READING ON THE LORD'S SUPPER 3
READING ON THE LORD’S SUPPER 3
CAC We were noticing that faith is not sufficient if things are to be maintained. Without the Spirit faith will decline. So the apostle calls attention to the saints that they [p. 17] are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in them and the temple of God is holy. We were seeing that in the temple of God we get much light as to Christ; everything in the temple speaks of Christ, and coming to the truth of the temple we get more light as to Christ. So in chapter 5 we have an increased knowledge of Christ; He is known as “our passover... sacrificed”. That means we have a spiritual view of Him and see Him not only crucified but sacrificed, which brings out the personal sufferings of His holy soul when He was typically roast with fire. By feeding on Him as the Lamb roast with fire we get strength to get rid of all leaven. So the exercise in chapter 5 is to purge out all leaven that “ye may be a new lump”. Leaven is something that works inwardly causing us to be self-important, something in us that is not Christ. The assembly normally is unleavened, there is nothing active there but the life of Christ. It is only an unleavened company of persons who can truly eat the Lord’s supper.
In chapter 10 we come to the thought of communion or fellowship. It is the question of the adjustment of our associations.
Rem There was a young man in Malta who said his reason for coming to the meeting was because he found more of Christ there.
CAC He was an “intelligent man” evidently as wanting more of Christ. Persons like that are suitable material for the assembly, if they want more of Christ they wish to eliminate what is not of Christ; we must begin personally as leaven works inwardly. “That ye may be a new lump”, that is what the assembly is; a leavened mass could not really be the assembly of God. Persons can go a long way on the line of exercise about themselves and their conduct without being much exercised as to their associations. I suppose every believer is exercised about personal conduct who may not be [p. 18] about associations; but if these are not right we cannot eat the Lord’s supper.
We get the truth of associations in chapter 10 before the supper in chapter 11. It would seem that at Corinth there were some who could go into an idol temple and eat what was offered, doing it on the principle that the idol was nothing and that it did not make any difference if it was offered to idols. But the question of association comes in and the apostle shews that they were really in communion with demons. God is very concerned about the associations of His people and not only about our personal conduct. It is a serious matter to be going on with something that, in principle, is evil. A recognition of the true character of christian fellowship would save us from that. The apostle brings out the only kind of association that is contemplated for christians. They are linked up with the communion of the body and blood of Christ — it is an exclusive fellowship. Nothing could be more exclusive than the thought of the body of Christ and the blood of Christ. If we are associated with that it entirely precludes any other kind of association. It says, “Ye cannot drink the Lord’s cup and the cup of demons”; “ye cannot”, that is the true principle of all associations. It is not that there is anything narrow about it, it is a far greater and richer fellowship than any other kind of fellowship. He would impress that on us by speaking of the blood first which is not in the order of the supper. “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?” He has in mind to give us a sense of the wealthy character and wonderful blessing of the christian association. It is well for us to look at it and see that it is the cup of blessing. He supposes that all believers bless the cup and break the bread; the Scripture does not suppose that any christian fails to do so. If he does not he can hardly be said to be occupying true christian ground. Such are not behaving like the believers in the beginning for they “persevered” .. in breaking of bread.
The blessing of the cup shews very clearly that we think very highly of it. There is nothing about drinking the cup here; it is blessing it, involving that we look at it. You look at it as a cup of blessing and you bless it. It supposes that all christians do it. “The cup of blessing which we bless” — he assumes it. He is hardly thinking of the cup in its literality but in its import. It is very large in its import and contains every blessing that comes to us in the death of Christ. In this chapter you look at it; it is a cup larger than any cup you ever thought of, and it contains the love of God that comes to us through the death of Christ. It shews the necessity for purging out all leaven, for it will obscure our vision of the cup. The thing to do is to get rid of the leaven. We see here the immensity of the cup of blessing and we are associated with all that. How can you associate yourself with this defiling world after that? It would be well if some of us came into fellowship! If we were to consider all that the cup speaks of it would take several readings. It is a great study to consider the effect and result in blessing of the blood of Christ being shed.
Rem It is a feast — the feast of unleavened bread.
CAC I am glad you called attention to that. It is not a fast of unleavened bread. When you can stamp out a little bit of leaven from yourself it is a happy day for you, as making more room for Christ. It is feeding on the holy, spotless Lamb that gives us power to eliminate the leaven that is so ready to be active in us. We shall never eliminate it in any other way.
