02.19. 1. For Breaking of Bread and Worship

1. For Breaking of Bread and Worship

We have seen that the original Assembly at Jerusalem "continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers" (Acts 2:42). Thus, besides fellowship, which would apply to all meetings and the whole life of the believers, we have here three special features which marked the church life of these saints: Teaching, Breaking of Bread, and Prayer. At first all their meetings were probably so characterized, but as the Church emerged from Judaism, we find regular meetings for special purposes. From Acts 20:6-7 we learn that a regular meeting was held on the first day of the week for the purpose of breaking bread. There we hear of a company, Paul and his companions, arriving at Troas and abiding there seven days. "And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them." Here at a specified time (the first day of the week, the Lord’s day), at a specified place, the disciples came together for a specified purpose (to break bread). From the form of expression used here we are given to understand that this was their regular weekly custom. They did not come together to meet the apostle or to hear him preach, but to break bread on the first day of the week-the resurrection day, the day which spoke of His rising power. This was their habit and Paul and his company waited at Troas seven days so that they might enjoy the great privilege of breaking bread with the disciples. Being thus assembled for this purpose, Paul used the opportunity and followed with an address to the saints, for he was leaving on the morrow. But the first object of their meeting was to remember the Lord in His death; it was the center of their worship and a regular thing among them each Lord’s day, the first day of the week. Thus we learn from Acts 2:1-47; Acts 20:1-38 that one of the principal meetings of the apostolic Churches was the meeting for the breaking of bread and worship in response to their Lord’s request on the night of His betrayal. Further we learn that at first they met together every day at Jerusalem to remember the Lord in the breaking of bread and that later it seems to have been the custom in the Assemblies which were formed elsewhere to come together every first day of the week to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. The Lord had said through Paul: "as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come" (1 Corinthians 11:26), so they did it often. These early Christians, in the bloom and freshness of their first love, were in the constant habit of breaking bread in affectionate remembrance of their Lord. They were so filled with the Holy Ghost, that Christ was ever before their hearts and they delighted to celebrate that precious feast which was, according to His own express word, the effecting memorial of Himself in His death.

Observe, it was not on the first Lord’s day of the month or of the quarter of the year, but on the first day of the week that they gathered together for this holy purpose in obedience to their Lord and Savior’s request. It was not occasionally that they broke bread, as is the custom of most Christians in our day, but regularly every Lord’s day. So we should do, also, if we would follow the divine pattern given us in the Scriptures. These early Christians loved their Lord too well to neglect the precious memorial of His love which He had instituted on the night of His betrayal. From observing them, we may say that, just in proportion as saints love Christ, love His Word, and are filled with the Holy Ghost, do they delight to go to His table and remember Him, shewing forth His death until He come. He Himself has said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15).

Purpose of the Supper

Having seen that the early Church came together regularly the first day of the week to break bread and that this gathering was the chief meeting of the Church (since it is the only one so distinctly specified) we go on to consider more definitely the meaning and purpose of the Lord’s Supper. In the Gospels we have the Supper instituted, in the Acts we have it celebrated, as we have just seen, and in the first Epistle to the Corinthians we have it expounded. In the Gospel of Luke we read: "And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him. And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer . . . And He took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given 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" (Luke 22:14-20). The Lord was with His disciples for the last time before going to the cross where He was going to give Himself as a sacrifice for sin. There His body would be nailed to the cross and He would "bare our sins in his own body on the tree," as Peter afterwards expressed it. There He would drink the cup of God’s wrath against sin and shed His blood as an atonement for sinners. On the ground of accomplished redemption, He would make a new covenant in His blood which was shed for all believers. He would then go to the Father and they would not have Him bodily with them any more.

Accordingly, after the Passover Supper, He instituted the new memorial feast of the Lord’s Supper which would remind them, and believers down through the centuries, of what He had done for them at Calvary’s cross. The bread was emblematical of the body in which He suffered and completed the work of atonement and the cup would remind us of His blood which was shed on the cross for our sins. It was not, as some erroneously think and teach, that in the Supper the bread becomes literally His body and the contents of the cup become literally His blood, so that we actually eat His body and drink His blood as something which makes us more fit for heaven and gives us’ the forgiveness of sins. The Lord was still bodily present with them when He instituted the Supper and surely He did not mean that, though He was bodily present, the bread and the cup He then gave them was also literally His body and His blood. No, He was thinking of the time when He would no longer be bodily present with them; thus He gave them, and believers throughout the Church age, the emblems of the bread and the cup which would recall Himself and His death on the cross vividly to their minds. When the Lord said, "This is my body," and "this is my blood," he used a figure of speech, as He often did, just as we do in showing a picture of a loved one, saying, "This is my mother," etc. We mean thereby that the picture is a likeness of our loved one, a representation, and no thought of literalness is implied by the words. Yet many have strained at the like expression of our Lord" This is my body"-and insist that the emblems of the Lord’s Supper become, at the words of the priest or minister, literally His body and His blood to the participant.

What, then, is the purpose and object of the Lord’s Supper? "This do in remembrance of me," are His own blessed words. He knew well the tendency of our hearts to slip away from Him and from each other, so He gave us this memorial feast of Himself in His death for us, that v7e might be reminded often of His great love towards us and of the wonderful redemption which He has accomplished in our behalf. He would have us raise a memorial to His death here in this world that would not have Him, a memorial not in marble or costly architecture, but by a simple act of remembrance. "This do ye" (1 Corinthians 11:25), He says. This act of obedience He claims on our part. Dear Christian reader, are you doing it? To those who respond to His loving request to remember Him in His appointed way, the assurance is given: "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do spew (announce, or tell thoroughly-Greek), the Lord’s death till He come" (1 Corinthians 11:26). This is what our simple act of remembering Him in eating the bread and drinking the cup means. It is the proclaiming of His precious death as the only ground of salvation. The word here translated "shew" is translated elsewhere "to preach" ten times in our King James version. So whenever believers come together to remember the Lord in the breaking of bread, they thereby preach the glorious fact of Christ’s death for sinners and salvation through His shed blood. How wonderful! So important is the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, that a special revelation about it was given to the apostle Paul from the Lord in glory. This revelation is recorded in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 11:23-29. Here the purpose of the Supper is clearly set forth and the manner in which it should be observed.

