We are a Christian country where 97% of population declared themselves Christians at the population census. That’s why, the term “Lord’s Supper” is known by almost all of us. Nevertheless, there is so much confusion concerning this holy act. That’s why, I invite the readers to look at what the Holy Scriptures teach us concerning the Lord’s Supper in the next three articles. We will see in today’s article what the Lord’s Supper is not and what people’s wandering are with regard to this.
Wanderings from an old times
When He instituted the Lord’s Supper for the first time, the Savior was sitting at the table with His disiples. First Christians, according to the things related in the Book of Acts, were used to do the same things when they gathered together to their houses and were having love meals, as they were used to call them. The same thing was used to be done by the Christians from Corint. But Apostle Paul, in the epistle addressed to Corinthians said that they had lost the meaning of this holy act, they came across some wanderings and he said:
But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse. (1 Corinthians 11;17)(NASB)
The Lord’s Supper is not for expressing the divisions among Christians
The Lord Jesus called all Christians to unity and He said that people will recognize in us His real disciples only when we have love for one another, as the one He has had. But that’s precisely what the devil wants, to make divisions among Christians and he does this through heresies, through desire for empty glory and just through some’s wickedness. This divisions among Christians were visible and they were emphasized even at the Lord’s Supper, as Apostle Paul writes:
For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it. For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. (1 Corinthians 11:18–19)(NASB)
The Lord’s Supper is not for boast, drunkeness or gorging
There are people led by their earthly flesh and by the boast of life, who want to show up their superiority to others in all things, and some tried to do this even at the Lord’s Supper. This attitude is not admitted by God, as the Scriptures says further on:
Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper, for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk. (1 Corinthians 11:20–21)(NASB)
The Lord’s Supper is not to abase others
Those who are led and driven by the boast of life try always to do the utmost and use all they have to show their superiority to others and to abase them. How can a true Christian do this? The fact that you come to take part in the Lord’s Supper doesn’t prove that you are a true Christian, and if you take part in this holy act and you you are not a true Christian and you don’t live according to the conditions of the covenant made with Lord Jesus, then you will take the consequences. We are going to touch this subject in the next article. Here is how some, who pretended they were Christians, dared to use this holy act of the Lord’s Supper (Eucharist with the Lord Jesus Christ’s body and blood) to abase others. Paul asks:
What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you. (1 Corinthians 11:22)(NASB)
Because Christians were used to have these love meals in the past, where they celebrated the holy act of Eucharist with the Lord Jesus’ body and blood, this was an opportunity for those that had evil intentions to change the Lord’s Supper into gorging, or empty glory, etc. Today, there are almost no churches that are used to have the Lord’s Supper along with the love meals, and it seems that the vices from the old times are not so often, but other wanderings appeared.
Modern wanderings
These wanderings are very, very frequent and you are astonished when sometimes you can hear them even from those who pretend themselves to be servants of the Gospel. Here are the most frequent wanderings concernig the Lord’s Supper in our world.
Wandering: The Lord’s Supper brings forgiveness of sins
People think that if they fast for a period of time and then they go to take part in the Lord’s Supper, they will receive forgiveness of sins in this way. This is a great deceit. Forgiveness of sins can be received only through a sincere repentance and by faith from heart in the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact that a Christian participates in the holy act of the Lord’s Supper, he testifies by this to God and to all people that his sins have already been forgiven. Let no one be deceived. The Lord’s Supper doesn’t bring the forgiveness of sins for anyone.
Wandering: The Lord’s Supper is a charm
When I was a child, in the village, I know how people were using the bread left from the Lord’s Supper from the church as a remedy for the cases when one was bewitched by the evil eye. Nowhere in the Holy Scriptures is spoken about this and so, it doesn’t have a biblical foundation.
Wandering: The Lord’s Supper is a medicine
Did you hear about people that lay ill in bed and insist to call the priest to receive the eucharist, hoping that in this way they will be healed? The Scripture doesn’t say anywhere about this and so, again, it is a wandering concernig the meaning of the Lord’s Supper.
What is then the meaning put by the Lord Jesus for this holy act and what should each Christian know when he comes and participates, or doesn’t participate in the Lord’s Supper. Come again tomorrow on this portal to find out the answer.
Translated by Djugostran Felicia