For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in a way unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment to himself if he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body.
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1 Corinthians 11:26-29 sits inside this longer paragraph.
For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread. When he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me.” In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in memory of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in a way unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment to himself if he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body. For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep. For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn’t be judged. But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Therefore, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest your coming together be for judgment. The rest I will set in order whenever I come.
Parallel Translations
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For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in a way unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup.
For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment to himself if he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body.
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For as often as ye shall eate this breed and drynke this cup ye shall shewe the lordes deeth tyll he come.
Wherfore whosoevere shall eate of this bred or drynke of the cup vnworthely shalbe giltie of the body and bloud of the Lorde
Let a man therfore examen him silfe and so let hi eate of the breed and drynke of the cup.
For he that eateth or drinketh vnworthely eateth and drynketh his awne damnacion because he maketh no difference of the lordis body.
Show all 3 translations
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For as often as ye shall eate this bread, and drinke this cup, ye shewe the Lords death till hee come.
Wherefore, whosoeuer shall eate this bread, and drinke the cup of the Lord vnworthily, shall be guiltie of the body and blood of the Lord.
Let euery man therefore examine himselfe, and so let him eate of this bread, and drinke of this cup.
For he that eateth and drinketh vnworthily, eateth and drinketh his owne damnation, because he discerneth not the Lords body.
Cross-references (45)
- John 6:51 (v27) I am the living bread which came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. Yes, the bread which I will give…
- Galatians 6:4 (v28) But let each man examine his own work, and then he will have reason to boast in himself, and not in someone else.
- 1 Corinthians 10:21 (v27) You can’t both drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You can’t both partake of the table of the Lord and of the table of demons.
- 2 Corinthians 13:5 (v28) Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know about your own selves, that Jesus Christ is…
- Hebrews 10:29 (v27) How much worse punishment do you think he will be judged worthy of who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of…
Show all 45 cross-references
- Lamentations 3:40 (v28) Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
- Numbers 9:13 (v27) But the man who is clean, and is not on a journey, and fails to keep the Passover, that soul shall be cut off from his people. Because he…
- Hebrews 9:28 (v26) so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting…
- Revelation 1:7 (v26) Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, including those who pierced him. All the tribes of the earth will mourn…
- Leviticus 10:1-3 (v27) Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered strange fire before…
- Numbers 9:10 (v27) “Say to the children of Israel, ‘If any man of you or of your generations is unclean by reason of a dead body, or is on a journey far away,…
- John 6:63-64 (v27) It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life. But there are some of…
- 2 Chronicles 30:18-20 (v27) For a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the…
- Matthew 5:23-24 (v28) “If therefore you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there…
- John 14:3 (v26) If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also.
- John 13:18-27 (v27) I don’t speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen. But that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats bread with me has…
- Psalms 26:2-7 (v28) Examine me, Yahweh, and prove me. Try my heart and my mind. For your loving kindness is before my eyes. I have walked in your truth. I have…
- Haggai 1:5 (v28) Now therefore this is what Yahweh of Armies says: Consider your ways.
- Matthew 22:11 (v27) But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who didn’t have on wedding clothing,
- Acts 1:11 (v26) who also said, “You men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who was received up from you into the sky, will come…
- 1 Corinthians 11:27 (v29) Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the Lord’s cup in a way unworthy of the Lord will be guilty of the body and the blood of the…
- 1 Corinthians 11:31 (v28) For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn’t be judged.
- 1 John 2:28 (v26) Now, little children, remain in him, that when he appears, we may have boldness, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
- Haggai 1:7 (v28) This is what Yahweh of Armies says: “Consider your ways.
- John 21:22 (v26) Jesus said to him, “If I desire that he stay until I come, what is that to you? You follow me.”
- 2 Peter 3:10 (v26) But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be…
- 1 Corinthians 15:23 (v26) But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (v26) For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will…
- 2 Thessalonians 2:2-3 (v26) not to be quickly shaken in your mind, and not be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter as if from us, saying that the day…
- 1 John 3:20-21 (v28) because if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have…
- Jude 1:14 (v26) About these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones,
- Revelation 20:11-12 (v26) I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them. I…
- Revelation 22:20 (v26) He who testifies these things says, “Yes, I come quickly.” Amen! Yes, come, Lord Jesus.
- Numbers 9:10-13 (v28) “Say to the children of Israel, ‘If any man of you or of your generations is unclean by reason of a dead body, or is on a journey far away,…
- Ecclesiastes 8:5 (v29) Whoever keeps the commandment shall not come to harm, and his wise heart will know the time and procedure.
- Zechariah 7:5-7 (v28) “Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for…
- 1 Corinthians 4:5 (v26) Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the…
- 1 Corinthians 11:24 (v29) When he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me.”
- 1 Corinthians 11:30 (v29) For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.
- 1 Corinthians 11:32-34 (v29) But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Therefore, my brothers, when you come…
- 2 Thessalonians 1:10 (v26) when he comes in that day to be glorified in his saints and to be admired among all those who have believed, because our testimony to you…
- Hebrews 5:14 (v29) But solid food is for those who are full grown, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.
- James 3:1 (v29) Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment.
- James 5:12 (v29) But above all things, my brothers, don’t swear— not by heaven, or by the earth, or by any other oath; but let your “yes” be “yes”, and your…
- Romans 13:2 (v29) Therefore he who resists the authority withstands the ordinance of God; and those who withstand will receive to themselves judgment.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (24 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv26–29 26. For as often as ye shall eat. Paul…
26. For as often as ye shall eat. Paul now adds what kind of remembrance ought to be cherished — that is, with thanksgiving; not that the remembrance consists wholly in confession with the mouth; for the chief thing is, that the efficacy of Christ’s death be sealed in our consciences; but this knowledge should stir us up to a confession in respect of praise, so as to declare before men what we feel inwardly before God. The Supper then is (so to speak) a kind of memorial, which must always remain in the Church, until the last coming of Christ; and it has been appointed for this purpose, that Christ may put us in mind of the benefit of his death, and that we may recognize it before men. Hence it has the name of the Eucharist. If, therefore, you would celebrate the Supper aright, you must bear in mind, that a profession of your faith is required from you. Hence we see how shamelessly those mock God, who boast that they have in the mass something of the nature of the Supper. For what is the mass? They confess (for I am not speaking of Papists, but of the pretended followers of Nicodemus) that it is full of abominable superstitions. By outward gesture they give a pretended approval of them. What kind of showing forth of the death of Christ is this? Do they not rather renounce it?
Until he come As we always need a help of this kind, so long as we are in this world, Paul intimates that this commemoration has been given us in charge, until Christ come to judgment. For as he is not present with us in a visible form, it is necessary for us to have some symbol of his presence, by which our minds may exercise themselves.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv27–29 Whoever contemn the holy Sacrament: that is, use them…
Whoever contemn the holy Sacrament: that is, use them not aright, are guilty not of the bread and wine, but of the thing itself, that is of Christ, and shall be grievously punished for it.
Otherwise then meet is such mysteries should be handled.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv26–29 26 For as often as ye eat this bread,…
26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.
Ver. 26. Ye do show] We need no other crucifix to mind us of Christ’s passion. Hence this sacrament was by some ancients termed a sacrifice, viz. representative and commemorative, but not properly, as the Papists make it.
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Till he come] There shall be a Church then, and the pure worship of God, till the world’s end, maugre the malice of tyrants and heretics.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv26–29 From hence it appears, that the bread and wine…
From hence it appears, that the bread and wine is not (as papists say) transubstantiated, or turned into the very substance of the flesh and blood of Christ, when the communicants eat it and drink it. It is still the same bread and cup it was. The end of the institution is but to commemorate Christ’s death; and upon that account the waiting upon God in this ordinance, will be a standing duty incumbent upon Christians, until Christ shall come to judgment. Some think, show ye, is a better translation of the verb, than (as we translate it)
ye do show; wherefore so behave yourselves at this ordinance, as those who know what they have to do in it, that is, to show forth the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv27–29 The apostle having in the foregoing verses declared the…
The apostle having in the foregoing verses declared the original institution of the Lord’s supper, he comes now to instruct the Corinthians in the right use of it; and to excite them to a due regard in their approaches to it, he acquaints them with the great danger of an unworthy receiving of it; Whosoever shall eat this bread, &c. unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
Quest. 1. What is it not to eat and drink unworthily?
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Ans. (1.) To receive the sacrament with many doubts and fears, with a weak faith, with a trembling hand and fearful heart, all this may be, and yet the person not receive unworthily.
(2.) The want of perfect holiness, and a complete freedom from sin, doth not denominate a person an unworthy receiver; for this ordinance was not instituted for angels, but for men; to make sinful men good, and good men better.
(3.) Backwardness to the duty, deadness and dullness in the duty, when involuntary and lamented, makes not a person an unworthy receiver.
Quest. 2. What is it to eat and drink unworthily?
Ans. (1.) It is to receive without such a disposition of mind, such a preparation of heart, such reverence and devotion, as ought therein to be exercised; to receive without knowledge, without repentance, without faith, without resolution for a sincere obedience, without sincere reconciliation to our neighbour.
Quest. 3. What is it to be guilty of the body and blood of our Lord?
Ans. (1.) It is an implicit approbation of the Jews’ act in crucifying Christ.
(2.) It is implicitly a jesting with the body and blood of Christ, a playing with the most tremendous things in the world.