Manner of Observance From this Epistle to the Corinthians we learn that a bad state of affairs existed in the Corinthian Assembly and much disorder had come in among them with regard to many things, among them the Lord’s Supper. From 1 Corinthians 11:1-34 we see that they had been coming together in a careless way and had not been eating the Lord’s Supper in a true sense. The apostle had to write them: "When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken" 1 Corinthians 11:20-21).

It would seem that they were mixing up the love-feast (a common meal which the early Christians partook of together) with the Lord’s Supper and were thus eating the Supper in an unworthy and irreverent manner so that the real character of the Supper of the Lord was lost sight of. They had even degraded the character of the love-feast by holding to class distinctions, the rich feasting on their abundance while the poor went hungry because they had little to bring to the meal. So the apostle Paul was directed by God’s Spirit to write this Epistle to them correcting these various disorders. In this eleventh chapter we have special instructions as to the purpose of the Lord’s Supper and the holy and reverent manner in which it should be observed. Since this Epistle to the Corinthians was meant of God to be part of the Holy Scriptures, we see that God in His wisdom allowed these disorders to come up in the early Church so that through this Epistle we might have permanent, divine instructions for dealing with such conditions and know His mind and order more fully. Thereby we see that God not only meant Paul to express the divine mind about these things for the benefit of the Corinthians, but for the guidance and instruction of the whole Church throughout the dispensation. How thankful we should be for this. From 1 Corinthians 11:23 we learn that a special revelation was given to the apostle Paul about the Supper of the Lord. "I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you." Paul was not one of the twelve apostles who were with the Lord on the night when He instituted this remembrance feast, so these instructions about the Supper were communicated personally to Him by the Lord Himself. It was not now merely the lowly Jesus at the Passover Supper who spoke, but the Lord on the throne of glory in heaven who gave to Paul these details as to the mind of God about the breaking of bread. Surely this fact should show us the great importance of the Lord’s Supper as a Christian institution. The whole matter of the Supper, its institution by the Lord on the night of His betrayal, its divine purpose as an act of remembrance, and the manner in which we are to partake of it, is therefore of great importance since the Lord made it the subject of a special revelation. We should notice the oft recurrence of the title of the Master as Lord in this chapter about the Supper. He speaks of the Lord’s Supper, the Lord Jesus, the Lord’s death, the cup of the Lord, the body and blood of the Lord, the body of the Lord, and chastening of the Lord. The reason for this is easy to see. The Corinthians must have forgotten that He was the Lord or they would not have gotten into this terrible disorder with regard to the Lord’s Supper. The One of whom the Supper speaks has been made Lord of all and He has the right of full control and command over everything which we have and are. We are responsible to Him for what we do, what we say, and what we think, and especially so when we remember Him in His death. They had forgotten Him in this respect and had made the Supper their own supper. They were occupied with their own things and lost sight of the things of the Lord. They had forgotten the Lord’s presence and thus had lost the true value of the Lord’s Supper. This is bound to follow when His presence is not realized. They had fallen so far as to degrade the Lord’s Supper to the level of a common meal. It was needful that they be brought back to the realization of the Lordship of Christ and of the sacred character of the Supper of the Lord.

Therefore Paul was led to write them urgently and solemnly that he might win back their hearts to a true remembrance of Christ in the breaking of bread. Such was the condition and error into which the Corinthians had fallen and we need to realize that we ourselves are constantly in danger of falling into a similar state of carelessness and disorder as to the manner and ;ray in which we partake of the sacred Supper of the Lord. It is of the utmost importance that we realize the presence of the Lord Jesus and center our thoughts and affections upon Him when we are gathered together to remember Him in His death. There is ever a continual effort of Satan to draw away our thoughts from the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and to fill our minds with matters not appropriate to the Lord’s Supper and the Lord’s Table. Therefore continual effort, watchfulness, and prayer to the Lord are needed that our hearts and thoughts may be concentrated upon our Lord and Savior in remembrance and worship. His adorable and wondrous Person and His great work of redemption are the objects before us in the Supper and as we fix our gaze upon Him wandering thoughts will be collected and restless spirits will be subdued. His presence will then be realized and the Supper of the Lord will be observed in a manner pleasing to Himself. In 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 of 1 Corinthians 11:1-34 the apostle brings before them afresh the words of the Lord spoken at the institution of the Supper and in 1 Corinthians 11:26 he adds that as often as they partook of it they skewed the Lord’s death till He come. Let us take special note of those blessed words: "till He come." We are to continue remembering the Lord in the Supper each Lord’s day, or first day of the week, until His coming again in the air for His Church. Thus the breaking of bread takes us backward to the death of our Savior, upward to the glory where He now is, and onward to the blessed moment of His coming for us. (We might add here that the fact of His birth into this world as man may also come before us in connection with the emblems of the Supper, for then it was that He took upon Him a body of flesh and blood. Thus His birth, death, resurrection, glorification, and coming again are all necessarily brought to our remembrance each time we truly eat the bread and drink the cup of the Supper. Therefore we do not need each year a special day of commemoration for His birth, another for His death, and another for His resurrection. Nothing is said about such days in the Scriptures, but each first day of the week He would have us remember Himself in His birth, death, resurrection, glorification, and coming again.)

