Part 1
"As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come." 1 Cor. 11:26.
How sweetly solemn and impressive was that simple yet beautiful thing which the Lord Jesus desired of His people before He, suffered; and how calculated it was to touch the hearts of all those who knew the value of His precious blood. It was at the supper of the Passover where He made the request, on the night in which He was betrayed.
He was eating with His disciples, when He took bread and gave thanks and brake it and gave it to them, saying, "Take, eat; this is My body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me." "Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you." (1 Cor. 11:24; Luke 22:19, 20.)
They had been with Him for some time, He having left His throne of glory to come into the world and die for them; but now He was about to leave them for a little while, and He did not wish to be forgotten by them, but would have His dying love kept continually before their souls, because His death would be to them everlasting life, as well as the foundation of every joy and blessing they would have, either in this world or in that which is to come. He knew what poor things they were and how prone they would be to forget. Therefore His desire was that they should remember Him in this simple way while He was absent from them.
How tender and loving this was; it was just like Himself; and it shows also how very much He valued their affections. Though He was going back to His Father to enjoy the glory which He had with Him before this world was, yet this great desire that they should not forget Him seemed nearer to His heart than all beside (Luke 22:15-20). And how sweet it is to know that He is still the same, and that it gives Him joy up there to be remembered in this way by His loved ones down here. He also knew it would add to their joy too, by keeping their hearts fresh and true to Himself, separate from the world.
Therefore He gave the same words to the Apostle Paul out of the glory, where He is now, as He said, "I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread: and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, Take, eat; this is My body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come." 1 Cor. 11:23-26.
Now we know that the only place where the Apostle Paul saw the Lord Jesus was up there. He was a bitter persecutor of both Him and His people for some time after the Lord died and rose again. He even haled to prison and to death all them that called upon His name.
But after his conversion he was taken up into heaven, whether in the body or out of the body he could not tell. And there it was he saw things which it was impossible to utter; and there, no doubt, it was that he received of the Lord that which he delivered unto us.
The Lord gave the same unchanging request from the glory which He made with His people when He was here upon earth. And we see how gladly the early Christians acted upon it. They met together on the first day of the week for this one object (Acts 20:7).
They gave praise, and worship, and thanksgiving to God at the same time, also words of exhortation and comfort to each other. But the great object of their coming together was to break bread, and thus fulfill the dying request of their Lord and Master, without whose death there never could have been one bright ray before their souls, either here or in the countless ages of eternity.
The broken bread showed forth His body given for them, and they all ate of it; the poured out wine showed forth His precious blood, and they all drank of it, according to His word. They loved Him, and their great delight was thus to remember Him in the way He desired they should.
They met too as one family—not one above another, but as brethren, as well as members of the one body. The little child of yesterday had the privilege of remembering the Lord at His table, the same as those that had known and loved Him from the beginning. But, of course, these had grown up into Him, and thereby were in a position to exhort and help those who were newly brought into the family. Still, the weakest and feeblest believer had his happy place there, the same as those who had known the joy of it for years.
But it is very important to remember that it is the Lord's table, and therefore only one table, whether it be here, or in different parts of the world. Yet it is only one, because the body is one and the loaf is one, and the Lordship of Christ must be owned, and nothing allowed which is not consistent with His holiness and love (1 Cor. 10:21).
No unconverted person should be at that table, whatever his standing in the world might be; it was only for those who loved Him—those who knew that they were washed from their sins in His own blood, and whose delight and joy it was to remember Him and what He had done for them. And however great their weakness, yet they were able to say with Peter, "Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee."
None had a right to please themselves there, or speak their own words, or do their own will in anything. It is not only called the Lord's table in Scripture, but it is also called the Lord's supper, and the Lord's cup, which His people drink, the communion of the blood of Christ. It is the Lord's death that they show forth; and it is the Lord's day on which they do it; and it is the Lord's people alone who can do it; and it is His desire that they should do it till He come. It is altogether His, and His alone; and His holiness and glory must be maintained at all cost.
The Lord the Spirit also is there, not to intimidate, but to fill every heart with joy and gladness, and to give foretastes of that coming day when they shall see Him who died for them, and drink the new wine with Him in His Father's kingdom (Matt. 26:29).
It is purely a family circle and a family feast; and every one belonging to that heavenly family should be there, and no other. For anyone to be at the Lord's table who is living in sin is of all things the most sad, and the Lord will judge it sooner or later. In the church at Corinth many were weak and sickly, and many slept; they were even taken away by death because of allowed evil (1 Cor. 11:29-33).
It has always been a principle with God that He would be sanctified in them that came near Him (Lev. 10:3). And it is the same today; therefore evil of every kind must be judged or God will judge it. Christ cannot have fellowship with iniquity; neither can there be real communion and joy in the Lord where the Holy Ghost is grieved.
