“`This is my body, that for you is being given, this do ye – to remembrance of me.’ ” (Luke 22:19, YLT)
If you partake in communion, then you are busy with re-membering. This means that you commemorate the death of Christ, but, at the same time, it also means that you are inserted into or become a member of His Body. Thus Paul says in 1 Cor 10:16b-17: “The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.”
Many run the race, but only one gets the prize (1 Cor 9:24) – the Body. We are each others’ members (Eph 4:25), “so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another” (Rom 12:5).
If we are part of the Body, then communion is what we use to remember Him and each other! Thus it is vitally important that we examine ourselves before this holy meal, because if we judge ourselves then we won’t be judged (1 Cor 11:31). Paul cautions us that if we eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner we “will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord” (verse 27). Get a big fright! Psalm 78:29-31 depicts what happens to those who eat of God’s provision in an unworthy manner: “So they ate and were filled, for He gave them their own desire. They were not deprived of their craving; but while their food was still in their mouths, the wrath of God came against them, and slew the stoutest of them, and struck down the choice men of Israel.”
In 1 Cor 11:28 Paul says we must examine ourselves, or, in other words, “discern”. Thayer explains it as: “to see whether a thing is genuine or not”. By submitting yourself to the Holy Spirit, who alone can convict you of sin (John 16:8), He will show you what you need to remedy before you use communion. 1 Cor 11:29: “For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself.” The fellowship of believers is contaminated in this way by these “spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear” (Jude 1:12).
Be always reminded by Paul’s words in 2 Cor 13:5: “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves
- Sela: What would the practical implications of 2 Cor 13:5 be for you? Read Ps 24 with this.
- Read: Judg 5; Ps 95; Acts 5 (Make a new song of Ps 95.)
- Memorise: Acts 5:13
- Going deeper: Read AJ van Staden’s book entitled Nagmaal (“Communion”). It’s very outdated and lacks revelation knowledge but it covers all the fundamental aspects of the sacrament.