We come now to the solemn words of the apostle as to eating and drinking the Supper unworthily. "Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation (judgment-original) to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body" (1 Corinthians 11:27-29).

If we bear in mind what has already been before us about the disorder amongst the Corinthians as to the Lord’s Supper, it will help us to see that the eating and drinking unworthily which the apostle speaks of here, does not refer to the worthiness or otherwise of the persons, but to the unworthy manner in which they had been eating the Lord’s Supper. If eating the Supper depended upon personal worthiness, no one on earth could partake, for no one is worthy in himself to partake of the Lord’s Supper. We are only worthy in the sense that Christ has taken us in our lost condition, cleansed us by His blood, and thereby fitted us for His presence and given us the right to partake of the Supper. This right is the result of what He has done for us and not of any personal worthiness. The apostle is not speaking of individual worthiness at all, but of the manner in which these saints conducted themselves when together. They were very careless and ignored what the bread meant and what the cup meant. They forgot the solemn realities that were expressed by the emblems, and partook of them as common, meaning less things. They did not discern in the bread the Lord’s body and thus ate and drank unworthily and brought present judgment upon themselves. The same danger remains for us today. We may carelessly partake of the Lord’s Supper, not thinking of His body and His blood as we eat the bread and drink of the cup. Our thoughts may be of other things and not of the Lord whom we profess to remember. If we do not discern by faith His body, we eat unworthily and are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord since we treat their memorials with indifference. This is a solemn thought. It is not, as we have said before, that the bread becomes His body and the contents of the cup become His blood, but to faith they speak definitely of the broken body of Christ and of His shed blood. The question is: Are we really discerning by faith the Lord’s body in the breaking of bread? Do we sometimes eat and drink of the Supper as an ordinary meal, or a common thing without reflection or self-judgment? Do we fail to realize His presence or fail to perceive that in the bread and the cup the Spirit would bring to our view His body which was given for us and His blood which was shed for us? If so, we are eating and drinking unworthily; we are eating and drinking judgment to ourselves and will bring down upon us the chastening hand of the Lord.

"For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world" (1 Corinthians 11:30-32). Such are the serious consequences of eating and drinking the Lord’s Supper unworthily. Since partaking of the Lord’s Supper is a solemn matter, and since there is the possibility of eating and drinking in an unworthy manner with such serious consequences, one might tremble and shrink back from obeying the Savior’s last request, "This do in remembrance of me." To do so would be to fall into another error and be disobedient to the Lord’s command of love. In this respect 1 Corinthians 11:28 and 1 Corinthians 11:31 are an encouragement to us which we must not overlook. "But let a man examine (prove original) himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup . . . For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged."

While holiness and reverence are stressed on the one hand, grace encourages and strengthens us on the other hand to come and eat of the Supper with self-judgment, carefulness, and sobriety. Though the Lord urges that we put ourselves to the proof, examining and trying our ways and practicing habitual self-judgment upon ourselves, He invites all His own to come and eat of the bread and drink of the cup, but not with a careless or light spirit. Notice, it does not say, "Let a man examine himself, and stay away," but "let a man examine himself, and so let him eat." As an examined and self-judged one, we are invited to come and eat and drink of the Supper. Thus does grace strengthen the one who tries himself with uprightness of heart and judges himself; and this emboldens him to come to the Supper with a good conscience. Where there is lightness and no self-judgment, on the other hand, the Lord will show Himself there to judge and chasten, so that sickness, and in extreme cases even death, may be the result (1 Corinthians 11:30).

Thus we see that what will preserve us from an unworthy participation in the Lord’s Supper and from eating and drinking judgment to ourselves is the holy exercise of self-judgment as a deep, earnest, and habitual thing. This is most necessary and very important for a happy Christian life. Self-judgment is an invaluable and indispensable exercise. Were it more faithfully and habitually practiced our daily walk would be much different. If self were continually judged in the presence of God we would not be required to judge our ways, words, and actions, for the flesh would be subdued and the root judged so that evil fruit would not appear. Thus there would be no need for the Lord to judge us either. Having pointed out that the eating and drinking unworthily refers primarily to our conduct and manner of partaking at the Lord’s Table we must add a word about our conduct and walk during the week. Let no one suppose that since we have spoken so much about our attitude of heart while at the Lord’s Table, remembering Him, it does not then matter how we go on during the week and that this has nothing to do with the matter of partaking of the Lord’s Supper unworthily.

What we are during the week we will be while at the Lords Table. What our heart has been occupied with throughout the past six days it will also be occupied with on the first day of the week while at His Table. If we h< <-e been careless and indifferent toward the Lord during the week we are bound to be careless and indifferent toward Him while at His Table and to fail to discern His body and His blood in the true sense in the emblems of the Supper. Thus we will eat and drink judgment to ourselves. It is impossible to have our hearts in a worldly- atmosphere all week and then to be entirely detached from it when seeking to remember Him on Lord’s Day. If one lives during the week in folly, vanity, pleasure, and worldliness, attends- movies, concerts, processions, musical parties, athletic games, etc., can there be the discernment of the Lord’s body in the breaking of bread on the first day of the week? Surely not. In connection with such gross worldliness and in subjection to the Lord, how can there be any spiritual communion with the body and blood of the Savior? Such may go through the outward act of "breaking bread," but it is to be greatly feared that they know practically nothing of the inward power and reality of eating, by faith, the body and blood of Christ (see John 6:55-56), and thus must be guilty of not discerning the Lord’s body and thereby eating and drinking judgment to themselves when partaking of His Supper. May the Spirit of God give us deep searching of heart and cultivate in us the spirit of true and habitual self-judgment, so that we may remember our blessed Lord in all sincerity and in a truly worthy manner.

