1 CORINTHIANS 11 (FOURTH READING)
1 CORINTHIANS 11 (FOURTH READING)
CAC The truth is brought forward in this epistle in a corrective way. The saints at Corinth had evidently drifted quite away from what the apostle had communicated to them after a short time. This was evidenced by the want of unity amongst them. They were not really calling the Lord to mind; they were not giving His death the place which it rightly claimed.
Nothing has such unifying power as the Lord’s supper. The memorials are symbolical of His death, so that in eating and drinking we do not announce the Lord in His life here, nor in His risen life; we announce the Lord’s death. It is important that we should call the Lord to mind in connection with what came out in His death, because it is the greatest expression of His love. He will never again give such expression to His love as He did when He went into death. But the love that was expressed then remains livingly in Himself; so when He says, “In remembrance of me” it is Himself as having gone to heaven.
“Until he come” would fill up the whole period. He is coming, that is the great objective in view; but until He [p. 59] comes there is this public act which has a voice. It is what we do; “For as often as ye shall eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye announce the death of the Lord”. It has a public voice; it speaks of the Lord’s death. I do not think the point is quite to whom it is announced, but it is announced. It is the public object in view on God’s part and it is continuously announced as long as the assembly is here. It is the importance of what is announced, the Lord’s death. The question is, ‘What is the voice?’ not, ‘Who hears it?’ This act which the Corinthians had debased and degraded until it ceased to be the Lord’s supper at all has an important voice. Nothing is more important than that the Lord’s death should be witnessed in this world. It is the greatest and most wondrous thing in eternity; there is never going to be in eternity anything so wonderful as the Lord’s death.
It brings out here the importance of the Supper and the importance of the public side of the Supper. There are two sides. There is the calling of the Lord to mind; that is internal. Then announcing the Lord’s death is a public voice and that voice is heard in a powerful manner. The point is not whether there are any to hear it or not but ‘What is the voice?’ The voice is the Lord’s death. Whatever the number may be who announce it does not alter the character of the voice. Of course it is supposed that the whole assembly does it. It is very pleasing to God that that death should be announced, and it is by a material act; it is a material, not a spiritual, thing.
There are only two institutions of a material character in Christianity, baptism and the Lord’s supper. One is initial, that is, at the beginning, but both have reference to the death of Christ, and everything public must of necessity have reference to the Lord’s death. By far the greatest thing that happened on the earth is His death, and baptism is the public sign of persons being identified [p. 60] with it. It is so also in the Lord’s supper. We are so apt to be occupied with the resurrection and ascension side that we are liable to lose sight of the Lord’s death. It is really when the Lord comes that there will be the most wonderful testimony to His death. Nobody then will be able to question that He is the One who died! It is set out in a detailed way here to call attention to the public and material character of the act; therefore doing it worthily is an essential matter.
Ques The great intent in the Supper is to announce that Christ has died on the earth, would you say?
CAC Exactly; that is what the world has to do with, the death of Christ. There was no calling Him to mind when He instituted the Supper; He was there. But now He is absent. He died and through death He has gone to the Father, and we know Him there in a way it was not possible to know Him in the days of His flesh. We must take note of that; we are far better off than they were then. In the days of His flesh neither Peter nor John had any idea that His love was so great that it would take Him into death. If we call the absent One to mind, all that was expressed in His death lives now in Himself, and the love in which He went into death now lives in His heart. He is no longer in death but is the living One, the One we may expect to come to us. We must remember that all that He said and did was founded on His death; none of it would have been possible apart from that. Now we know this great accomplished fact that He has been into death. All the love that was expended in His death lives in His own heart this minute.
Here Paul is speaking to establish in their hearts the great fact that the Lord died, for they were having a sort of love feast and not thinking of the Lord at all. The Lord’s death has brought out His full devotion to the assembly; nothing can be added to that; and it has [p. 61] brought out the blessedness in which the saints stand as having part in the new covenant.
Rem The Hebrew bondman seems to fit here.
