence, before going up to His table to remember Him in the breaking of bread. Not that unworthy eating on the part of saints involves “damnation,” as the Authorized Version of ver. 29 wrongly states; but such indifference to the Lord's honor brings down the hand of the Lord in judgment. If we are forgetful of what is due to Him, He never can be, and will vindicate Himself and clear His name. To be near to God is very blessed, but also very solemn, for judgment must begin at the house of God (1 Peter 4), the world's judgment being still delayed in the long-suffering grace of God. The truth of this was experienced by the lax Corinthian saints, for many among them were weak and sickly, and many slept. Had they judged themselves, they would not have been judged, for it gives the heart of the Lord no pleasure to deal thus with His own; but holiness must be maintained. Yet even here grace is seen, for “when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” When the world is dealt with for its iniquity and rejection of Christ, the believer is, through grace, exempt, his judgment having been borne once for all by the Blessed One; but he is chastened now by a holy yet loving hand, if he walks not fruitfully to the glory of Christ.
May the Lord help us to value our privileges, and give to us an ever deepening sense of what is due to Him, in a cold and indifferent day!