Expression of Fellowship

We have considered the Lord’s Supper in its primary aspect of a remembrance feast, setting before us, symbolically, the body and blood of Christ as it is presented to us in 1 Corinthians 11:1-34. There is, however, another aspect of truth, subsidiary to this central feature of remembrance, which is set forth in the Lord’s Supper, often overlooked by many. This is given us in 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 : "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread."

Here we have the collective act of breaking of bread spoken of: "The cup of blessing which we bless," and "the bread which we break." In 1 Corinthians 11:1-34 each individual does the eating of the bread and the drinking of the cup as unto the Lord, and is responsible to do it in a worthy manner. Thus the expressions there are cc ye eat ... and ye drink," and "let a man examine himself." But in these verses of 1 Corinthians 10:1-33 the corporate aspect of taking the Lord’s Supper together is the important truth emphasized. As we remember the Lord together, partaking of the same bread and cup, we thereby express fellowship with each other and with the table from which we partake. Thus the thought of communion or fellowship in the breaking of bread is also to be thought of. This is the leading thought in the portion before us. Therefore this is the reason why the cup is spoken of first, for the atonement by the shed blood of Christ is the basis of our communion and fellowship with God and with fellow-believers. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ," or "fellowship with the blood of Christ," as it may also be translated. As we give thanks for this cup and partake of it together we thereby express our fellowship with the blood of Christ, and in so much as we really lay hold of this truth we enter into His thoughts about it, have part therein, and enjoy that which He has purchased for us by His blood.

Then the apostle goes on to say: "The bread which we break, it is not (the) communion of the body of the Christ? Because we, (being) many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf" (New Trans.). Thus the bread here has another significance besides that of the Lord’s body given for us. We learn that the one loaf which we all partake of in the Supper is also a figure of His spiritual Body now on earth, "the church, which is His body" (Ephesians 1:22-23). It speaks of the invisible unity of the mystical Body of Christ "one loaf, one body." And as members of that one spiritual body of believers we partake together of the Lard’s Supper in the Assembly thereby expressing our fellowship one with another. This is the "communion of the body of Christ" and the practical manifestation of the truth that "we (being) many, are one loaf, one body . . . all partakers of that one loaf." In the act of breaking of bread we give a definite exhibition of our oneness as "members one of another" in Christ. There is thus no thought of division expressed in the appointed emblems of the Supper nor is there any room for such a thought. They show forth that imperishable and unbreakable unity of the Body of Christ which remains true in spite of the multiplied divisions existing in the professing Church. The practice of some of cutting the bread for communion into pieces or using wafers and individual cups is quite out of harmony with the emblem of the one loaf and the cup of 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 and with the truth of the one body of believers. This practice is therefore quite unscriptural. Since the Scriptural ground of gathering together is that of owning only the one body of all believers, only the emblem of one loaf will agree with this. And it is "the cup which we bless," not cups, though more than one cup may be needed in large gatherings for distribution. Who May Partake?

Since the loaf of the Lord’s Supper speaks also of the one body of all believers and since our partaking of it together is an expression of our unity and fellowship with each other, the question of who may rightly partake of the Supper should be easily answered. It is only for those who are known and proven members of that body. Only those who know the Lord as their Savior and truly believe on His atoning death for their salvation have a right to His Supper and Table. The Lord’s Supper is only for the family of the redeemed, and if one claims to be a child of God that one must prove by his walk that he is truly such, otherwise the confession is but an empty profession. All who are known to be true believers and are walking as such in separation from evil, and are not excluded by Scriptural discipline, are privileged to partake of the Supper in God’s Assembly. "Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God" (Romans 15:7). If unsaved persons or those whose profession is doubtful be allowed to take the Lord’s Supper with true believers, what expression of true unity and fellowship can there be in the breaking of bread? Surely none. If we partake of the Lord’s Supper with any who are unconverted, we cannot say as Paul says, "We being many are one bread and one body," for some in the circle do not belong to that body. When speaking with Christians on this point, an answer often received is: "I take the Lord’s Supper for myself, others do not concern me. If some partake who have no right to, they eat to their own condemnation; that’s not my responsibility." Such an attitude surely indicates that the truth of 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 is not known or understood. The Lord does not invite us to the Supper to eat and drink every one for himself. No, each child of God is invited to come and partake in fellowship with other believers and there is corporate enjoyment and corporate responsibility as well. No Open Communion