(3.) It is a crucifying the Son of God afresh: it is to stab the master of the feast at his own table, whilst he is treating us with the richest dainties.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv26–29 Wherefore,.... Since this is the plain institution of the…
Wherefore,.... Since this is the plain institution of the Lord's supper, the form and manner of administering of it; and since the bread and wine in it are representations of the body and blood of Christ, and the design of the whole is to remember Christ, and show forth his death; it follows, that
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 bread and cup are called the bread and cup of the Lord; because ate and drank in remembrance of him, being symbols of his body and of his blood, though not they themselves; these may be eaten and drank "unworthily", when they are eaten and drank by unworthy persons, in an unworthy manner, and to unworthy ends and purposes. The Lord's supper may be taken unworthily, when it is partook of by unworthy persons. This sense is confirmed by the Syriac version, which renders it , "and is not fit for it", or is unworthy of it, and so the Ethiopic version; now such are all unregenerate persons, for they have no spiritual life in them, and therefore cannot eat and drink in a spiritual sense; they have no spiritual light, and therefore cannot discern the Lord's body; they have no spiritual taste and relish, no spiritual hungerings and thirstings, nor any spiritual appetite, and can receive no spiritual nourishment, or have any spiritual communion with Christ: and so are all such persons, who, though they may profess to be penitent ones, and believers in Christ, and to have knowledge of him, and love to him; and yet they have not true repentance, neither do they bring forth fruits meet for it, and so as they are improper subjects of baptism, they are unworthy of the Lord's table; nor have they faith in Christ, at least only an historical one, and so cannot by faith eat the flesh, and drink the blood of the Son of God, nor perform the ordinance in a way well pleasing to God; nor have they any spiritual knowledge of Christ, only what is speculative and notional, and so cannot discern the Lord's body; nor any real love to him, and therefore very improper persons to feed on a feast of love; nor can they affectionately remember Christ, or do what they do from a principle of love to him, and therefore must be unworthy receivers: as likewise are all such professors, whose lives and conversations are not as become the Gospel of Christ; such crucify Christ afresh, and put him to open shame, and are therefore unfit to show forth his crucifixion and death; they bring a reproach on the Gospel and ordinances of Christ, and cause his name, and ways, and truths to be blasphemed, and grieve the members of the churches of Christ, and therefore ought not to be admitted to the table of the Lord: indeed, no man is in himself worthy of such an ordinance, none but those whom Christ has made so by the implantation of his grace, and the imputation of his righteousness; and whom he, though unworthy in themselves, invites and encourages to come to this ordinance, and to eat and drink abundantly. Moreover, this ordinance may be attended upon in an unworthy manner; as when it is partook of ignorantly, persons not knowing the nature, use, and design of it; or irreverently, as it was by many of the Corinthians, and it is to be feared by many others, who have not that reverence of the majesty of Christ, in whose presence they are, and who is both the author and subject of the ordinance; or without faith, and the exercise of it on Christ, the bread of life, and water of life; or unthankfully, when there is no grateful sense of the love of God in the gift of his Son, nor of the love of Christ, in giving himself an offering and sacrifice for sin; or when this feast is kept with the leaven of malice and wickedness, and with want of brotherly love, bearing an ill will to, or hatred of, any of the members of the church, To all which may be added, that this bread and cup are ate and drank unworthily, when they are partook of to unworthy ends and purposes; as to qualify for any secular employment, and to gain any worldly advantage; or to be seen of men, and to be thought to be devotional and religious persons; or to commemorate anything besides Christ; as the "judaizing" Corinthians did the "paschal" lamb; or to procure eternal life and happiness thereby, fancying that the participation of this ordinance gives a meetness for, and a right to glory: now such unworthy eaters and drinkers are "guilty of the body and blood" of the Lord; not in such sense as Judas, Pontius Pilate, and the people of the Jews were, who were concerned in the crucifixion of his body, and shedding of his blood, the guilt of which lies upon them, and they must answer for another day; nor in such sense as apostates from the faith, who, after they have received the knowledge of the truth, deny it, and Christ, the Saviour; and so crucify him afresh, and put him to open shame, count the blood of the covenant a common or unholy thing, and tread under foot the Son of God; at least, not every unworthy receiver of the Lord's supper is guilty in this sense; though there might be some among the Corinthians, and is the reason of this awful expression, who looked upon the body and blood of Christ as common things, and made no more account of them than of the body and blood of the passover lamb; but in a lower sense, every unworthy communicant, or that eats and drinks unworthily, may be said to be guilty of the body and blood of Christ, inasmuch as he sins against, and treats in an injurious manner, an ordinance which is a symbol and representation of these things; for what reflects dishonour upon that, reflects dishonour on the body and blood of Christ, signified therein.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv26–29 Ye show forth the Lord's death - Ye proclaim,…
Ye show forth the Lord's death - Ye proclaim, as it were, and openly avow it to God, and to all the world. Till he come - In glory.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv26–29 Verse 26. Ye do show the Lord 's death]…
Verse 26. Ye do show the Lord 's death] As in the passover they showed forth the bondage they had been in, and the redemption they had received from it; so in the eucharist they showed forth the sacrificial death of Christ, and the redemption from sin derived from it.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v28 1Co 11:28-32. But — That none may be involved…
1Co 11:28-32. But — That none may be involved in such guilt; let each one examine himself — Whether he knows the nature and the design of the institution, and whether it be his sincere desire and purpose thoroughly to comply therewith, and to do honour to Christ by living, in all respects, conformably to his word and example. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily — In an irreverent, profane, and careless manner; eateth and drinketh damnation — Κριμα, judgment; condemnation and punishment to himself — Or temporal judgments of various kinds. Thus the Corinthians, in the following verse, are said to be punished with debility, sickness, and death, for eating unworthily. Not discerning the Lord’s body — Not considering that the death of Christ, and the benefits he hath thereby procured for us, with his astonishing love to us, are represented in that solemn ordinance; and not distinguishing it from his common food. For if we would judge ourselves — Bring all our dispositions, words, and actions, especially those that relate to the worship of God, to the rule of his word, and condemn ourselves for what is amiss, and repent of it; and particularly if we would inquire respecting our knowledge of the nature of this holy ordinance, and the design with which we approach the Lord’s table; we should not be judged — Or chastised so severely; or we should avoid those sins which bring down the divine judgments upon us. But when we are judged — Thus punished with temporal calamities; we are chastened of the Lord — Corrected for our instruction and amendment; that — Being thereby purged from sin; we should not be condemned with the world — Should escape future condemnation and wrath.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv26–29 For as often - Whenever you do this.
For as often - Whenever you do this.
Ye eat this bread - This is a direct and positive refutation of the doctrine of the papists that the bread is changed into the real body of the Lord Jesus. Here it is expressly called “bread” - bread still - bread after the consecration. Before the Saviour instituted the ordinance he took “bread” - it was bread then: it was “bread” which he “blessed” and “broke;” and it was bread when it was given to them; and it was bread when Paul says here that they ate. How then can it be pretended that it is anything else but bread? And what an amazing and astonishing absurdity it is to believe that that bread is changed into the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ (transubstantiation or consubstantiation)!
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Ye do show the Lord’s death - You set forth, or exhibit in an impressive manner, the fact that he was put to death; you exhibit the emblems of his broken body and shed blood, and your belief of the fact that he died. This shows that the ordinance was to be so far public as to be a proper showing forth of their belief in the death of the Saviour. It should be public. It is one mode of professing attachment to the Redeemer; and its public observance often has a most impressive effect on those who witness its observance.
Till he come - Until he returns to judge the world. This demonstrates:
(1) That it was the steady belief of the primitive church that the Lord Jesus would return to judge the world; and,
(2) That it was designed that this ordinance should be perpetuated, and observed to the end of time. In every generation, therefore, and in every place where there are Christians, it is to be observed, until the Son of God shall return; and the necessity of its observance shall cease only when the whole body of the redeemed shall be permitted to see their Lord, and there shall be no need of those emblems to remind them of him, for all shall see him as he is.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv27–28 Or drink. Here erroneous translators corrupted the text, by…
Or drink. Here erroneous translators corrupted the text, by putting and drink (contrary to the original, Greek: e pine ) instead of or drink. --- Guilty of the body, &c. not discerning the body, &c. This demonstrates the real presence of the body and blood of Christ, even to the unworthy communicant; who otherwise could not be guilty of the body and blood of Christ, or justly condemned for not discerning the Lord’s body. (Challoner) --- The real presence in the sacrament is also proved by the enormity of the crime, in its profanation. See St. John Chrysostom, hom. de non contem. ec. and hom. lx. and lxi. ad pop. Antioch. where he shews that the unworthy receiver imitates the Jews in crucifying Jesus, and trampling under foot his sacred blood. Hence the dreadful punishments we read of in verse 27 and 30.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv26–29 For--in proof that the Lord's Supper is "in remembrance"…
For--in proof that the Lord's Supper is "in remembrance" of Him.
show--announce publicly. The Greek does not mean to dramatically represent, but "ye publicly profess each of you, the Lord has died FOR ME" [WAHL]. This word, as "is" in Christ's institution (Co1 11:24-25), implies not literal presence, but a vivid realization, by faith, of Christ in the Lord's Supper, as a living person, not a mere abstract dogma, "bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh" (Eph 5:30; compare Gen 2:23); and ourselves "members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones," "our sinful bodies made clean by His body (once for all offered), and our souls washed through His most precious blood" [Church of England Prayer Book]. "Show," or "announce," is an expression applicable to new things; compare "show" as to the Passover (Exo 13:8). So the Lord's death ought always to be fresh in our memory; compare in heaven, Rev 5:6. That the Lord's Supper is in remembrance of Him, implies that He is bodily absent, though spiritually present, for we cannot be said to commemorate one absent. The fact that we not only show the Lord's death in the supper, but eat and drink the pledges of it, could only be understood by the Jews, accustomed to such feasts after propitiatory sacrifices, as implying our personal appropriation therein of the benefits of that death.
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till he come--when there shall be no longer need of symbols of His body, the body itself being manifested. The Greek expresses the certainly of His coming. Rome teaches that we eat Christ present corporally, "till He come" corporally; a contradiction in terms. The showbread, literally, "bread of the presence," was in the sanctuary, but not in the Holiest Place (Heb 9:1-8); so the Lord's Supper in heaven, the antitype to the Holiest Place, shall be superseded by Christ's own bodily presence; then the wine shall be drunk "anew" in the Father's kingdom, by Christ and His people together, of which heavenly banquet, the Lord's Supper is a spiritual foretaste and specimen (Mat 26:29). Meantime, as the showbread was placed anew, every sabbath, on the table before the Lord (Lev 24:5-8); so the Lord's death was shown, or announced afresh at the Lord's table the first day of every week in the primitive Church. We are now "priests unto God" in the dispensation of Christ's spiritual presence, antitypical to the HOLY PLACE: the perfect and eternal dispensation, which shall not begin till Christ's coming, is antitypical to the HOLIEST PLACE, which Christ our High Priest alone in the flesh as yet has entered (Heb 9:6-7); but which, at His coming, we, too, who are believers, shall enter (Rev 7:15; Rev 21:22). The supper joins the two closing periods of the Old and the New dispensations. The first and second comings are considered as one coming, whence the expression is not "return," but "come" (compare, however, Joh 14:3).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv26–29 26. As often—In some periods of the Church, daily…
26. As often—In some periods of the Church, daily communion has been the practice. But a wiser Christian custom is to consider it as more an extraordinary event than the Sabbath service. The monthly period preserves the medium between making it too ordinary and too unfrequent.
Bread—As the bread of the passover was appointed by God with a significant purpose to be unleavened, there was some show of reason for using such bread by the Roman Church, but no show of reason for the Greek and Roman Churches making the use a matter of fierce contention. As it is a matter of mere inference, fixed by no definition or command, the Protestant Churches (except the Lutheran) have considered it a matter of indifference.
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Cup—See our note on Mat_26:27.
Show—Literally, ye announce, as a messenger or herald, to the world. The act, with its surrounding circumstances and utterances, proclaims to the world Christ’s atoning death, and the believer’s acceptance of its avails.