Not that God's people will ever be perfect in the flesh. Weakness and infirmity will attend their steps all the time they are down here. But if they confess their sins, God is faithful and just to forgive them their sins, and to cleanse them from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). This is a very different thing from their knowingly allowing evil of any kind to be in their midst, whether it be of doctrine or of conduct, whether it be in themselves or others.
How can such show forth the Lord's death? or how can they worship God? There is no fellowship between light and darkness—between him that serves God and him that serves Him not.
A mixed multitude, consisting of believers and unbelievers, professing to remember the Lord's death, is the greatest confusion and evil. The mere professor has no place at the Lord's table. What he needs is the gospel, that he might know the forgiveness of sins, and the cleansing power of that precious blood. This will enable him to say with the Apostle, Who "loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). Then he can truly remember the Lord's death with joy and gladness, but not before.
The merely being a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, without a proper Christian walk, is no one's title to be there; they must be separated unto God from the things around. God's word calls upon them to examine themselves, and so to eat of that bread and drink of that cup (1 Cor. 11:28, 29).
Separation from evil has always been God's principle of communion. Lot, though a righteous man, was not a separated man; he was in connection with that which he ought not to have been; therefore we never read of God communing with him. Not so with Abraham; God delighted to meet him on every occasion and communicate to him all His purposes (Gen. 18:19).
In the days of Jeremiah we have a beautiful picture of God's path for His people, especially in an evil day like the present. It was a time of great outward profession, but evil was not judged, and the nation of Israel was under judgment on account of it; and some of God's loved ones were mixed up with the evil. In these circumstances, God told Jeremiah to take forth the precious from the vile; then he should be as His mouth. At the same time referring to those who were not doing so, but were going on with it, God said, "Let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them" (Jer. 15:19). God would have the line clearly drawn. Jeremiah must keep himself apart from this state of things, but love must never cease.
Then again, in the days of Malachi, we see there were those who could not join hands with the profession that was going on all around, and in which they had been brought up. They could not continue with it, because evil w a s there; therefore they kept at a distance, and spake often one to another; and the Lord hearkened and heard. He bowed down His ear to hear what they said to each other; and a book of remembrance was kept for them (that is, of what they did say). "And they shall be Mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels."
At the same time, while they were down here in suffering and sorrow, He would spare them (or treat them with tenderness) as a father treats with tenderness his own son that serves him; and by the light which He gave them in their lonely path, they could look around and discern between the evil and the good- between him that serves God and him that serves Him not (Mal. 3:16-18).
God's ways are today what they ever were. He has not altered; and His ways are ways of pleasantness, and all His paths are peace. It is our ways which are so crooked, and lead to confusion and anguish. Still if God's people bring themselves into suffering and sorrow, how happy it is to know that His love is like Himself; it is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever"; in Him there is "no variableness, neither shadow of turning." (Heb. 13:8; Jas. 1:17.)
God's unchanging love gives confidence and joy at all times to those whose eyes are single toward Himself, knowing "that all things work together for good to them that love God," however trying they may be, and however lonely their path; and those who have walked with God in all ages have found that they have often had to walk with Him alone.
If God's path for His people in Old Testament times was a path of separation, how much more it is so now, since the Lord Jesus has been rejected and crucified. He died and rose again, and God is uniting believers to Him up there, at His own right hand, giving them one glorious future with His own beloved Son; so that they are not of the world, even as Christ is not of the world, but are separated to Himself forever, and soon to be with Him in unsullied glory (Phil. 3:20, 21).
He would therefore have His people very separate from evil at all times, with this blessed hope bright before their souls—the hope of His coming. He is looking on to it with joy Himself, and He would have them do so too. Hence His desire is that they should thus show His death till He come. When they are remembering Him in death, He would have them at the same time be looking forward with joy to His coming again to receive them to Himself, that where He is, there they may be also; and no joy to the believer is like the joy of seeing His face and being with Him.
Then there is also the one loaf, which presents before God the whole body of Christ, according to His word, "For we being many are one bread [or loaf], and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread." 1 Cor. 10:17.
How happy it is for God's people to know this; therefore, when they come together to remember the Lord, they see the one loaf on the table and know that every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is represented by it, let them be wherever they may, because they are one body. This is as true today as ever it was, though many of the members of that body do not know it; they are scattered hither and thither, connected with that which God cannot be pleased with, and they are great losers by it; still, it does not alter that which God has done according to the love of His own heart. It is He Himself who has given them that blessed position, and He will make it good in everlasting glory. That day will find them out, wherever they are; not one will be missing; the proceedings of the Father's house would be stopped if one were absent; but this we know cannot be. Still, how sweet it is to enter into our blessed portion now and live in the enjoyment of it. By doing so we also honor Him.