We cannot leave the Lord’s Supper open to anyone who wants to partake thereof, that is, the question of partaking or not is never to be decided by the individual only. In 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 the apostle Paul presses upon the Corinthian Assembly their responsibility to purge out the leaven that had come into their midst, and that they were responsible to judge those that were within, that is, those in the circle of expressed fellowship at the Lord’s Table. He charges them to "put away from among yourselves that wicked person." Here we see that the Assembly is responsible to maintain the holiness of the Lord’s Table and of His Supper. If they must put the evil out of their midst they surely were responsible to watch and see that no evil was allowed to come into the Assembly or to the Lord’s Table. From 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 we see that there are those who are "within" and those who are "without" the circle of fellowship at the Lord’s Supper. All this can only mean that there must be care and oversight exercised as to those who partake of the Supper and an understanding as to who is within and who is without. Persons must be examined and proven as to their confession and walk if the holiness of the Lord’s Table is to be maintained and a true expression of unity and fellowship is to be given forth in the breaking of bread. In Israel there were porters who watched at the gates and kept the doors of God’s house (see 1 Chronicles 9:17-27 and Nehemiah 7:1-3). Their duty was to let in such as should come in and to refuse admittance to those who should be kept out. So today in the Assembly of God the work of porters is most necessary to keep the Assembly from defilement by the entrance of the unconverted and the unclean. Not that there is to be the formal office of porters in the Assembly, but that this godly care is exercised as to those who are admitted into the bosom of the Assembly and to the holy privilege of partaking of the Lord’s Supper. Would it not be proper and Scriptural to say that the communion of believers at the Lord’s Table is not to be an open communion, nor a closed communion, but a guarded communion? It is not to be open to just anybody, nor closed to any who do not belong to "us," so to say-a sectarian communion, but it is for all those who are known believers and walking in truth and holiness. Since the only Scriptural ground of gathering is the practical owning of the truth of the one body of all believers (which is also symbolized by the one loaf of the Supper) we must receive to the Lord’s Table every proven member of that body whom Scriptural discipline does not shut out; otherwise we act inconsistently with the ground which we profess to occupy and we become a sect. In our day of increased ruin, widespread divisions, and multiplied evils in the professing Church, it, of course, becomes more and more difficult to fully carry out this principle and yet to walk in separation from non-scriptural associations, but the truth of the one body ever abides for us to act upon. We believe the following lines of C. H. Mackintosh are worthy of consideration on the subject: "The celebration of the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper should be the distinct expression of the unity of ALL believers, and not merely of the unity of a certain number gathered on certain principles, which distinguishes them from others. If there be any term of communion proposed save the all-important one of faith in the atonement of Christ and a walk consistent with that faith, the table becomes the table of a sect, and possesses no claims upon the hearts of the faithful." Thus in receiving to the Lord’s Table we must avoid looseness and carelessness on the one hand and sectarianism on the other hand.

There are, of course, other angles of the question and other truths that enter into the matter, which we shall shortly consider in connection with the Lord’s Table. Acts 9:26-29 gives us an example of carefulness in receiving into the Assembly and shows us that persons are not to be received on their own testimony merely. Here we find the newly converted Saul seeking to join himself to the disciples at Jerusalem, but they were afraid of him and believed not that he was a disciple. Then Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and testified as to his conversion and how he had boldly preached in the name of Jesus. Upon Barnabas’ testimony as to the genuineness of Saul’s conversion, he was received into the Assembly and went in and out among them. "In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established" (2 Corinthians 13:1). This is ever an important principle for us to act upon. In Romans 16:1-2 and 2 Corinthians 3:1 we read of letters of commendation for believers going from one Assembly to another who are not known in the place they visit. This is godly order and also shows carefulness in receiving to the breaking of bread at the Lord’s Table. The Lord’s Table

We have learned that 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 speaks of that phase of the breaking of bread which is the expression of the fellowship of the members of the Body of Christ and that the one loaf is also spoken of as a figure of the spiritual body. In this same chapter we find the only occurrence in the New Testament of the expression "the Lord’s Table" which expression we have used a number of times. We purpose now to consider this phrase and to inquire what is implied by and associated with this term. The bread on the table is the symbol of the Lord’s body, but since the literal body is the figure also of the spiritual body, the one loaf is taken also in this passage as the figure of the one Body of Christ composed of all believers: "For we being many are one bread, one body" (1 Corinthians 10:17, New Trans.). So we see in this passage that the Holy Spirit associates the term, "the Lord’s Table," with the one body and our fellowship together as members of that body. We may say the Lord’s Supper and the Lord’s Table are synonymous in one sense and yet in another sense they have distinct aspects as they present two phases or aspects of the truth associated with the breaking of bread. The Supper is associated with the individual remembrance of the death of the Lord, while the term, "the Lord’s Table" is associated rather with that phase of the Lord’s Supper where a public expression is given to the oneness of Christ’s body and of our fellowship together as such. The Table speaks of the visible expression of fellowship of the one body. The ground of fellowship which God has for us is that of the one body of all believers, and this is founded upon the redemption by Christ’s blood. Positionally all believers are at the Lord’s Table in the sense that they are in the fellowship of the Body of Christ. In the breaking of bread together, we manifest a practical expression of this fellowship. The term "the Lord’s Table" is a typical one and is not to be understood in a literal sense. It does not mean a piece of furniture upon which the bread and the cup are standing, but the principle or ground upon which the Supper is celebrated. The ground taken in the breaking of bread determines the character of the table spread upon it. The Table of the Lord is expressive of fellowship with Him and with the members of His Body and there His authority and His rights must be owned and the holiness of His name maintained. If other ground is taken than that of the practical owning of the unity of the Body of Christ which God has marked out for us, the table spread upon such a ground does not bear the true characteristic of the Lord’s Table. Tables maintained on denominational or independent lines necessarily cannot be on the ground of the unity of the Body of Christ and hence do not answer to the characteristic of the Lord’s Table in 1 Corinthians 10:1-33. Wherever the principles of the unity of the Body of Christ are not recognized in practice and a man-made ground of fellowship is adopted instead, there is no exhibition of the truth of the Lord’s Table and hence such tables cannot be Scripturally owned as the Table of the Lord.