Till he come— When the entire system of sublunary Church and probation will be closed. Thus the communion is a chain whose links connect the first and second advents of Christ. This corrects the error of the Quakers, who, aiming at too naked a spirituality, have rejected all ordinances, and have thus made their religion a soul without a body. It is, doubtless, owing to this cause that they are fading from existence as a Christian body. Neglecting the great injunction to show forth the Lord’s death, they have become (1Co_11:30) weak and sickly, and are apparently going to sleep.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv26–29 26. For as often as ye eat] These words…
26. For as often as ye eat] These words are not those of Christ, but of St Paul. St Joh_3:31-36, and Gal_2:15-21 are somewhat similar instances, but in them it is by no means certain that we have a commentary by the writer on the speech he records, but quite possible that the passage forms part of the speech itself.
ye do shew] Tell, Wiclif. Annuntiabitis, Calvin and the Vulgate. Annoncerez, De Sacy. Some (e.g. the margin of the English Bible) take this imperatively, but it is better as in the text. If Meyer be right in supposing that the word here used is never employed except in the sense of oral proclamation (see ch. 1Co_2:1, 1Co_9:14 of this Epistle; and Php_1:16; Php_1:18; Col_1:28, as examples of its use by St Paul), we have here strong grounds for affirming that the words of institution formed part of the form of celebrating the Sacrament, even in Apostolic times. The word occurs ten times in the Acts of the Apostles, always in the sense of proclaim.
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the Lord’s death] Since this Sacrament was instituted as a memorial of Christ’s Death upon the Cross.
till he come] As long as the Christian Church shall last, this Sacrament will continue to be celebrated for the object for which it was instituted. However widely divided on other points, Christians have agreed in carrying out this prediction for more than 1800 years.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv26–29 (26) For as often as ye . . .—The…
(26) For as often as ye . . .—The previous verse concluded the account of the institution as conveyed by Christ to St. Paul, and the Apostle himself now again speaks. All this being the true account of the origin of this Supper, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup (as distinct from other bread and wine) you proclaim the Lord’s death until He come. The Greek word for “ye show” is that used for making a public oral proclamation. The passage does not imply, as some have suggested, that the Lord’s Supper “was a living sermon or an acted discourse,” but, as is still the custom, that when the bread and wine were consecrated to this sacred use, there was an oral declaration made (perhaps in the very words the Apostle here used, 1Co_11:22-25) of the facts of the original institution. The imperative form given in the margin of the Authorised version is quite inadmissible.
In the pathetic words “until He come” we may find an expression of the belief, perhaps largely due to the hope, that the Second Advent was not far distant.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv27–29 And drink this cup. This ought to be rendered,…
And drink this cup. This ought to be rendered, or drink this cup. It seems to be one of the extremely few instances in which the translators of our Authorized Version were led by bias into unfaithful rendering. They may have persuaded themselves that the apostle must have meant "and;" but their duty as translators was to translate what he said, not what they supposed him to have meant. What he meant was that it was possible to partake in a wrong spirit either of the bread or the cup. King James"s translators thought that, by rendering the word or, they might seem to favour communion in one kind only. St. Paul"s meaning was that a man might Lake either element of the sacrament unworthily. Unworthily. We are all "unworthy unworthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under Christ"s table;" yet not one of us need eat or drink unworthily, that is, in a careless, irreverent, defiant spirit. Guilty of. He draws on himself the penalty due to "crucifying to himself the Son of God afresh," by "putting him to an open shame.
Vers. 27-29.
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Perils at the Lord"s table.
A frequent question, "Who should come to the Lord"s table?" Many have come who ought not to have come as they were; not a few have been deterred from coming who were quite suitable. Many have not pondered sufficiently the duty of observing the Lord"s Supper; many have been alarmed by certain expressions contained in this passage.
I GLANCE AT THE SCENE. It lies in gay, voluptuous, immoral Corinth. A city magnificent externally; abased and abandoned internally. A meeting of Christians in some private house, light amid darkness, truth surrounded by error, holiness in the centre of corruption. The gathering is for the love feast and the Supper of the Lord. A love feast, alas! in which love is largely absent; a Supper of the Lord in which the Lord is strangely dishonoured. The light is dimmed, the truth is alloyed with error, the holiness is defiled by guilt. There are divisions; (1Co_1:11, 1Co_1:12) there are pride, selfishness, irreverence (vers. 21, 22); there is even drunkenness (ver. 21); yea, even further, the hideous head of immorality is raised in the midst of this little Christian society. (1Co_5:1) This Epistle arrives from the founder of the Church a letter smiting Corinthian transgression and transgressors hip and thigh. Picture the scene!
II GLANCE AT CERTAIN WORDS AND THEIR MEANINGS.
1. Damnation. This word has so terrified some that they have never been able to summon sufficient courage to obey the dying command of their Lord. They have supposed that an unworthy participation in the sacred feast would seal their doom and consign them to perdition without remedy. But the word does not justify such a view. Instead of "damnation," we should read, as in the Revised Version, "judgment." And ver. 32 explains what "judgment" means: "When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. Judgment here means "chastisement," and note particularly that this chastisement is sent to prevent us from being condemned with unbelievers. What follows upon unworthy participation at the Lord"s table, if we are believers, is not something to destroy us, but something to prevent us from being destroyed. If we will not benefit by the chastisement, if under it we harden our hearts like Israel of old, then we shall be cast away. The sin of unworthy participation is great, and the correction will be severe, but neither is what some sensitive natures have dreaded,
2. Unworthily. Note that the apostle speaks of the unworthiness of the act, not the unworthiness of the person. To say, "I am unworthy," is doubtless to speak the truth, but it is irrelevant. Unworthy persons may participate worthily. Nay, further, only those who feel that they are unworthy are in a right state to sit at the table. The self righteous are never "fit." The supper is for penitent sinners; for such as Paul, "the chief of sinners." But the act may be unworthy, and that from many causes. Anything that hinders us from "discerning the Lord"s body" (ver. 29) will cause us to eat and drink unworthily. We have to recognize the bread and wine as emblems of that body, as set apart to show this forth, and therefore to be dealt with solemnly, thoughtfully, reverently. We must enter into the meaning of the feast, and through the outward reach the inward and spiritual. At the supper we do not halt at the emblems; we have fellowship with Christ, we remember him, we renew our vows, we profess to be his followers, we show forth his death "till he come." Now, many things may hinder us from doing this, and thus cause us to cat and drink unworthily; such as:
(1) Thoughtlessness, leading to irreverence.
(2) Ignorance of the meaning of the ordinance. This may be very culpable ignorance.
(3) Unconverted condition. Quite unfit for supper because have not received what it sets forth.
(4) Worldly spirit. "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." We may be trying, and thus be charging Christ with falsehood, even as we approach his table.
(5) Unbrotherly feeling. That which separates us from believers is very likely to separate us from Christ.
(6) Immorality. If we hug sin, we cannot embrace the Saviour.
Such unworthy participation involves:
(1) Guilt. We become guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, seeing that our sin is concentrated upon that observance which specially sets these forth.
(2) Punishment. "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep" (ver. 30). Present chastisement, and, if this prove inefficacious, future and final punishment.
III A REMEDY. This is not to see that "we are good," according to a very current expression and impression. In one sense we can never be "fit." It is to examine or prove ourselves by
(1) appeal to conscience,
(2) God"s Word,
(3) God"s Spirit.
And what we have to ascertain is whether we
(1) repent Of sin,
(2) believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and.
(3) are seeking to live in the fear and love of God.
If we are right upon these points, we need have no dread in approaching the Lord"s table, but rather draw near in joy and confidence and in anticipation of large spiritual blessing.
IV A WARNING. Remark that none are here told to absent themselves from the Lord"s table. Not even the Corinthians most blamed, an apparent exception being the immoral person, (1Co_5:1) and he was excluded only until he had shown repentance for his sin. (2Co_2:7, 2Co_2:8) The reason is that to abstain from the Lord"s Supper is to sin. We ought to be "fit," in the true sense of the expression. There is only one place which is right for us, and that is at the table. We may be wrong in coming; we must be wrong in staying away. To refrain is to condemn ourselves at once. "This do in remembrance of me" is one of the most sacred of commands. If we are bound to break it because of our carnal and lost state, we do but multiply transgression. We are not bound, for we may escape from the condition which unfits us, and then draw near with boldness and with hope. There is a false humility restraining many from coming to the Lord"s Supper; it is a very false humility and a very deceptive humility it is the adding of another sin. Away from Christ we are altogether wrong, and in escaping from one sin (coming to the table whilst unconverted) we only fall into another (disobeying the dying command of Christ). There is every obligation resting upon us to repent, believe, and live to God; then we are fitted to discharge the other obligation, "This do in remembrance of me." Failure in the one involves failure in the other, and our condemnation is increased. There is no right place for the unbeliever. H.
Sacramental unworthiness.
The special thought here is the evil of looking at the Lord"s Supper as if it were a mere eating and drinking time. It is a symbolic time; it is a spiritually feasting time. It is a time when the wants and demands of the body are to be put wholly aside. It is a. soul time. He eats unworthily who stays with any bodily partaking of mere emblems, and fails to fill his soul with living bread with him who is the "Bread of life." The following points are so simple and suggestive that they only need statement: We eat, at the sacrament, unworthily;
1. When we eat without suitable remembrance. "The Son of man knew our nature far too well (to trust us without such. helps). He knew that the remembrance of his sacrifice would fade without perpetual repetition, and without an appeal to the senses; therefore by touch, by taste, by sight, we are reminded in the sacrament that Christianity is not a thing of mere feeling, but a real historical actuality. It sets forth Jesus Christ evidently crucified among us" (Robertson).
2. When we eat without spiritual insight, and so fail to recognize the holy mystery of the symbols.
3. When we eat without devout feeling duly nourished by preparatory seasons of quietness, meditation, communion, and prayer.
4. When we eat without thankful love cherished for him who gave his very life for us.
5. When we eat without holy resolves, to which gratitude ought to urge us. Impress the penalty of the unworthy eating.
(1) It is as if a man were really scorning Christ and putting him to shame.
(2) It is a piece of deception, for participation presupposes spiritual relations. The man who eats "unworthily" is guilty, that is, he is amenable to punishment; and spiritual punishments, though they may creep up very slowly and come on very silently, are fearful punishments: they are the hardened heart that cannot feel, the deluded mind that can perish in self deceptions. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv26–29 And after the same manner also He took the…
1Co_11:26-27
And after the same manner also He took the cup.
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The sacramental cup
He doubleth the elements, to show that in Christ is not only necessary and sufficient, but also plentiful and abundant, with assured redemption. To blame, then, is the Church of Rome, which is guilty of that fault whereof Benjamin was taxed; they have stolen away the cup. If to steal the chalice be the phrase whereby men express the highest sin, what sacrilege is it to steal the wine of the chalice, from whom it belongeth? But let us hear what these Romanists plead for themselves.
I. Flesh and blood go always together. It is superfluous, therefore, to give the laity the blood the second time, who by concomitancy had received it before. Answer--What God hath put asunder, to be taken severally and distinctly, let no man join together.