When our associations have been adjusted, we shall be quite free for the supper in chapter 11. Our leaven has been purged away and our old associations put away because of the new associations we have entered upon, then we can sit down together to eat the supper. It was not the Lord’s supper [p. 20] that the Corinthians were eating. It is a very important point that the assets of the fellowship are put first — the infinite gain that comes to us in the shedding of the blood of Christ. We then have no craving for any other associations among men. All of these propose some benefits, but what benefit can it give me if I am in the gain of the benefit of all that of which the cup speaks? It is a fellowship of supreme satisfaction.
Rem There are worldly attractions as well as religious associations.
CAC There are all kinds of things to ensnare us, but we shall have fewer desires for them as we come, more and more, into the knowledge of our associations.
Then the other important element of the fellowship is the bread; “the bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” He suggests to us the thought of partaking. With the cup we are to look at it and bless it, but with the bread it is the thought of eating. The bread which we break — you do not break bread except with the thought of partaking of it, and our object in partaking is that we may become an unbroken loaf ourselves. “We being many are one loaf, one body”. In connection with the bread he distinctly brings forward the thought of partaking of it. It was when the bread was going to be partaken of that the Lord broke it. That gives us another view of the christian association or partnership. Christendom has got very used to the word “communion”, and “fellowship” has become with us rather hackneyed, so it is good to use another word. It is a partnership — a most wonderful one, and it brings out what corresponds with the cup of blessing. The blessing that is in the heart of God and in the love of God comes to us in the value of the blood of Christ, that is the side of blessing. But that necessitates something else and that is a moral character with us which corresponds with all the blessing, and I think we reach that through the loaf.
[p. 21] The blood of Christ is a sacrificial thought and intimates the blessing that comes to us from God in the value of the death of Christ. It can never be less and it can never be more.
The body of Christ reminds us of what was in His body for the pleasure of God. It is the other side of the question. There was a Man here in a body and that body was the vessel of God’s pleasure from the manger right through to the cross, and most of all at the cross. We are to partake of the bread morally, we all partake of the one loaf. The exercise is important. To put it simply, it shews that the fellowship can only he taken up in the life of Christ, only in that character of life that was expressed in His body. There is a moral significance attaching to it — a moral result. The partaking results in our being one loaf, one body. Every christian normally wishes to move on that line, for we can only move on the line of the life of Christ or the line of the flesh. We can see what the life of Christ was in Psalm 16, “Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust”. Is it not very attractive to think of partaking of it?
The Psalmist goes on to say that his delight was in the saints, speaking of them as “the excellent, in whom is all my delight”. That is the life of Christ and we delight in the saints too. As to the idolatrous world he says, “Their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips”. He will not touch the idolatrous world and he finds his joy in God, he has his portion in God. That is all the life of Christ; it came out in His body that was given in death that we might partake morally of it, and then we shall come out as one bread. If this one is a partaker of the life of Christ and that one is a partaker of the life of Christ, if we are all partakers of the life of Christ, shall we not come out as one bread? That is the common partnership of the body of Christ. This is the association in which we are set [p. 22] today, and it is only as we are true to this in principle that we are fit to eat the Lord’s supper. We are not in a condition to eat the supper otherwise. It is good for us to see what christianity is. Christianity is Christ. All this puts our associations right, we cannot touch any other kind of association. The more clearly we see what true christian fellowship is the less we shall be influenced or attracted by any other kind of fellowship whether religious, political or social. They are altogether inferior and below what we have learnt to value. There are associations working for the benefit of man, and christians get drawn into them, but they are inconsistent with the true christian fellowship, and if christians learnt the true character of fellowship they would have to give them up.
Rem There is the thought sometimes of doing things as an individual.
CAC There is no ground in Scripture for any believer detaching himself from the company of his brethren. I have often referred to the young brother who was on a two years’ cruise in the navy. He said to himself as he lay in his bunk the first night, ‘I do not know that there is a single believer on this ship and I do not know that I shall see a single believer for two years, but how I behave myself on this ship will affect the fellowship all over the world’. If you go into wrong associations you take all the partners with you and it is inconsistent with the association in which God has set us in His great blessing.