They are really the tables of parties on man-made grounds of fellowship. The Lord’s Supper may be celebrated there with reverence and thankful love by sincere Christians ignorant of the truth connected with the Lord’s Table, but there is not the manifestation of the oneness of the Body of Christ and consequently the truth of the Lord’s Table is not realized or enjoyed because principles subversive to the fellowship of His Table are held. Another important feature that must be manifested if a table is to be owned as the Lord’s Table is holiness and truth, for this is the very character of Him whose table it is professed to be. ("He that is holy, he that is true"- Revelation 3:7; "Be ye holy; for I am holy"- 1 Peter 1:16) .If for instance, any unsound and unscriptural teachings affecting the person of Christ are admitted or retained in a gathering, or if persons who hold and teach them are received by the gathering, the very person of the Lord of the Table is attacked and holiness and truth violated. How then can such a table be owned as the Lord’s Table? Likewise, if moral evil is allowed in the fellowship at the Table, it cannot be owned as the Table of the holy and true One. So we see, then, that the holiness of the Lord’s Table must be maintained as well as the oneness of the Body of Christ. The purity of God’s truth must never be sacrificed in order to maintain unity at His Table, nor will true unity ever be interfered with by the strictest maintenance of truth and holiness. But all must be done in a spirit of grace, meekness, and lowliness as otherwise the Lord’s character of grace would be distorted. Now let us look at verses 18 to 21 of 1 Corinthians 10:1-33, where we have the principle of fellowship applied to eating at the altar. We have already seen that the thought of fellowship is the prominent truth connected with the Lord’s Table. After speaking of partaking of the Lord’s Supper in verses 16 and 17, the apostle says: "See Israel according to flesh: are not they who eat the sacrifices in communion with the altar?" (New Trans.). Here is an important principle for us. To eat at an altar or table is expressive of communion and fellowship with that altar or table as well as with those at that altar. To sit at a table and eat denotes identification with that table and with what it stands for. The apostle goes on to speak of the altars of the heathen and says: "what (the nations) sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, and not to God. Now I do not wish you to be in communion with demons" (New Trans.). Behind the heathen idol was a demon and the heathen, without realizing it, brought their offerings to these demons. Therefore it was the table of demons and for a Christian to even sit in an idol-house and participate in a heathen meal connected with their offerings, as some of the Corinthians thought they had liberty to do, would be to ally oneself with the table of demons and to be in communion with them. So verse 21 says, "Ye cannot drink (the) Lord’s cup and (the) cup of demons: ye cannot partake of (the) Lord’s table and of (the) table of demons" (New Trans.). It is impossible to drink the cup of the Lord, acquiescing in all that it stands for, and then to drink of the cup of demons also. To do so would be to associate the Lord’s Table with the table of demons and to deny the fellowship of the Lord. Thus the apostle showed the Corinthians how serious a matter any connection with the heathen altar would be. This was a danger confronting the Corinthians at the time Paul wrote to them, This danger of association with the table of demons does not exist for us today, generally speaking, but the principle which Paul applied in the matter still remains for us to apply to present conditions. That principle is that the act of eating at a table is expressive of identification and fellowship with that table and with what it stands for and with all who likewise partake. We are not surrounded by tables of demons as the Corinthians were, but there are many tables of religious parties and sects about us and the danger is that we are liable to associate the Lord’s Table with principles which contradict the fellowship of His Table and which overlook or even deny the sole authority of the Lord over His Table. In a word, the point for us to realize is that wherever we take the Lord’s Supper, we thereby express communion with the table in that place and identify ourselves with the ground and principles upon which that table is spread. If one who is breaking bread with those who meet on the ground of the unity of the Body of Christ and who seek to give practical expression to the truth of the Lord’s Table were to visit another gathering meeting on denominational or independent ground and break bread with them and then return to the fellowship of the Lord’s Table, or vice versa, he would thereby act inconsistently by associating the Lord’s Table with contradictory principles. To do so is clearly wrong, though it may be done in ignorance and calls for instruction in the truth. Communion with the Table, then, is also expressed in the breaking of bread and these important considerations of fellowship which we have discussed are associated with it. Thus there is more to the breaking of bread than the average Christian realizes. To sum it all up, it would, therefore, be well for each one to ask (1) Whom am I remembering in the Supper? (2) Am I remembering Him in a worthy manner? (3) With whom am I remembering Him? and (4) On what ground and principles am I remembering Him? In closing our meditations upon the Lord’s Table we would say that amidst the ruin and universal failure and division of the Church in which we find ourselves, it certainly does not become any group of Christians to make high claims as to exclusive possession of the Lord’s Table. Our endeavor and concern should rather be that of ever seeking to give practical expression to the truths of which the Lord’s Table is symbolical and to be true to the fellowship of His Table. The Lord has His Table and He will take care of it. He has not given it to any ore particular company of Christians, but gives all believers the privilege of being at His Table, with the attendant responsibility of behaving accordingly. When the question is asked, "WHERE IS THIS TABLE OF THE LORD?" we reply with the weighty words of another: "There where they, be they but two or three, are gathered together without having any other gathering center but the Lord Jesus alone; there where they do not link up the Holy Name, which constitutes their bond of unity, with any iniquity, and the discipline which becomes the house of God is maintained; there where they guard themselves from every principle of independence (which would rob the Lord of His authority), and submit themselves one to another in the fear of God without party spirit or controversy, while, at the same time, all the redeemed are embraced as forming the one body in the Spirit, and all endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, happy to welcome at the Lord’s Table all those that are begotten of God under only one condition that they be sound in walk and doctrine. There where there are such Christians they have, in spite of all the common ruin and all the imperfections that may adhere to their testimony, the Lord’s Table in their midst; that is, they realize gathered around the Lord Jesus, as they collectively celebrate the Lord’s Supper, that they are one bread, and one body with all the beloved of the Lord throughout the whole world." (Translated from the German).