II. There be many inconveniences, yea, mischiefs, attend the laitys receiving of the wine; as, its sticking in their beards, spilling of it, etc. Answer--God, in the omnisciency of His wisdom, surveyed the latitude of all occurrences, yet, beholding all future inconveniences present, He appointed the laity to drink of the cup. Wine was then as subject to spilling; it hath not since gotten a more liquid or diffusive quality.
III. In several places no mention is made of wine, but of bread only (Act_2:42; Act_2:46; Act_20:7). Answer--Either bread, by a synecdoche, is here put for bread and wine; or else that phrase importeth their ordinary meetings and civil feasts. But a cart-load of these exceptions are weighed in the balance and found too light to outpoise Christs institution. Let us not be so foolish as to depart from Gods written Word in the sacrament, concerning giving the laity the cup, for the company of human arguments on our side; but let us stick to our commission. (T. Fuller, D.D.)
The sacramental cup
Remembrance--
I. Begets humiliation.
II. Quickens hope.
III. Inspires new activity through gratitude.
IV. Lifts our longings heavenward. (T. A. Nelson.)
Price of the sacrament
Cleopatra put a jewel in a cup, which contained the price of a kingdom: this sacred cup we are to drink of, enriched with the blood of God, is above the price of a kingdom.
For as oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lords death till He come.
Frequent communion
In the primitive Church the Lords Supper was celebrated every day: and fit it was, needing as they did constant cordials in the time of persecution. This frequency soon abated, and St. Ambrose reproves the negligence of the Eastern Churches, who received it but once a year. The Church of England requires her children to receive at the least thrice a year. But hear those who say that it is to be but seldom received.
I. The Passover was celebrated but once a year; in whose place the Lords Supper succeeds. Answer--The Passover was so restricted by God; in the Lords Supper we are left to our own liberty. Finding, therefore, our continual sinning, and therefore need thereof to strengthen us in our grace, we may, yea, must oftener use it, especially seeing all services of God under the gospel ought to be more plentiful than under the law.
II. Things done often are seldom done solemnly. Manna, if rained every day, is not dainty. The frequent doing of it will make men perfunctory and negligent therein. Answer--Then sermons should be as seldom as Apollos smiles, and prayers should not be presented to God every day, lest the commonness of the duty should bring it into contempt. Rather ministers are to instruct their people to come with reverence, notwithstanding their frequent repairing thereunto.
III. But long preparation is requisite to this action; and therefore this sacrament cannot often be received. Answer--After the first grand preparation, where, by faith and repentance, we are first estated in Gods favour, other preparations are not so difficult in doing, or tedious in time, as being but the reiterating of the same again. The good housewife that scoureth her plate once a week hath less work than she that doth it but once in a twelvemonth. Often preparing makes the work easy, and fits men the sooner for the sacrament. (T. Fuller, D.D.)
The Lords Supper
I. A commemorative ordinance.
1. The sacrament was instituted at the time of the feast of the Passover, and this was the memory uppermost in the minds of the disciples. Afterwards they saw as we see in the light of the perfected revelation, how fitly on that night was instituted the memorial of deliverance from a bondage greater than Egyptian, and from the deadlier peril of a death that never dies.
2. But what were the thoughts of the Redeemer? There stretched out the whole course of suffering which He had set Himself resolutely to travel. It was the same night on which He was betrayed. It was the last supper table. Very deeply under such circumstances as those would the words sink into the hearts of the disciples. We, too, must enter into the Saviours sorrows. For us, if we believe in Him, He breaks the bread and pours the wine, and when we eat and drink we do show forth His death till He come.
3. And this is what we commemorate. His death--
(1) Not His life, though that was lustrous with a holiness that knew not the shadow of a stain.
(2) Not His teaching, though that embodied the fulness of a wisdom and truth that was Divine.
(3) Not His miracles, although His course was a march of mercy.
(4) His death--His body, not glorious, but broken: His blood, not coursing through the veins of a conqueror, but shed for man. You are to see your sins laid upon Him; your souls washed by Him; your doom reversed by Him; your life secured by Him; and thus show forth His death--till He come.
II. A confirmatory ordinance.
1. Its perpetuity seems to stamp it as an ordinance, confirming, on the one hand, mans faith in God, and on the other Gods fidelity to man. The disciples had followed Christs fortunes through evil and good report; but they were more faithful witnesses after this night than they had ever been before. And when in obedience to His command they partook of the ordinance which He had bequeathed to them, it is no wonder that they should come away from each successive celebration of the communion of His body and blood with braver purpose. And it is so with Gods people still. By thus waiting upon the Lord in His own enduring ordinance they renew their strength, etc.
2. The sacrament confirms the two things which it exhibits--the death and the second advent of the Lord. It seems to link the humiliation and the royalty, the accomplished passed and the assured future together. It is the wedlock of the believers memory and the believers hope; the memory which yet lingers round the Cross; the hope which already revels in the glory of the throne.
3. For the confirmation of your faith and of your devotedness God has set up this sacramental sign. It is to confirm your faith--
(1) In His death. It is to confirm your faith--
(a) In its reality--that it was not a prolonged swoon.
(b) In its vicariousness, to show you that His life was offered--the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. In its efficacy as an accepted atonement.
(2) In His coming--
(a) In its certainty that the Church is not for ever orphaned of His presence.
(b) In the recompense that awaits you; for the day is coming when all wrongs shall be redressed, sin eradicated, Satan trampled under foot, the glad welcome, the abundant entrance, the triumphal and eternal song.
4. Now you are called to meet the Saviour in His confirming and witnessing ordinance. If thou seekest Jesus surely He will not send thee empty from His own table away. But for you who do not love the Saviour, there is no grace in the sacrament for you. Like the sun and rain, they will shine and fall upon the stone, and the stone will remain insensible, because it has no hidden principle of life; but if they fall upon the flower they will foster the growth, and develop the beauty, and bring out the fragrance, because the principle of life is there.
III. A covenanting ordinance, and this follows upon the two preceding.
1. It is not only a sign but a seal: a solemn federal act which involves mutual pledges--pledges of fidelity on the one hand, and of blessing on the other. Says the Psalmist: I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. And in the next verse is the translation of the symbol: I will pay my vows unto the Lord, now in the presence of all His people. And your participation in the Holy Communion is to be thus regarded as the fresh act of your espousals. If you eat and drink without discerning this great purpose, you eat and drink unworthily.
2. But I am speaking to those who love the Saviour. There is a mortal distrust, of yourselves which causes you to hesitate. Well, that you may take this Holy Sacrament for your comfort, remember that there are two parties to the covenant, and that the sacrament is the Divinely instituted seal of the fidelity of Gods promise to you. The Lord speaks to the father of the new world, from which the waters have been but recently assuaged. I do set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be a token of the covenant between Me and the earth. Here in the sacrament is the rainbow of the new and the better covenant. Behold the renewed pledge of salvation purchased, and blessing conferred upon you all who believe. Oh! the simplicity of the condition--upon him that believeth in Jesus. (W. M. Punshon, LL.D.)
The Lords Supper
This passage is instructive when regarded in its bearing upon great and ever-recurring controversies. Around the observance of the Lords Supper a multitude of irregularities had arisen. Here, then, if anywhere, was the opportunity for the apostle to glorify the sacrament, and to surround it with all those symbolic rites which would make its desecration impossible in the future. But we hear nothing of priest, altar, lights, incense, and genuflexions; but simply of a state of heart of those who unite in the act.
I. The true significance of the Lords Supper. It is a proclaiming (R.V.) the death of Christ until He come.
1. The Lords Supper is a memorial of the one fact in the Masters story which every natural feeling would have led His followers to conceal, and there was not a feeling of horror at the thought of the Cross which they had not experienced. The thought so familiar to us, but which the world has learned from Calvary only, of victory through suffering and the crown won by the Cross, was unknown to them. The Cross was a sign of defeat and disaster. No wonder that Peter should cry: That be far from Thee, O Lord. The humiliation and despair of the day after the crucifixion baffle description. More pathetic utterance could hardly be spoken than We trusted that it had been He who should have redeemed Israel.
2. There are few facts more remarkable than the revolution of feeling which is shown in the action of these men in regard to the Lords Supper. In the hour of their reviving faith, it was the Cross to which they gave prominence, and the one characteristic of early Church life was the keeping of the feast by which they proclaimed the Lords death till He come. A festival of the Incarnation, or of the Transfiguration, or of the Resurrection, would have been intelligible. But this is the memorial of His death.
3. And could anything have set it forth with more impressiveness as the distinctive truth of Christianity? Other systems have had teachers, leaders of genius and power, and lawgivers. But where else do we find a Saviour who has died for the sins of men? Christs claim rests not on the profundity of His wisdom, but on the infinitude of His love. So there is a fitness in the Supper as the proclamation of the gospel. The guests are not the wise or the holy, but sinners who have learned, to put their trust in Christ. They eat the bread and drink the wine as a confession that in His death alone is their hope of eternal life.
II. The influence which this view of the Lords Supper should exert on us. The apostle points out distinctly when be says: Let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
1. What miserable trifling are all the questions which men discuss with so much heat as compared with this! Forms of observance--what are they all when weighed in the balances with the spirit of the observance? Surely the first and chief question must be as to our right to a place at the table, and as to our preparation for filling that place with consistency. Here is a meeting-place between God and the soul. This is a renewed act of faith and most solemn confession, and this is the point in which all proving of ourselves converges; and it is one evil result of certain theories that their tendency is to keep this out of view. The attention is fixed on the priest and the altar rather than on the relations between Christ and the soul of the individual worshipper. The whole reminds us of Micah when, having detained the wandering Levite, he exclaimed, Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest. He who comes filled with the solemn awe of the altar and the priest, and allows these to interrupt his communion with Christ, feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside.
2. Here, then, is the one question for each communicant, What is the death to me? It is not enough that I hold as an article of my creed that Christ died for sinners. This act of communion is a profession of my personal trust in that death to deliver me from my sins. It is in the light of the Cross that we begin to understand something of the infinite tenderness of the Divine heart, and so to learn the exceeding sinfulness of sin.
3. What may be the special benefits to the soul which comes in humble faith to this banquet of love, it would be presumption in any man to decide. Who would under take to determine the possibilities of spiritual growth which may be the result? Here, as everywhere, to faith all things are possible. (J. Guinness Rogers, B.A.)
The objects of the believers contemplation in the Lords Supper
I. In this ordinance the believer contemplates the full accomplishment of the infinitely important objects which that death was designed to attain.
1. In the sufferings and death of our Redeemer exhibited in the Lords Supper faith discerns the character of the true God unfolded, and His transcendent glory displayed, with far more brightness than by all the works of creation.
2. In the death of Christ, as represented in fide Lords Supper, the believer by faith discerns the price of his own salvation and the only foundation of his hope before God.
3. The believer contemplates in the death of Christ, as represented in the Lords Supper, the source of all his spiritual blessings and a never-failing spring of strong consolation in his afflictions.
