1 CORINTHIANS 11 (FIRST READING)
1 CORINTHIANS 11 (FIRST READING)
CAC It is noticeable that the apostle clothes both the man and the woman with glory before he speaks of the coming together of the saints. The whole chapter down to verse 16 is to develop the glory of the man and the woman.
Ques What is the bearing of that on what follows?
CAC I suppose it supplies a correction for the disorder that had come in at Corinth.
Ques Is it the full height of the divine standard put before [p. 37] the saints?
CAC Yes, as regards conditions here in the created scene. It is the assembly as it is in the created scene which normally comes together for the taking of the Supper; so that all that is suited to God in the creation must be there, each brother and sister bringing glory. There was a lack of it at Corinth. The divine thought is that the customs of the assembly are glorious and each member of the assembly is to contribute glory. Man has the glory of his created position in the assembly without diminution and woman has her own distinctive glory as filling her assigned place according to her created position. Everything has its place, not only according to divine commandments but divine instructions also.
Rem The assembly is the only place where divine order is seen under the eye of God.
CAC What is suitable in the created sphere ought to be intuitive to us. “Judge in yourselves”, he says. ‘You ought to know that intuitively; you ought not to need any scripture for it’. The man must stand in the knowledge of Christ as Head and the woman must stand in the knowledge that man is her head; then things are in order in the created sphere.
Ques In Ephesians it speaks of the all-various wisdom of God being made known through the assembly; is that what you have in your mind?
CAC Yes, and it says distinctly that it is because of the angels that women are to be covered, not because men are present, but because angels are present.
There are certain things we ought to know intuitively and should not need to be told. Shem and Japheth knew what was comely in connection with their father, Noah; but Ham lacked in intuitive knowledge, and Canaan came under the curse in consequence. Faith, especially, ought to have intuitive knowledge, and does that not provide the conditions for coming together? There was a [p. 38] sad lack of glory at Corinth; they even came together for the worse! The brothers and sisters should each bring glory with them; if not, they become a shame and a reproach instead of a pleasure to divine Persons.
Ques Would you explain the difference between ‘intuitive’ and ‘instinctive’?
CAC Intuitive means that it is intelligent. An animal may have instinct but human beings in their proper glory have intuition. It belongs to the creature position.
Headship was soon surrendered. If Eve had been holding Adam as head she would never have parleyed with the serpent. Adam lost headship too. The first element of divine recovery is the truth of headship, so that we find it at the beginning of the chapter. Assembling together at Corinth only brought out discord and divisions.
I suppose the greatest truth of Scripture is the headship of God; that has been fully owned by one blessed anointed Man. So we find that at Corinth they had given up the Lord’s supper. The apostle had delivered it to them as it had been delivered to him, and they had quite turned away from it. Each was eating his own supper, it says. I suppose it was actually the working of Satan to set aside all that had been ministered to them by the apostle. And that goes on all the time, so now we have to be recalled to what is very fundamental. The Lord’s supper in itself is one of the simplest things in Scripture; it has a claim on the affections of all who give the Lord a place of honour in their hearts that nothing else could have.
Ques Would taking the Supper wrongly be virtually a refusal of headship?
CAC It had not its place at Corinth. We cannot say a great deal about the place it has with us, perhaps. It was evidently the Lord’s pleasure that His saints should come together. It is not referred to before except in chapter 5. He had not referred to their normal coming together.
[p. 39] The Lord has pleasure in unifying His saints actually in coming together. There is no such thing as an invisible church. They are actually unified in calling the Lord to mind. We come together to have it as a reality. We desire to escape from what is individual and merge in what is the common portion of all. There is a material act in which we are unified. That act, if rightly carried on, unifies us spiritually, because if there are fifty hearts calling the Lord to mind they must be one.
Ques Would the bringing of this to pass be effected by the Lord or the Head?
CAC In the first place by the Lord. It is the Lord’s supper; “the Lord” is so many times mentioned in these verses. It was the Lord who, on the very verge of that solemn hour, “your hour and the power of darkness”, found comfort in that myriads of saints would come together for the purpose of calling Him to mind. It is very touching. It is made available to any one who confesses Jesus as Lord, even though one may be very small and feeble, and, like the Corinthians, tinged with carnality. If it is rightly availed of we shall become qualified for divine service. The bread qualifies us for service to the Lord and the cup for service to God; and both services will be secured if we rightly eat the Supper.
Ques How would you distinguish the services?
CAC There are hymns addressed to the Lord — there is a place for them; and to the Father — there must be a place for them; also to God — there is a place for them. The Supper rightly eaten would qualify us for every part of the divine service. Nothing so gratifies the affections of the saints as acknowledging the lordship of Christ. It is the body and blood of the Lord. We are affected even by looking at the bread and the cup. The Lord — it is the supreme One, the Lord in supremacy. And it is wonderful that His supremacy in love has come out in His giving [p. 40] up His body in manhood and His blood being poured out. It is the Lord’s body and the Lord’s blood. There is what is due to Him in taking on His title of Lord. He is asserting in it His title as to what is due to Him, that all His saints take His supper rightly, for He is asserting the claim of His love. Tens of thousands of saints do not think it is at all an obligatory thing, but indeed it is! The Lord has not asserted many claims in detail on His saints, very few in fact, but He has asserted a claim to a material act for a few moments once a week. Well, if so, woe betide the lover of His who disregards it! I think that is why the title of Lord is emphasised — it is a claim of His love. It is such a delightful claim; we might say indeed that His commandment is not grievous. It is an invitation to come into the greatest blessedness, if even only for one minute, in the greatest sphere. It is like going to heaven!