Worship In speaking of the meetings of the Assembly. we have associated the breaking of bread and worship together as one specific Assembly meeting, for truly the remembrance of the Lord in His death for us definitely leads our souls to thanksgiving and worship . The Lord’s Supper is distinctly a feast of Thanksgiving. The Lord Himself, at the institution of it, gave it this distinct character by giving thanks. "He took bread, and give thanks., Praise, thanksgiving, and worship, and not prayer requests, are the suited utterances at the Table of the Lord. So Paul also speaks of the cup of the Supper as ,The cup of blessing which we bless" (1 Corinthians 10:16) It is a cup of thanksgiving and a feast Of joy and gladness, and it leads our hearts to "offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks toHis name" (Hebrews 13:15). The Lord’s Supper and worship are thus surely linked together. The Supper is the witness of His love unto death and of His finished work for us, by virtue of which such sinners as we were can draw near to worship.

If we follow the example of the early Church in coming together each first day of the week for the breaking of bread, we will surely make the remembrance Supper the center. of the worship meeting. Such a gathering together is the great occasion for church worship. Praise should always flow from our hearts to the Lord, but the special occasion for praise and worship is when we are gathered together with the memorials of our Savior’s dying love before us. Then the Spirit of God truly leads us out in fervent praise and worship. But just what is worship? we might well inquire. It is necessary to be clear as to this, for in the common acceptance of the word, "public worship" includes prayer, praise, and preaching for the edification of saints or the conversion of sinners. A moment’s reflection will surely be sufficient to show that this is quite incorrect. Even prayer, as blessed as it is, is not worship, for that is asking of God for our needs. And no work of God towards men is worship. Preaching the Gospel to the unconverted is not worship, though it may be the means of producing it in a heart; neither is a sermon worship, though it, likewise, may be the means of leading the heart out in worship. As another has well said: "True worship is but the grateful and joyful response of the heart to God, when filled with the deep sense of the blessings which have been communicated from on high ... It is the honour and adoration which are rendered to God, by reason of what He is in Himself, and what He is for those who render it. Worship is the employment of heaven, and a blessed and precious privilege for us upon earth . . . Worship is a homage rendered in common, whether by angels or by men ... Praises and thanksgivings, and the making mention of the attributes of God and of His acts, whether of power or in grace, in the attitude of adoration, constitute that which is properly speaking worship. In it we draw near to God, and address ourselves to Him" (J. N. Darby).

This, indeed, is what true worship is. The meaning of the Greek word for worship (proskun), which is used in most of the New Testament, is: "to do reverence or homage by prostration-to bow one’s self in adoration."

We might now ask what is the basis of Christian worship? This we shall find in John 4:1-54 where we have the conversation of the Lord- with the Samaritan woman. In this chapter we have perhaps the most important word on Christian worship in this dispensation of grace. There the Lord spoke of the true worshippers who worship the Father in spirit and in truth. But first He said to her: "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water" (John 4:10) . In this wonderful verse, we have set forth by the Lord the necessary basis of Christian worship. The whole Trinity is therein concerned in one way or another. God revealed in grace as the great Giver is the first thought, the source of all; then we have the Person of the Son present in humiliation among men on earth; lastly the Son gives to needy, thirsty souls the living water-the Holy Ghost.

All this is necessary for the true character and object of Christian worship. God must be known as manifested in the cross in holiness and grace and the Son must be known as the One who has come down to man in grace and love to die for sinners. It also implies that the heart has been awakened to its real wants and has asked of the Lord and received from Him living water, the Holy Ghost, as a well of refreshment within. This means that one must be born of God, have accepted Christ as Savior, and be indwelt by the Holy Ghost in order to worship as a Christian. The natural, unregenerate man is incapable of worshipping God; there is no capacity in him to worship God, for He must be worshipped in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). Only those who are washed in the blood of Christ and who have received the Spirit can draw near and enter into the presence of God to adore and worship Him. No one can dare to present himself before God who has not the assurance of sins forgiven.

It is the Holy Spirit who gives the believer the full assurance of the efficacy of the work of Christ in our behalf and of our acceptance before God in Him. By the Spirit the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts and by that same Spirit we are able to call God our Father, to draw nigh to His presence in the holiest of all as His redeemed children, and to worship the Father without fear or trembling (Ephesians 1:3-7, Romans 5:5, Galatians 4:6, Hebrews 10:19-22) . The Holy Spirit is the originator in us of all the thoughts, affections, and feelings of love and praise which arise in our hearts in response to the love of the Father and the Son. He is the power for Christian worship, therefore, no one is able to render such to God who is not indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

Having considered the basis of Christian worship, we may now speak of the character of Christian worship. Returning to John 4:1-54, we read of the Lord telling the Samaritan woman: "Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22). How true this is of many today who claim to worship God-"Ye worship ye know not what." For true worship there must be intelligence of God and of His salvation as revealed in Christ Jesus. "We know what we worship." This is one of the first characteristics of Christian worship; there is intelligence and definite knowledge of the One who is worshipped. The Lord continued to tell the Samaritan woman: "the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a- Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23-24).

Here is the full and distinctive character of Christian worship. God is made known as a Father seeking and adapting children to worship Himself. It is an entirely new character of worship in direct contrast to the old worship of Judaism that left the worshipper far off from God in fear and trembling. The Father is going out in His own love in quest of worshippers, seeking them under the gentle name of "Father," and placing them in a position of nearness and freedom before Him as the children of His love. He accomplishes this by the Son and in the energy of the Holy Spirit.

God is known in this age of grace by His children under the tender and loving character of Father and worshipped as such. This is the portion of the feeblest Christian and every child of God is perfectly competent for worship of the Father in spirit and in truth. It is the only begotten Son, who dwells in the bosom of the Father, who reveals the Father unto us as He Himself has known Him. The Holy Ghost sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts and we worship and adore our Father as revealed to us by the Son and according to the power and affections which the Holy Spirit inspires within us.