4. The believer, in the ordinance of the Supper, views by faith our glorious Messiahs death as accomplishing a happy reconciliation between men and angels, and as opening to both new discoveries and new employments.
II. In this ordinance the believing Christian perceives a lively and affecting representation of all the circumstances connected with the death of Christ and the blessings to be thereby conveyed to his people.
1. All who sit at the sacred table partake of these elements and affectionately distribute them from one to another; thus we are reminded that there is a sufficiency in Christ to supply the wants of all His people, and that they are all children of the same family, eating at the same table, drinking of the same cup, and bound by every endearing tie to love one another and to live as brethren.
2. After partaking of the sacred symbols they retire from the communion table, from the delightful service of the sanctuary, to mingle in the duties and toils and trials of life. For it is only in the temple not made with hands that their fellowship shall be uninterrupted and their joy be full.
3. At the first celebration of the sacrament the condescending Saviour Himself was present with His disciples and gave them the cup and spake words of consolation to their fainting minds. Thus it still is as to His spiritual presence; He is in the midst of them to do them good; the cup of blessing which in His name we bless is the communion of the blood of Christ.
III. The believing Christian contemplates the sacrament of the Supper as a sacred memorial of his inestimable Friend, the best beloved of his soul; and as a feast of commemoration, designed to keep up the believing and sanctifying remembrance of what Scripture testifies concerning Him,
1. Ye shew forth the Lords death; the Lord of angels and men; the Lord of heaven and earth; the Lord of providence and grace. It wonderfully enlarges and elevates the mind of devout communicants when they can enter into the contemplation of their Redeemers personal greatness; as the brightness of the Fathers glory; as upholding all things by the word of His power; as King of kings and Lord of lords; and as the same to-day, yesterday, and for ever.
2. Again, when showing forth the Lords death, do it in remembrance that He is the Mediator of the New Testament, or better covenant. When you are engaged in this ordinance you ought to rest on the sure promises of that covenant which was sealed with the blood of the Testator; be persuaded of their truth, embrace them, and plead their fulfilment.
3. Once more, when showing forth the Lords death, not only remember that He died in the character of Mediator between an offended God and offending creatures, but survey the gradual progress of His work from its commencement before the worlds were framed to its consummation in the glorifying of all the elect.
IV. We are to view this ordinance as a solemn gospel feast, a sacred Christian festival.
1. In the everlasting gospel provision is made for the most indigent of mankind; and in this sacred ordinance the poor and needy feed with satisfaction on the rich blessings of the great salvation.
2. Provision is not the only idea which enters into our mind under the general term of a feast or supper; nourishment also is included, and when applied to this sacred ordinance it suggests this reviving sentiment, that by the right participation of the Lords Supper humble believers are strengthened with the inestimable blessings of that well-ordered covenant which the great Master of the feast makes with all who give themselves to Him.
3. Besides nourishment and provision the comparison of the sacred ordinance before us to a feast or supper conveys to the mind all the animating ideas of fellowship and intercourse with the whole Church of Christ.
V. This ordinance is represented, in the words of the institution, as a distinguishing badge of Christianity and a mark of separation between the friends of Christ and the children of the world.
1. Those who have a right to participate of this holy ordinance are in Christ, and are new creatures.
2. They lay aside the sins which beset them, and separate themselves from whatever is displeasing to their heavenly Father. They are awake to the infinite evil of sin, and are brought through Divine grace to hate it perfectly, as displeasing to God by whom they lived and on whom they rely.
3. Those who are prepared to show forth the death of Christ, love Him above all that this poor world can give or promise.
VI. We now direct your meditations to the connection between the death of Christ and His second coming as the Sovereign Judge of quick and dead. His death prepared the way for all the triumphs of the general resurrection, and the sacred ordinance of the Supper is a standing pledge, that He who was once offered up to bear the sins of many will come the second time without a sin-offering for the complete salvation of His people. (A. Bonar.)
Of the end of the Lords Supper
The Corinthians were a Church planted by Paul, watered by a long preaching among them. But notwithstanding all his pains he receives news of some corruptions crept in and overspreading that Church.
1. Concerning the carriage of men and women in the Church.
2. The celebration of the Lords Supper.
3. The use and exercise of spiritual gifts (1Co_12:17).
The apostle makes a transition from the first to the second, and taxeth them with their divisions. Observe divisions in a Church are usually attended with sad consequences. They despoil the Church of its beauty and ornaments; they here hindered a communion with one another. All communion is founded upon union; divisions shook that and brought in gross miscarriages about the Lords Supper. For the reformation of those abuses the apostle reduceth them to the consideration of the first institution. Observe, in all reformations we are not so much to mind what this or that custom of the Church is when there is a clear word to walk by. Christ overthrows polygamy by reducing the number of persons married to the first institution (Mat_19:4; Mat_19:9).
1. How soon will corruptions creep into the best Church! The devil will sow his tares where God sows His wheat.
2. Human ceremonies are not to be urged, especially when they by abuse degenerate into superstition, carnality, and profaneness. Divine institutions, because of Gods sanction, are not to be laid aside though abuses creep in. What is mans must be discarded, what is Gods must be preserved. For the first doctrine. The Lords Supper is chiefly instituted for the remembering and showing forth the death of Christ. It is not a bare historical remembrance of the death of Christ.
For then--
1. Every profane man who assents to the history of Christs death, and believes the acting of this tragedy on the Cross, and hath a notional belief of the ends of it, might be partaker of this ordinance. But the apostle puts a bar to that (verse 28).
2. A man could not then receive more unworthily, or incur a greater damnation in this than in other acts. But here the apostle fixeth a particular guilt of the body and blood of Christ when received unworthily (verses 27-29). As Christs death was not a bare dying, but a death with high and glorious ends, so our remembrance of it is not to be a bare historical but a practical remembrance and declaration. As Christs remembrance of the promises of His Father was not only an assent to the truth of them, but a recumbency on Him for the performance, so our remembrance of the death of Christ ought to be. It is not a speculative remembrance only, as when a man sees a picture of a prince, but such a remembrance as a man hath when he sees the picture of a dear friend absent from him at that time; he remembers not only his person, but the mutual love between them, the actions his friend hath done for him, which stirs up a sense of gratitude at that time.
I shall show--
1. This is the end of the institution.
2. What it is in the death of Christ that is here remembered and shown forth.
3. How we should show forth this death.
(1) The remembrance and declaration of the death of Christ is chiefly intended hereby. For the explication consider--
1. God was always careful of appointing and preserving memorials of His favour. The pot of manna and Aarons budding rod were to be preserved in the ark as standing monuments of Gods kindness. Stones were appointed to be set up for a memorial of the division of the waters of Jordan to give the Israelites passage to the conquest of Canaan (Jos_4:5). The passover was instituted as a memorial of the Israelites affliction. And is there not much more reason for a standing memorial of that mercy of which all those were but the types? It hath been the custom of all nations to have an anniversary commemoration of those heroes who have been the instruments of some public happiness to them, and of all societies to commemorate their benefactors. And is there any reason to deny that to the great Benefactor of mankind, the Redeemer of the world?
2. These memorials are necessary--
(1) Because of the nature of our affections, which rather follow the orders of our sense than the commands of our souls, and are more excited by sensible than invisible objects. Most things we cannot understand but under sensible representations; we understand not Gods power, goodness, justice, but by the objects we see those attributes conversant about. Hence are those frequent metaphorical resemblances of spiritual things in the Scripture, and our Saviour sets Himself forth to us under the notions of bread, wine, Bridegroom.
(2) In regard of the inconstancy of our affections. What our affections rouse themselves up to receive at the first approach, they afterwards begin to flag like the strings of an instrument that sound well at the first tuning, but quickly slack and need a watchful ear and careful hand to wind them up. We want, therefore, those memorials to keep up our hearts in a warm and glowing temper.
(3) In regard of the natural ingratitude and enmity we have to a crucified Christ, and the weakness of faith. What the world did, that doth every mans heart naturally, account the Cross foolishness. How is our faith weak when Christ is absent from us! He hath therefore instituted a symbol of His spiritual presence, whereby our minds might exercise themselves as well as the eyes of men did behold His body.
3. What it is in the death of Christ that is here set forth.
(1) The painfulness of His death. It is the picture of Him as He hung upon the Cross.
(a) This was the intent of the ancient passover. The lamb was to be killed, the flesh roasted with fire (Exo_12:6-8).
(b) Of the elements in this sacrament. Bread signifies as passing through various kinds of sufferings to be made fit for food, reaped when ripe, thrashed when housed, ground to powder and baked to be made fit for bread. The actions testify the painfulness.
(2) The intention of this death for us. It is in this ordinance represented as a sacrifice-death. He is our Passover sacrificed for us (1Co_5:7-8). In His institution it was, My body broken for you, My blood shed for you, as an expiatory sacrifice.
(3) The sufficiency of this death for us. It would never else be remembered. We remember no more than what was done; we remember a whole Christ broken. God by covenant with Christ could challenge no more, and justice after the striking of that match could demand no more. Whence ariseth a redundancy of merit, an overflowing merit for ten thousand worlds, were they in being and in a sinful state.
(4) The acceptableness of this death to God. All that Christ did He did by order as His Father commanded Him. Had not His death been acceptable to His Father He would not have ordered us to remember it.
(5) The present efficacy of this death. It is now of efficacy, and will be to the second coming of Christ. Why else should it be remembered? To what purpose should we commemorate it if it did not retain an everlasting efficacy?
(6) How we should show forth and remember this death.
1. Reverentially.
(1) With a reverence of the holiness of God.
(2) With a reverence of the justice of God.
2. Holily. We must undertake such religious services with suitable dispositions of heart.
(1) With mourning hearts for sin. A broken Christ must not be remembered without a broken heart.
(2) With deep considerations of the cursed nature and demerit of sin. It must needs be bitter, killing, condemning, cursed sin which brought Christ to such a bitter death.
(3) With strong resolutions against sin. It is a sad thing to be Christians at a supper, heathens in our shops, and devils in our closets.
3. Believingly.
(1) We should profess our adherence to Him. The showing forth His death is solemnly to cleave to Him alone for the pardon of our sins, the justification of our persons, and the sanctification of our natures.
(2) Look up to Christ in His death as a Conqueror. It is the Lords death; He was a Lord in His death; He was a King upon the Cross as well as a Priest, as He is a Priest in heaven as well as a King. His death was His victory, His ascension His triumph. Regard it, show it forth, not simply as a death, but a conquering death.
(3) Plead this death with God.
(4) Plead this death against sin and Satan. Show it against every charge. Can the sins of men be stronger to condemn than the blood of God is to save?
4. Humbly.
(1) Consider in this representation what we should have suffered.
(2) Consider the deplorable misery wherein we were. How deeply were we sunk into the mire that nothing could pluck us out but the Son of God!
