I enjoyed our services today, Father. I hope and pray that our people did as well. Move us all in the direction of Your choosing. May we listen and obey. Amen.
1 Corinthians 11:27-34 (<<click here to read the passage)
In my latter years, I have listened to (via the Bible on CD) and read through the New Testament several times. (A 40-minute commute for 18 years helped immensely with the listening part!) Doing things that way gave me a wonderful oversight of Scripture. (I also listened to and read through the Old Testament numerous times. I started tracking my progress beginning in 2008.)
When I started journaling back in 2015 – which eventually transitioned into posts for my blog – my mindset changed, and instead of seeking an all-inclusive overview of God’s word – again, it was very beneficial – I started digging. I deliberately took my time. I’ve said some of these things before but wanted to stress them again because as I have been working through 1 Corinthians, I have found it to be taxing…and not necessarily in a bad way.
In writing this particular letter (epistle) to the church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul is setting them back in line with what the Lord desired of them. They lived in a very corrupt culture, and quite a bit of correction was needed. Again, it was a necessity, but I feel like my digging has yielded a great deal of corrective dialogue on my part, as well. Hence, the occasional posts when I step outside the ongoing Biblical exposition. But it is essential for me and those who choose to read what the Lord lays upon my heart.
The latter verses in the 11th chapter of 1 Corinthians continue Paul’s discourse on the particulars of our observations of the Lord’s Supper – Communion.
In today’s verses, he speaks of making sure that we are not partaking of the bread and the cup in an unworthy manner. We must not take part in it lightly or without considering its importance. It may be easy to think that because we have sinned, we should not take part – if that were the case, very few of us would take part. A sentence in my Life Application Study Bible communicates an important truth, “Awareness of your sin should not keep you away from Communion but drive you to participate in it.”
Thinking along these lines got me thinking about John Wesley’s views of the utmost importance regarding Communion. In an article entitled: A Wesleyan Practice of Holy Communion, I found this,
John Wesley believed the Lord’s Supper to be “the grand channel whereby the grace of his Spirit was conveyed to the souls of all the children of God” (Sermon 26: “Upon Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount VI”, §III.11).*
To maintain physical health, we must regularly ingest food that feeds our body, not just fills it. When we partake in the Lord’s Supper, we are ingesting the body and blood of Jesus, as such, whereby we are filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit. We are nourished by the practice of Communion to grow in Him, to be drawn to Him, to be more like Him each and every day. It both feeds and fills us! May we never, ever take it lightly. Amen.
Dec 3rd, 2023, Sun, 7:37 pm