Another feature of Christian worship follows. God must be worshipped in "spirit and in truth," for He is a Spirit. "To worship in spirit is to worship according to the true nature of God, and in the power of that communion which the Spirit of God gives. Spiritual worship is thus in contrast with the forms and ceremonies, and all the religiousness of which the flesh is capable. To worship ’in truth’ is to worship Him according to the revelation which He has given of Himself" (J. N. Darby). As God is a Spirit, spiritual worship is all He accepts. His worshippers "must worship in spirit and in truth." It is a moral necessity flowing from His nature. This qualification He has most fully provided for us, as the new life we enjoy is by the Spirit and is spirit, not flesh. We live by the Spirit; we walk by the Spirit and we "worship by (the) Spirit of God, and boast in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in flesh" (Php 3:3 New Trans.). Thus Christian worship is the expression of the new inward life in the energy and power of the Holy Spirit. This sets aside all human formulas, imposing ceremonies, and rituals, for worship in spirit and in truth precludes all this. It is the flesh and human will that produces such things, and the energy of the flesh can have no place in the worship of God.

Let us now consider the Christian’s place of worship. This the Epistle to the Hebrews clearly marks out for us. In Hebrews 10:19-22 we read: "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near," etc. Here we see that the blood of Jesus, the rent veil, and the High Priest over the house of God give us boldness to enter into the holiest-the holy of holies, to render our worship. Our place of worship, therefore, is in the immediate presence of God where He sits on His throne. Into this presence He has in wondrous grace given us a title to enter for worship at all times through the precious blood of Jesus. This is our sanctuary where we draw near one with another as we meet together around the Lord to worship and praise.

We should say also that the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, is equally with the Father the object of worship, for "all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which sent Him" (John 5:23). The following words of another give us a good picture of Christian worship: "In brief, we might say that Christian worship has its source in an accomplished redemption; its object is God the Father and the Son; its place, the presence of God; its power, the Holy Spirit; its material, the truths fully revealed in the Word of God; and its duration, eternity" (S. Ridout).

It may be necessary to here reaffirm what has been previously mentioned, namely, that all believers are priests and have equal privileges and access to God to "offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5; 1 Peter 2:9). For true worship, then, we must come together simply as believers, realizing that we are all priests able to offer up worship, and the Spirit of God must be left free to use whomsoever He will to speak the praises of the gathered assembly. He may use one or six or twelve to express the praises suitable to His mind. In 1 Corinthians 14:15-19; 1 Corinthians 14:24 we have a full expression of God’s intended will for Assembly worship and gatherings. There we read of praying with the spirit and the understanding, singing with the spirit and with the understanding, blessing with the spirit, giving of thanks, and of prophesying and speaking in the Church. Such were the activities in which the Holy Spirit led the early Christians when they were gathered together. And thus He would lead us today and cause us to "praise the name of God with a song" and to "magnify him with thanksgiving" (Psalms 69:30).

It should be observed that neither here, in this inspired description of the coming together of a Christian company (1 Corinthians 14:1-40), nor anywhere else in the book of Acts or in the Epistles do we read of playing an instrument as part of the worship service.

Instrumental music is out of place at such a gathering and contrary to the spirit and character of the Assembly so gathered. The object before us at such a time is not the pleasing of our senses, our fallen nature, or the gratifying of the outsider with pleasing sounds, but the presenting to God of what suits Him-that with which He has filled our hearts by the Holy Spirit. That which is acceptable and pleasing to God is "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19), "singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord" (Colossians 3:16). After all, no instrument can equal in effect the human voice; so said Haydn a famous composer. With Israel, an earthly people, we find instrumental music in place, but the Church is a heavenly body and all is to be by the Holy Spirit. It should hardly be necessary to add that reverence should certainly accompany a true spirit of worship. Since we enter into the holiest of all, our souls should be filled with such reverence and godly fear as becomes the presence of God. If we consider the examples given of worshippers in the Scriptures, we find that saints of every age were careful to express reverence before God even in the posture of body which they assumed in worship and prayer. Abraham fell on his face before the Lord (Genesis 17:3); Moses bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped (Exodus 34:8) ; the Levites called the people to, "Stand up and bless the Lord your God" (Nehemiah 9:5). The wise men fell down and worshipped the Child Jesus and the leper who was healed fell down at Jesus’ feet (Matthew 2:11; Luke 17:16). To assume positions of bodily ease and indifference during praise or prayer (when physical infirmities do not hinder), certainly does not express reverence before the Lord.

We would also call attention to the fact that the sacrifice of giving is connected with the offering of the sacrifice of praise in Hebrews 13:15-16. "With such sacrifices (spiritual and material) God is well pleased." So also in Deuteronomy 26:1-19 we find that the giving of tithes is mentioned in connection with the bringing of the basket of first fruits to the Lord in worship. And since the apostle tells us in 1 Corinthians 16:1-2, concerning the collection for the saints, that "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him." it seems becoming that at the worship meeting we should also bring unto the Lord our material offerings for His work. This occasion is the most fitting time for the collection for the work of the Lord, the needs of the poor, etc. Thus at His Table we are privileged to render unto Him sacrifices of praise and sacrifices of our material goods, all in the spirit of worship. May our hearts be tuned to sing His praises and to offer up true Christian worship in spirit and in truth. May we so walk with the Lord during the week that our baskets of first fruits, as it were, may be filled with praises as we come into the gathering for worship each first day of the week, so that our hearts may overflow with worship in His presence. May we be able to say like the bride in the Song of Solomon: "at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved" (Song of Solomon 7:13).