5. Thankfully. Such mercies as the death of Christ require high and raised thanksgivings.
(1) Blessing God for His love in offering up His Son to death.
(2) Blessing Christ for His love in dying.
(3) The costliness of this redemption by the death of Christ should excite us to show it forth with thankfulness.
(4) The gain we have by it should excite us to it. Death was bitter to Him, but comfortable to us. By His blood are the promises sealed; by His blood all the treasures of grace, mercy, peace, happiness, riches of glory, are gathered together for us.
Use:
1. If the Supper be a showing the death of Christ, it is then no sacrifice, but the commemoration of a sacrifice. Sacrifices imply some kind of expiation and atonement; this is a natural notion. But the Supper is not intended as an expiation of sin or a satisfaction to God. In a sacrifice something is offered to God, in a sacrament something is exhibited to us.
2. How should the death of Christ run much in our thoughts and our affections be raised! The Lords Supper is to be frequently celebrated and participated of. As often, implying, it ought often to be done.
For explication.
1. How often is not determined.
2. Nor can there be a constant time fixed for every particular person. Because there are varieties in the cases of good men, who may by some emergency find themselves hindered one time and not another.
3. It was anciently often participated of. Some think every day from that of Act_2:46.
4. Yet to be frequent in it is agreeable to the nature of the ordinance and necessary for the wants of a Christian. The too much deferring cloth more hurt than the frequent communicating. The oftener we carefully and believingly communicate the more disposed we shall be for it.
It ought not to be neglected upon these reasons,
1. Because of the Author. It is a feast of Gods providing. The great God appointed not any trifling ordinance; His wisdom appoints none but what His power can make worthy instruments; His goodness will appoint none but what His love will make highly beneficial; the contempt of it is a slighting both of His wisdom and grace. If Jordan be appointed for the healing Naamans leprosy (2Ki_5:10), the waters of Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, shall never be medicinal. When God appointed lamps for the defeat of the Midianites (Jdg_7:20), had Gideon slighted them as too weak, and assaulted them with his numerous host, he had received a rout instead of a victory.
2. The time when Christ instituted it shows it is not worthy of our neglect. It was a little before His death (1Co_11:23).
3. The ends of it declare the unworthiness of neglecting it.
(1) The remembrance of Christ. How can we say we love Him if we do not mind Him? What value have we for Him if He be not in our thoughts? Well, but we may remember Christ otherwise without this ceremony. We may, but do we?
(2) It is a seal of the covenant. This is the common nature of a sacrament to be a seal of the righteousness or justification with God by faith in Christ (Rom_4:11). It is not only a sign which represents, but a seal which confirms the benefit.
(3) It is a renewing our covenant with Him.
(4) It is a communion with God.
4. The benefits of this ordinance require frequency. These benefits are many.
(1) Weakening of sin. Not physically, but morally. The lively representation and consideration of the death of Christ with all its circumstances is a strong incentive and assistant to the mortifying sin in us.
(2) Nourishment of the soul.
(3) Increase and exercise of grace. Christ is the storehouse and fountain of all the treasure of life and peace, but His ordinances are the channel.
(4) Sense and assurance of love often comes in by it.
(5) Union with Christ is promoted.
Use:
1. How much is the neglect, if not contempt, of this institution to be bewailed!
(1) It concerns such to inquire whether the reasons of their neglect be valid against a positive command.
(2) Was it appointed to be neglected? Did Christ take such care to institute it and we take care to avoid it?
(3) How can such free themselves from unworthy reflections upon Christ? It is either an act of wisdom or folly in Him. If of wisdom, why are we so foolish as not to observe it? If of folly, why do we at all believe in Him whom we count a foolish Saviour?
(4) Is it neglected because the elements are so mean and the thing so easy in itself? Had any Israelite neglected to turn his eye upon the brazen serpent the poison in his blood had digged his grave.
(5) Or do we think Christ is come again that we neglect it?
(6) Why doth any one neglecter of it who hath faith observe any other command or institution?
(7) Or is it unfitness that is the cause of the neglect? Hath any man heard of repentance and faith and holiness, and yet hath nothing of them? What a miserable case is this!
(8) Consider what you lose and what danger you incur.
2. Use: Is of exhortation to observe it and that frequently. Though a dying Saviour is remembered, yet a living Saviour is sought for in it; and shall not we be as ready to seek a living Christ in the sacrament as the women were to seek a dead Christ in the sepulchre? (Mat_28:1). Let us consider some questions.
(1) Will any believer be guilty of disobedience to the Author of his faith?
(2) Is Christ so mean a Friend as not to be remembered? The memory of a good friend should be very precious.
(3) Why should we not often be in those ways where we may meet with our best Friend?
(4) Have you no graces that need strengthening?
(5) Why will any true believer gratify Satan? The motions to hinder those that are gracious must either be from God or Satan. From God they cannot be, who is no enemy to the ordinance He hath appointed for them.
(6) Why should any believer deny to pay Christ the debt of thankfulness for His great love in that way which He hath appointed? It is a thanksgiving, a thankful remembrance, therefore anciently called the Eucharist. We have handled two doctrines from the words. There is one more yet behind concerning the duration of this ordinance. You show the Lords death till He come. There is especially a twofold coming of Christ mentioned in Scripture.
1. His coming in the flesh.
2. His coming to judgment.
The doctrine then is--the Lords Supper is a lasting and continuing institution, not to be put down at the pleasure of any man. It will not be repealed till Christ come. Another gospel is not to be expected (Gal_1:6-7, etc.), and therefore while the gospel endures the appendixes, the institutions annexed to it will endure. The ordinances of Christ are like the pillar of fire and the cloud which guided the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness, and did not withdraw from them till they entered into Canaan.
1. All the ordinances of Christ are to continue in His Church, then certainly this.
2. Sacraments were thought by God needful for men in all their several states in the world. Sacraments were judged necessary by God in innocent nature. The Tree of Life had a sacramental signification of life upon Adams obedience. Much more in lapsed nature have we need of those sensible things for the support of our faith in the promises of God. After the Fall there were various institutions brought in by degrees. Adam and Abel and Noah had their sacrifices as significant of the Messiah promised to them and expected by them. Abraham had an addition of circumcision. The Passover and other rites were added under Moses. And God always had some conduit-pipes through which to pour out the blessings of His grace upon the souls of His creatures.
3. All laws once settled are of force till they be repealed by that authority which did enact them.
4. The covenant is perpetual, and therefore the seals are perpetual.
5. The state wherein we are requires the continuance of it and of other ordinances.
(1) In regard of our constant decays. Our bodies would moulder to dust were they not daily nourished; and is there not as much need of nourishment for our souls?
(2) In respect of our weakness, some intercourse there must be between God and us if we be happy.
Use:
1. Christ will always have a Church in the world. A Church is the seat of ordinances.
2. It is in no mans power to add to or detract from Christs institutions. Not a pin in the temple He will have altered till He gives order. God is a jealous God, and careful of His sovereignty.
3. See Christs love and bounty. Christ would not leave His people without a durable legacy.
4. This ordinance must not be contemned. The passover was to be observed, much more the Supper settled by Christ. (Bp. Hacket.)
The Lords Supper a showing forth of Christs death
I. The manner of His death, its violence and painfulness. The first promise spoke of a bruised Saviour. The patriarchal and Levitical sacrifices represented Him as a slain victim; and the prophets described Him in a similar way. And if we look into heaven, it is the same. He is adored there as one who has been slain. So we rightly regard this ordinance as setting forth, not Christs death only, but His violent death on the Cross.
II. Its efficacy. The institution of this ordinance by Christ is a declaration by Christ that He has removed the Divine displeasure from His people, and brought them within the full sunshine of the Divine favour. He would not call on us to celebrate continually a work which is not accomplished, or only half accomplished. This would be like a vaunting general ordering a column to be raised for a victory that was never won. It is like a continual echo of His own dying cry, It is finished. And our celebrating this sacrament becomes in consequence a repetition on our part of this cry, a declaration that we believe in the full sufficiency of His atonement.
III. The necessity of its particular application to ourselves. We do not merely look at the sacred elements of the Lords Supper, we eat and drink them. Without eating and drinking we might show the manner and efficacy of Christs death; but this partaking becomes an emblem of that faith which applies the sacrifice of Christ to the soul. In His own strong language, it eats the flesh of the Son of Man and it drinks His blood. Conclusion: Learn--
1. That a knowledge of the gospel itself is needful for a right understanding of this sacrament. It is a picture of the gospel: an embodying of its great truths in visible things. If we understand the gospel, we find no difficulty in understanding this sacrament. And then in its turn it illustrates the gospel, enabling us to understand it better. But unless we understand the gospel, we shall be in the same situation with many of the ignorant Jews under the law. The shadows of good things will take the place of those good things themselves, carnal ordinances will be confounded with spiritual blessings, and the emblems of a dying Saviour will be more to us than that dying Saviour Himself. Go through Roman Catholic countries--there is the crucifix, the elevated host, adored; the great Saviour Himself practically despised, and His gospel scarcely heard of or known.
2. That Christs gospel must be highly valued and loved by us before we can rightly attend to His holy Supper.
3. That the Lords Supper should be celebrated by us frequently. Is it a showing of His death? Then the more frequently His death is shown forth in this world of sinners the better.
4. That this sacrament is to be celebrated perpetually. It is to be a standing ordinance in the Church, unlike circumcision or the Jewish sacrifices and feasts which have passed away. It is to be celebrated till the heavens are opened and the Son of Man is revealed. Then the sacrament will have done its work. We see now a picture only; but when Christ comes, we shall see the original. (C. Bradley, M.A.)
The Lords death
1. These words seem contradictory. If He was Lord, how could He die? If He died, how could He be Lord? Why show forth the memory of the Lords death? Why not say as little about it as possible? Is it not keeping up the memory of His shame? Why not show forth His birth? He never said a word about that. He founded no birthday festival. Why not forget His death in His resurrection?
2. Note that for historical purposes the event is always called His crucifixion, but for religious purposes His death. We do not say about a man who is hanged that he died, but that he was killed. And so on the Lords side it is always said that Christ died, on mans side that He was slain.
I. The Lord Himself always magnified the event. He never treated it as part of the common lot, or availed Himself of the consolation of despair, saying, it can come but once--the sooner come, the sooner done. His martyrs often said that. Christ made it the supreme fact in His history. It is easy for you who are getting on towards seventy to talk about your death. What is it to die at thirty, when you are quite strong--perfectly well? What is it at thirty--to make death the supreme thought of the mind--the meridian of your calculations? You cannot enter into it. But this is what Christ did.
II. The Lord never spoke of His death as a fact complete in itself. Now we do: we say the end cannot be far off. But Jesus never referred to His death as a full stop. He always connected it with His resurrection. He was always talking about coming back again. His life is a beautiful whole--not to be broken into parts, or studied in fragments, else the results of His ministry would be humiliation, victory of the enemy. What am I to make of this April day? At six it was so mild and beautiful; and at nine it was drizzling. And then, after ten, it was so bright; and just now it was so dark I could see nothing but for the gas, and presently it will be teeming with rain. Do not break the day off at any of these points, and say, What do you think of that? God says, Let it alone; take the whole year, and see what I make of it. And so Christ says, Say nothing of this till the Son of Man be risen from the dead. The last fact explains the preceding facts.