Ques May we call the Lord to mind when alone?
CAC I hope very many of us have had many thoughts of the Lord today. But then this calling to mind is a collective calling to mind, so if we say, ‘Christ died for thee’ that is the service individualised. A saint is to take it up in company with his brethren. It cannot be done as an individual; otherwise it is very like what he says here, “each one in eating takes his own supper”. You eat bread and drink the cup; it is a material act with tremendous spiritual import behind it! So there is no such thing as an individual eating the Supper alone; you must eat it along with others who eat it.
Rem The ‘breaking of bread’ is what you might call a technical term to describe the occasion.
CAC It is wonderful to think that the Lord was pleased to do this! He “took bread, and having given thanks broke it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me”. This simple material [p. 41] act has been enjoined on us as a material act. It speaks of His own body as laid in death. You must remember it was the Creator, the Almighty God, “from eternity to eternity”. He has been pleased to come into manhood and take on all that was to be done that was pleasing to God. In His body He took it all on. Then in His devotion to God and to His saints He laid it down in death. Every christian is under obligation to say, ‘There is none like Him’. The youngest and feeblest believer can delight in what came out in that body — His body.
Ques Would you say what the difference is between Luke where the Lord says, “This is my body which is given for you”, and Corinthians where it is simply, “which is for you”?
CAC I think that the difference is that in the gospel it is more historical; it is the fact that His body is given; while in the epistle, where the Lord speaks as gloried, He left out the fact of giving His body, but all that came out in His body lying in death is for the saints.
Ques Would it be possible to break bread without eating the Supper?
CAC That supposes a very careless state of heart. We do not like to think of anybody doing it otherwise than as answering to the claim of the Lord’s love, do we?
It is very touching to think that it should be given, as it were a second time, to a company who had departed from it and violated its character. It is most touching, because Paul had given it to them all when he was amongst them, and now again he gives it as if given from a glorified Lord. If we understand that His holy body has been devoted in death for the assembly, it necessitates that the assembly should be for Him. No other company of saints will ever eat the Lord’s supper as far as we know. It puts the saints into the position of the spouse, the wife, which leads to the part of the service where wifely affections for [p. 42] the Lord are expressed. If we understand that all that came out in that holy body was devoted in love for the assembly in death, it leads to a response in love so sweet and wondrous. So in the Song of Songs the spouse expresses her appreciation of Him, and that naturally follows out of the Supper. Why should anyone wish to do it if he does not regard the Lord with affection? Then there is also the cup which is linked with the loaf. That brings in another order of things.
Ques Do the words, “in like manner” refer to the giving of thanks?
CAC I think so.
Ques Why are thanks given for the bread first and then separately for the cup? They are not given for both together.
CAC I think they are separated in divine wisdom; both, of course, refer directly to the Lord’s death, which is most important to understand. The loaf would clearly secure on the part of the saints that part of the service addressed to the Lord Himself. As to the cup, we are looking at the Lord’s death in a new setting which lays the basis for the service Godward; it is the basis for it. It is evident that there was such a thing spoken of as a new covenant which would be consummated. The Lord came in to set up that new covenant in a way that the Old Testament had not spoken of, and that His own had not thought of. That is, He came to set it up in the power of His own blood. It was, I suppose, what was effected on God’s part, so He effects, as God’s representative, all that was bound up in the new covenant, and He effects it in the power of His own blood. It is a question now of God moving to bring about a state of things pleasing to Himself. God is moving in new covenant character to lay a righteous basis for all His thoughts of blessing for man, His sinful creature.
[p. 43] Ques What would you say as to the terms of the new covenant?
CAC There is something here greater than the terms of the new covenant. You cannot have ‘terms’ with His blood; you must leave them out. God wants man for Himself — a people — that is the great thought, and He says, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and will write it in their heart; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people ... for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them ... and their sin will I remember no more”, Jeremiah 31: 33, 34. God does all that; He effects new birth in the power of the blood of Christ; He could not effect new birth without that.
Rem It says in Hebrews 9: 12 that He “by his own blood, has entered in”.
CAC It is very wonderful, but the new covenant hardly goes as far as entering in. It brings you to know God so that you are responsive, and to know that every question of sin and lawlessness is disposed of. There is the total clearance of every question of moral responsibility that could be raised with us, and that is as creatures down here. Jesus was great enough to bring God in so that He should be known; but apart from His death, His blood shedding, we could not have known Him.
We see God moving in the new covenant. The offerings gave the knowledge of sin. The sacrifices were a “calling to mind” (the only other place where the same word is used is Hebrews 10: 3) of sins; the people were reminded that they were there. But in the new covenant God has disposed of their sins and lawlessnesses and given the people a knowledge of Himself as according to His own nature. The Lord has the glory of all that; it has been secured in His death. We remember the living One who is in the presence of God, who once lay in death, the One who is now invested with the glory of all that He has [p. 44] accomplished in His death. We call Him to mind as He is. If you think of an absent person you think of them as they are now, not as they were many years ago. Now He is in the glory of God invested in the glory of all He effected when He lay in death.
Rem F.E.R. said that it is not a remembrance, but an active calling to mind.
CAC If we call Him to mind as He is now we should be very glad if He came in now; what He wants is a company so unified that He can come into their midst.