“For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim
the Lord’s death until he comes.”
` --The
apostle Paul to God’s church in Corinth
(1 Corinthians 11:26)
The first comment
God makes concerning the first body of saved men and women
describes the commitment of their new life in Jesus Christ. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’
teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
(Acts 2:42; Cf. Vs. 36-41; 43-47.) Two things of significance are noted: Such
praise sprang spontaneously from grateful hearts. They were deeply
thankful that God’s grace in Jesus had forgiven them of their sins and had
given to them the gift of the Holy Spirit to live in their hearts. (V. 47; Cf.
1 Peter 2:9, 10.) In addition, and as the Lord Jesus had charged his
apostles in respect to the new baptized disciples, the apostles taught them “…to obey everything I have commanded you…”
(Matthew 28:18-20.)
The response of these new saints to “the apostles’ teaching” included their devotion “…to
the breaking of bread and to prayer…”. “Breaking bread” was a familiar phrase. Sometimes it described simply the eating of one’s daily
food. (Cf. Acts 2:46; Luke 24:28-35; Acts 20:11.) When
mentioned in the context along with “the
apostles’ teaching, and…the fellowship…and…prayer” (Acts 2:42), the act of “the breaking of bread” describes another
avenue of devotion in worship. Also, it becomes evident that the inspired apostles gave
instruction to the first- century Christians as to when they were to meet at
the Lord’s table to break bread in his memory. From the scriptures we
learn:
There was a
regular assembly for worship which saints were commanded not to forsake. “Let us not give up meeting together, as some
of in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another…If we deliberately
keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice
for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire
that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of
Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How
much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled
the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the
covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?...It is
a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” If some
were “in the habit” of not meeting together to encourage one
another through the avenue of worship, then there were other s who did
have “the habit” - the regular meeting together to “spur one another on
toward love and good deeds.” They were thereby reminded of the saving
blood of the Son of God and of God’s marvelous grace by the Spirit’s
revelation of “the gospel of God’s grace”. ”(Hebrews 10:24-31; Acts
20:24.)
Saints met
together every Sunday. The apostle Paul taught (‘gave order to” A.V.) the
church of God
in Corinth (in Achaia, southern Greece ), as he had previously told the Galatian
churches (central Asia Minor ), “Now about the collection for God’s people: Do
what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum
of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no
collections will have to be made.” (1 Corinthians 16:1, 2) A
habitual, weekly worship assembly “on the first day of every week…” was the
Apostle’s habitual teaching in these churches in Asia, and in Europe . More than once Paul would refer to his consistency in his
teaching “…which agrees with what I teach
everywhere in every church…” (1 Corinthians 4:17); “…This is the rule I lay down in all the
churches.” (7:17.)
The saints
came together to eat the Lord’s Supper. When the Corinthian saints abused this purpose, the apostle
reminded them, “When you come together,
it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat…” (1 Corinthians 11:20.) It
should have been. Thus Paul rebukes their irreverence. They were
carelessly eating and drinking in a manner ill befitting Jesus’ revealed
teaching…: “What shall I say to you? Shall
I praise you for this? Certainly not! For I received from the Lord what I
also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took
bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘this is my body,
which is for you; do this in remembrance of me’ …In the same way, after
supper he took the cup, saying. This cup is the new covenant in my blood, do
this, when you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For whenever you eat this bread
and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Therefore,
whoever eats the bread or drinks that cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner
will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought
to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup…So then,
my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other…(Vs.
17-34.)
Now we can
better understand Luke’s words from Troas , “On the first day of the week we came
together to break bread…” (Acts 20:7.) This was their habit which
evidently they had learned from the apostles who were commissioned by the
Lord Jesus to teach baptized disciples “…to
obey everything I have commanded you…”(Matthew 28:18-20.) This was
the habit of those taught by Jesus’ inspired apostles – their habit every
Sunday to come “together to break bread”.
Honoring Jesus, and his apostles’ teaching, his church in succeeding
centuries has followed the same Divine order by coming together “the first day of every week”, to “break
bread and to drink the cup” in memory of Jesus. (Acts 20:7.)
Ted Kell