III. The Lord made the celebration of His death the one festival in the Church. There have been some poor black days in your life--you say let them be forgotten. Christ does not say so--nay, in view of this black day in His life, He boldly said that except men did eat His flesh and drink His blood, they had no life in them. He never spoke of His death as a disaster. He came upon it as from eternity, travelling in the greatness of His strength. Other men celebrate their triumphs--this Man His Cross; other conquerors tell of the banners they have wrested from the hand of the enemy--this Man celebrates His overthrow.
IV. The Lord never asked His tormentors to be pitiful, or in any way to mitigate the agony of His crucifixion. And this would be the less remarkable but for the fact that He did ask His Father if it were possible to let the cup pass from Him. So He was not insensible to pain. But when He comes to men, He asks no favour. Nay, when people lament His fate, He says, Weep not for Me. And it is the more remarkable, because Pilate set the door open, and said in effect, Here is a way of escape; art Thou the King of the Jews? He put his question in a tone that offered deliverance. And yet this very self-same man, whom we have seen in this agony of blood, avails not Himself of the door so opened. Truly such a death had a meaning in it. Conclusion: Now in view of these facts, it becomes a serious question whether the reason given for this commemoration is equal to the necessities of the case. Why do you celebrate His death instead of His birth--His resurrection--the triumphal parts of His history? I answer--He was delivered for our offences. Why keep up the memory of His death? I answer, He was bruised for our iniquities. Why keep up the memory of His Cross? I answer, while we were yet sinners, He died for us. Will you, after hearing these answers, tell us, on the other hand, why we should leave such a death uncelebrated? (J. Parker, D.D.)
Practical influence of the death of Christ
To show forth here means to pro-claim. In communicating we set forward the death of Jesus, according to the views we may entertain of it. The most important views will be brought before us if we consider it as it is described in Scripture--
I. As the foundation of all our hopes of Gods favour and of eternal life. In it we see One who was Gods equal suffering in His human nature as the only means by which sin could be expiated and sinners saved. We cannot doubt that this atonement is sufficient, and see, therefore, in the death of Christ the complete removal of all barriers to our salvation, and a way thrown open for our restoration to blessedness.
II. As the source of the motives by which our conduct ought to be regulated.
1. What could be more fitted to make us feel deeply and realise strongly our obligation to devote ourselves to Gods service than this gift of Gods love?
2. Is there any sin which the contemplation of Christs death should not prompt and enable us to subdue--any grace which it is not fitted to implant and to cherish? Are any of you disposed to be proud?--then think of Him who humbled Himself. Are any of you disposed to be selfish?--then think of Him who submitted to a cruel and shameful death for the good of those who had no claim upon His regard. Would any one see an example of compassion and fortitude--of love to God and love to man, in circumstances well fitted to touch his heart and to produce decided imitation?--let him look to the death of Christ.
III. As the great ground of our consolation amid trials and afflictions.
1. That the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering reminds us of the important and salutary place which suffering holds in the moral government of God, and cordially reconciles us to the great principle that it is by much tribulation that we must enter the kingdom.
2. Christ, having endured the Cross, being now set down at the right hand of God, is an encouragement to His people to bear their trials with resignation, and to press on with diligence--Christs success having ensured theirs, and the result in His case being substantially a pattern of what is to be the result in ours.
3. The death of Christ is peculiarly fitted to afford believers encouragement and consolation in looking forward to their own encounter with the last enemy. The King of terrors is indeed a formidable foe, but Christ, by dying, has deprived him of all power to hurt; and when we know this we shall no longer be subject to bondage through the fear of death, but shall be enabled to say, O Death, where is thy sting? etc. Conclusion: These are some plain views of the death of Christ as set before us in the Scriptures. As often as ye eat that bread, and drink that cup, you show them, and thereby pledge yourselves to hold them forth more fully in the whole tenor of your conversation. (W. Cunningham, D.D.)
The ordinance of the interval between Christs going and Christs coming
Christians--
1. Represent Christ. They defend and declare His truth; uphold and make known His honour; illustrate and maintain His laws.
2. Copy Christ. All He is, they desire to be. All He has, they expect to share. All He requires, they are glad to do.
3. Commemorate Christ. He is the tie which binds them all together; the light which gives to each his colour; the circle which prescribes to each his course. Before He left them He said, Do this in remembrance of Me. And till He returns He continues to say, Ye do show the Lords, etc.
I. Of what does this ordinance consist?
1. What is it that is fed?
(1) Not the body only. If any man hunger, let him eat at home (chap. 11:34).
(2) But--
(a) The memory, because it goes back to the Cross.
(b) The faith, because it goes up for the grace.
(c) The heart, for it goes forward to the glory.
2. What is it on which the faithful feed? Not on the material Christ. The natural body and blood of our Saviour Christ are in heaven, and not here. The food is not on an altar to satisfy the claims of God, but on a table to satisfy the soul of man. To man physical, the things taken are bread and wine. To man spiritual, the things appropriated are the body and blood of Christ.
II. To what does the ordinance refer?
1. It is a doctrine solidified into an act. It is a profession published by a feast. It is a sign as to the past, and is a seal as to the future. Like a milestone by lifes wayside, it has two faces: one tells whence we come; the other, whither we are going. It is the old oath in which the great army of the Cross have sworn fealty to their Lord. It is the old well, at which all the pilgrims have rested and been refreshed on their way to Zion. It is the old cry, by which, in gloom or joy, the saints encourage one another to go on. It is the old challenge, by which the true men distinguish friends from foe.
2. It represents His death; for the broken bread and the poured-out wine find their parallel only at the Cross.
3. It implies life; for only living souls can feed together on that bread from heaven.
4. It promises immortality; for they who really feed upon the living Christ, in their living spirits, by a living faith, have this prospect given: If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever (Joh_6:51).
III. To what does the ordinance point? Till He come.
1. To the glory of Jesus. Intelligent love delights in the Masters honour, His glorified body, His grand espousals, His many crowns.
2. To the gathering of the redeemed in the heavenly banqueting house.
(1) For the perfect communion.
(2) In the presence of the ever-loving Lord.
3. But if at the table we show the Lords death, what do we show in the world?
(1) Servants of the Crucified, are we dead with Him?
(2) Saved by His dying love, are we severe to living men?
(3) Talking of the dawn, are we walking in the dark?
(4) Pointing to heaven, are we cleaving to earth? (J. Richardson, M.A.)
The sacrament of the Lords Supper a standing ordinance
God often appointed standing memorials to perpetuate great and extraordinary events. Aarons rod and the pot of manna; the stones taken from Jordan; the Passover, etc. And the apostle tells that the Lords Supper was appointed to commemorate not Christs birth, temptation, etc., but His death.
I. Why the sacrament was designed to commemorate Christs death in particular. Because--
1. It was the most striking scene that ever took place with respect to Him or any other being. It was rendered so by many singular circumstances.
2. It was the strongest expression of His marvellous love to this sinful and perishing world. Greater love hath no man than this, etc. But Christ suffered death for sinners, and that in a most painful and humiliating way.
3. It alone made atonement for the sins of the world, and laid a foundation for the pardon and salvation of all penitent, believing sinners. All Christ did before His death, and all He has done since, and all He ever will do hereafter, depends upon His death, and without it would be of no avail.
II. Reflections.
1. This exhibition of a crucified Saviour is a solemn address to our understandings, and calls for our most serious and fixed contemplation upon the most glorious truths which can employ the minds of heavenly intelligences.
2. This significant ordinance addresses your hearts, as well as your understandings, and calls for the most grateful affections to the Father and Son.
3. As the ordinance reminds you of Christ giving Himself for you, so it equally reminds you of your obligations of renewedly giving yourselves to Him.
III. Improvement. Since the sacrament was appointed to be a memorial of Christs death, then--
1. Christians with good reason experience much comfort and derive much benefit from it.
2. Those who never find any satisfaction in it have reason to fear that they are enemies to the Cross of Christ.
3. None are duly prepared to observe it who do not cordially approve of the vindictive justice of God. It was this which rendered the death of Christ necessary, and which it was the design of His death to display.
4. It is of great importance to maintain this sacred ordinance. The continuance of the Christian religion in the world greatly depends upon the continuance of the memorial of Christs death.
5. If the sacrament be a standing memorial of Christs death, then we may see how little the gospel is prized by the great body of the Christian world. (N. Emmons, D.D.)
A persuasive to frequent communion
I. For the perpetuity of this institution, implied in those words, For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show forth the Lords death till He come: or the words may be read imperatively and by way of precept, show ye forth the Lords death till He come. So that it is a vain conceit of the enthusiasts concerning the dispensation of the Holy Ghost, when, as they suppose, all human teaching shall cease, and all external ordinances and institutions in religion shall vanish, and there shall be no farther use of them. Whereas it is very plain from the New Testament, that prayer, and outward teaching, and the use of the two sacraments, were intended to continue among Christians of all ages. And if this be the end and use of this sacrament, to be a solid remembrance of the death and sufferings of our Lord during His absence from us, that is, till His coming to judgment, then this sacrament will never be out of date till the second coming of our Lord. The consideration whereof should mightily strengthen and encourage our faith in the hope of eternal life so often as we partake of this sacrament.
II. The obligation that lies upon all Christians to the frequent observance and practice of this institution, I shall briefly mention a threefold obligation lying upon all Christians to frequent communion in this holy sacrament.
1. We are obliged in point of indispensable duty, and in obedience to a plain precept and most solemn institution of our blessed Saviour, that great Lawgiver.
2. We are likewise obliged hereunto in point of interest. The benefits which we expect to be derived and assured to us by this sacrament are all the blessings of the new covenant.
3. We are likewise particularly obliged in point of gratitude to the careful observance of this institution. Can we without the most horrible ingratitude neglect this dying charge of our Sovereign and Saviour, the great Friend and Lover of souls? A command so reasonable, so easy, so full of blessings and benefits to the faithful observers of it.
III. Third particular I proposed, which was to endeavour to satisfy the objections and scruples which have been raised in the minds of men, and particularly of many devout and sincere Christians.