CAC Very beautifully. The Supper has in view the assembly as a company of persons down here in this world, in the wilderness position, understanding how the Lord has devoted Himself in love to them so as to awaken wifely affections towards Himself. That is the setting. And there is the blessedness of the new covenant as known to the assembly. He has brought it into the assembly before it has its application to Judah and Israel. There is a company of persons, in the very place where they were converted, in the good of the new covenant, so that there is perfect liberty with God, and it has come about in the power of His blood. The cup as the new covenant is the basis of it all. The youngest believer should be assured of forgiveness, that his sins and iniquities are remembered no more, and should have his heart purified by the knowledge of God. All this has been brought about by the blood of the Lord and should affect us.
So it is to be done worthily, otherwise we come under judgment. It refers to what is public. It is not at all a question of examining ourselves to see whether we are converted or not, or reviewing our history, or even examining ourselves as to whether we have judged ourselves sufficiently. That is not at all what the apostle had in mind; but if it is the Lord’s death it has a claim that all should be done with the utmost reverence. That was what was lacking at Corinth.
The eating and drinking is connected with the wilderness position. It is the beginning, and the Corinthians were in such a state that they were all wrong at the start. And so it is with us that if the Lord in His death has not His place with us we shall not be right anywhere. The [p. 62] apostle is rather adjusting us so that we shall not need adjusting when we come together. We do challenge our hearts there. Does the loaf represent to me the body of the Lord? Is that my apprehension of it? That is what it means to distinguish the Lord’s body. If we do not see in it more than what is merely outward it is not the Supper.
The bread is consecrated by the Lord’s own words. We do not consecrate the bread after we come together; we look at it as consecrated by His own words. The bread and the cup are before us as consecrated by the Lord’s own words before a word is said by us. Well, have they that character in our minds? If not, we are better not there for we shall only bring judgment to ourselves. They are clothed by the wonderful import of the Lord’s own words. They are not just bread and wine, though they have not been changed. We love to distinguish the loaf as the Lord’s body. We must perform the service worthily, with deep reverence and regard for the One whose body and blood it is. To do it unworthily is to disregard them. The Lord said, “This is my body” and “This is my blood”. It is not that they have been changed, but they have become that by the Lord’s institution. If we eat and drink in reverence, receiving them as the body and blood of the Lord that we are engaged with, of course symbolically, it must correct all disorder. And then it is a ‘calling of Me to mind’; we think of the Lord affectionately in all the power of His love expressed in death. For it is the same love exactly in glory; there is not one love in death and another in glory. These things would make us intelligent in what we actually do; it is not a question of state of heart but a certain public act which the saints do. If realised it would have a most powerful effect on us practically. We could not go on with what is inconsistent with His death and that, of course, is a most searching exercise.
[p. 63] The Lord was actively dealing with the Corinthians. “On this account many among you are weak and infirm, and a good many are fallen asleep”. The Lord could not countenance the unworthy manner in which they were carrying on; He could not tolerate it. And I suppose that there has never been anything altogether like it since. I expect the apostle’s letter corrected the public disorder in the assembly from that time onward. So there should be a profound reverence shown in keeping this holy institution. It is touching that in chastening His own it is that their spirits might be saved. It was the chastening of His love that His saints might be free of what was unworthy of Himself and of His supper.
I suppose that after this was written the custom of having a meal beforehand ceased and the Supper was left in its own blessedness. When the hour is come is what governs us now. We ought not to need to wait for one another. Where things start is in thinking of the Lord’s love in death; and it is the same for the youngest as it is for the eldest, so that we all start together. How far we can go in the service depends, of course, on our spiritual stature, but we can all start together. I am sure that if the death of the Lord had its place with us it would correct everything that is wrong or disorderly. If there is anything of that with us it is due, I believe, to some lack in the appreciation of His death. It is the calling of Me to mind — it is that great ‘Me’. If there are any things to be adjusted they are to be adjusted beforehand. The normal feeling of every saint is that he must put things right before he comes to the assembly.
The apostle knew that there was capacity in the saints at Corinth for them to be affected by the reading of this chapter, and they were affected. There was a complete turning inside out as a result. Well, that is what the truth of the Supper would effect.