1. That the danger of unworthy receiving being so very great, it seems the safest way wholly to refrain from this sacrament, and not to receive it at all. But this objection is evidently of no force if there be as great or greater danger on the other hand, viz., in the neglect of this duty. Nay, of the two it is the greater sign of contempt wholly to neglect the sacrament, than to partake of it without some due qualification. And indeed scarce any man can think of coming to the sacrament but he will by this consideration be excited to some good purposes, and put upon some sort of endeavour to amend and reform his life. But, on the other hand, as to those who neglect this sacrament, there is hardly anything left to restrain them from the greatest enormities of life, and to give a check to them in their evil course: nothing but the penalty of human laws, which men may avoid and yet be wicked enough. For if this be a good reason to abstain from the sacrament for fear of performing so sacred an action in an undue manner, it were best for a bad man to lay aside all religion, and to give over the exercise of all the duties of piety, of prayer, of reading and hearing the Word of God, because there is a proportionable danger in the unworthy and unprofitable use of any of these. I cannot more fitly illustrate this matter than by this plain similitude: he that eats and drinks intemperately endangers his health and his life, but he that to avoid this danger will not eat at all, I need not tell you what will certainly become of him in a very short space. There are some conscientious persons who abstain from the sacrament upon an apprehension that the sins which they shall commit afterwards are unpardonable. But this is a great mistake. To draw to a conclusion of this matter: such groundless fears and jealousies as these may be a sign of a good meaning, but they are certainly a sign of an injudicious mind. For if we stand upon these scruples, no man perhaps was ever so worthily prepared to draw near to God in any duty of religion but there was still some defect or other in the disposition of his mind, and the degree of his preparation. But if we prepare ourselves as well as we can, this is all God expects. We cannot surely entertain so unworthy a thought of God and our blessed Saviour as to imagine that He did institute the sacrament not for the furtherance of our salvation, but as a snare, and an occasion of our ruin and damnation.
2. Second objection, which was this.
That so much preparation and worthiness being required to our worthy receiving, the more timorous sort of Christians can never think themselves duly enough qualified for so sacred an action.
1. That every degree of imperfection in our preparation for this sacrament is not a sufficient reason for men to abstain from it. For then no man should ever receive it. For who is every way worthy? The graces of the best men are imperfect. And if we will neglect the use of these means, it is to no purpose for us to pray to God for His grace and assistance.
2. The total want of a due preparation, not only in the degree but in the main and substance of it, though it render us unfit at present to receive this sacrament, yet does it by no means excuse our neglect of it. One fault may draw on another, but can never excuse it. We will not do our duty in other things, and then plead that we are unfit and unworthy to do it in this particular of the sacrament.
3. The proper inference and conclusion from a total want of due preparation for the sacrament is not to cast off all thoughts of receiving it, but immediately to set about the work of preparation, that so we may be fit to receive it.
IV. Fourth and last thing I proposed, viz., What preparation of ourselves is necessary in order to the worthy receiving of this sacrament. Which I told you would give me occasion to explain the apostles meaning in the last part of the text, But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. I think it very clear from the occasion and circumstances of the apostles discourse concerning the sacrament that he does not intend the examination of our state, whether we be Christians or not, and sincerely resolve to continue so; and consequently that he does not here speak of our habitual preparation by the resolution of a good life. This he takes for granted, that they were Christians and resolved to continue and persevere in their Christian profession. But he speaks of their actual fitness and worthiness at that time when they came to receive the Lords Supper. But let a man examine himself, that is, consider well with himself what a sacred action he is going about, and what behaviour becomes him when he is celebrating this sacrament instituted by our Lord in memorial of His body and blood, that is, of His death and passion. But some will say, Is this all the preparation that is required to our worthy receiving of the sacrament, that we take care not to come drunk to it, nor to be guilty of any irreverence and disorder in the celebration of it? I answer in short, this was the particular unworthiness with which the apostle taxeth the Corinthians, and which he warns them to amend. It is of great use for Christians by way of preparation for the sacrament to examine themselves in a larger sense than in all probability the apostle here intended. And because this work of examining ourselves concerning our state, and of exercising repentance towards God and charity towards men is incumbent upon us as we are Christians, and can never be put in practice more seasonably and with greater advantage than when we are meditating of this sacrament, therefore besides our habitual preparation by repentance and the constant endeavours of a holy life, it is a very commendable custom in Christians before their coming to the sacrament to set apart some particular time for this work of examination. The best preparation for the sacrament is the general care and endeavour of a good life. And he that is thus prepared may receive at any time when opportunity is offered, though he had no particular foresight of that opportunity. (J. Tillotson, D.D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv26–29 26. Ye do show forth the Lord's death till…
26. Ye do show forth the Lord's death till he come. The observance points to two great facts—the Lord's death, and to his second coming; one past, the other future. The observance is to continue “till he come.”
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv26–29 26. “As often as you may eat this bread…
26. “As often as you may eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show forth the death of the Lord until He may come.” Hence we see the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is to be perpetuated until He returns to the earth, since it is a memento of our absent Lord. It is a valuable means of grace, perpetuatory of our membership in the visible church, as our baptism is initiatory.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv26–29 For as often as ye eat this bread, and…
For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim [inwardly and outwardly] the Lord's death till he come . [Thus the supper looks forward, as well as backward. The constant observance of this feast through the centuries is one of the strongest of the external evidences of the truth of gospel history. By a chain of weekly links it will connect the first and second comings of our Lord; after which there will be no further need of symbols.]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv27, 29 i.e. in an unworthy manner; cf. vs. 1Co 11:20-22.
unworthily
i.e. in an unworthy manner; cf. vs. 1Co 11:20-22.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v26 Worthy and unworthy communicants:
Worthy and unworthy communicants:
v. 26. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come.
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v. 27. 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.
v. 28. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup.
v. 29. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning" the Lord’s body.
The apostle now gives the Christians of Corinth and of all times some rules as to the proper preparation for, and celebration of, the Holy Communion. One of its purposes, as just stated by Paul, was that it should serve for the commemoration of the Lord. But frequency of celebration and familiarity with the Eucharist was not to blunt the reverence for its sanctity. Therefore the apostle says: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, the death of the Lord you proclaim until He comes. Every celebration of the Eucharist is an open proclaiming, a publishing of the death of the Lord, of the fact that by the giving of His body and by the shedding of His blood He has wrought redemption. Of course, the right attitude toward the Sacrament is that in which the heart is fully conscious of the blessings which the mouth confesses. That fact will make every communicant both humble and eager for the wonderful grace of God, as given in the Holy Communion. Until He comes, until He returns in glory, the Sacrament of His body and blood is to be the means of communication from Him to us.
But the wonderful content and purpose of the Holy Communion demands, at the same time, a most careful preparation on the part of the communicant: So that whoever eats the bread, or drinks the cup of the Lord, unworthily, guilty is he of the body and blood of the Lord. To eat unworthily is to be in such a spiritual condition or to conduct oneself in such a manner as to be out of harmony with the dignity and the sanctity of the heavenly meal. Should a person come to the Lord’s Supper as he would go to any other meal, considering his actions to be the mere eating of bread and the mere drinking of wine, if he feels neither desire for the grace of God nor devotion at the prospect of partaking in the miracle feast, then such a person will be guilty, not merely of a thoughtless eating and drinking, but of desecration of the body and blood of the Lord. He will show that he has neither a conception of his sinful-ness nor a longing for the grace of God; and thus his guilt will consist in his hindering the grace of God in the Sacrament, which is ready to bestow upon him forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
It follows, then, for every earnest Christian: But let a man examine himself, make a careful test of his own mind and attitude, explore all the secret recesses of his heart, not, as some commentaries say, to see whether he is religiously and morally qualified, personally worthy of being a guest of the Lord’s, but, as our liturgical formula very properly says, to see whether he heartily repents of his sins, believes in Jesus Christ, and sincerely and earnestly purposes to amend his sinful life. Having made this examination, preferably with the aid of the questions in the Fifth Chief Part, in the Table of Duties, and in the Christian Questions offered in our Small Catechism, a Christian may come and partake of God’s meal of grace. The purpose of the admonition, therefore, is not to deter and scare away such Christians in whom self-examination reveals many sins in thoughts, words, and deeds, but to stimulate the right desire for the grace of God, the need, of which this self-exploration has shown to exist. "Therefore we should here learn diligently and mark that such persons do not receive the Sacrament unworthily as say and confess they are poor sinners, feel various temptations. If you did not want to receive the Sacrament unless you were free from all sins, it would follow that you would never go to the Sacrament. But they that knowingly continue in sins receive the venerable Sacrament unworthily; as, murderous hatred of their neighbor, murder, fornication, adultery, and other, similar public transgressions, and do not purpose to discontinue them. For the Sacrament has been instituted by Christ the Lord, not that people should remain in sins, but that they should obtain forgiveness and grow in sanctity. I can speak with authority of what results follow if a person abstains from the Sacrament for a time; I have also been in such fire of the devil that I became estranged from the venerable Sacrament, and that I attended with the greater unwillingness, the longer this lasted. Be sure to beware of this and get into the habit of going often, especially if you are fit to go, that is, if you find that your heart, on account of your sins, is heavy and shy, in order that you may not forget our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but remember His sacrifice and death; for otherwise He asks nothing of us."
But of the unworthy the apostle says: For he that eats and drinks unworthily, judgment, condemnation, he eats and drinks to himself, because he does not discern, discriminate, the body of Christ. He makes no distinction between an ordinary meal and this heavenly meal; he does not realize that the true body and blood of his Savior are here present, and that for this reason a thoughtless use of the Sacrament is blasphemy and results in the final righteous punishment of God. For he that approaches the table of the Lord in such a spirit of frivolousness will indeed also receive the body and blood of Christ in, with, and under the bread and wine, but not as that of his Redeemer, rather as that of his Judge, who will, on the last day, demand an account of him with sharp reckoning, since the outward behavior is only an indication and demonstration of the unbelief of the heart. "We teach, believe, and confess also that there is only one kind of unworthy guests, those namely who do not believe, concerning whom it is written, Joh 3:18: ’He that believeth not is condemned already,’ And this judgment becomes greater and more grievous, being aggravated by the unworthy use of the Holy Supper, 1Co 11:29."
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v27 eats the bread or drinks the cup of the…
eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord
"eats the bread of the Lord or drinks the cup of the Lord"
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examine
Paul speaks of a person looking at his relationship to God and how he has been living his life as if that person is looking over something he wants to buy. See how "test the quality" is translated in 1 Corinthians 3:13. (See: Metaphor)
without discerning the body
Possible meanings are 1) "and does not recognize that the church is the body of the Lord" or 2) "and does not consider that he is handling the Lord's body."
weak and ill
These words mean almost the same thing and can be combined, as in UDB.
and some of you have fallen asleep
"Sleep" here is a euphemism for death. AT: "and some of you have died" (See: Euphemism).
some of you
If this would sound like Paul is talking to those who have died, you may need to make explicit that he is not. AT: "some of the members of your group" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
worthy
guilt
body
blood
discern
judge
asleep
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv26–29 11:26 In taking the Lord’s Supper, Christians proclaim the…
11:26 In taking the Lord’s Supper, Christians proclaim the saving significance of the Lord’s death to those around them until he comes again (see 1:7-8; cp. 1 Thes 1:9-10; 3:12; 4:13-18; 5:23).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.