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Lord’s Supper

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What Does It Mean to take the Lord’s Supper Unworthily (1 Cor. 11:27)?

Apostle Paul devoted 1 Cor. 11:17-34 to teach the believers in Corinth on the significance of, and proper conduct at, the Lord’s supper. In verses 27-30 he wrote:

“Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.” (I Cor. 11:27-30 NKJV).

Paul did not write here that anyone in the Corinthian church was unworthy of eating the Lord’s supper. What upset Paul was the improper manner in which they were conducting themselves at the Lord’s table. The rich ones among them were conducting themselves in a manner that tended to show them as occupying a superior class to the poor members. There was “class” division in their midst (v. 18).

The Corinthian Christians were bringing their own food from home which were eaten at the meeting place as the Lord’s supper. But there were poor ones among these Corinthians who came for the feast with the hope that the rich ones will share their food with them. Unfortunately, the well-to-do ones turned their own food to some “private suppers” meant for themselves alone(v 21). So, while  the rich ones gorged themselves with their food and inebriated themselves with excess of wine the poor members sat by and gazed at them, with nothing to eat at the Lord’s table. The sacred evening meal ordained by God became perverted and turned into an occasion for gluttony, self-centeredness and lack of care for others. Worse was that they were oblivious of the fact that the bread and the wine were emblems representing the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 6:51-56; Luke 22:19, 20; 1 Cor. 11:24, 25). So, they ate the supper as a normal banquet which was contrary to the sacredness of the ordinance of the Lord’s supper. This coupled with the failure of the rich ones to share their private suppers with the poor members was what elicited Paul’s anger about the Corinthians. Such a profane way of eating at the Lord’s table and lack of care for one another was not expected to be seen in the fold of God’s people. They would not have come under God’s discipline if they had eaten their private meals at home before going for the Lord’s supper. But eating the suppers at the meeting place with such irreverence for the ordinance as well as shaming the poor members brought judgment on then: “That is why many of you are sick and weak, and several have died.” (v. 30 GNT).

The Lord’s supper was ordained to commemorate the love of God by making His Christ die a sacrificial death on a tree on our behalf. Those celebrating this highest height of sacrificial love are expected to show love for others by sharing with them what they have been blessed with. The lack of care exhibited by some of the Corinthian Christians at the Lord’s supper was therefore the direct opposite of what they came to celebrate. This made their feast unacceptable to God.

Contrary to what most churches teach, Paul was not talking, as it were, about sinful living in this passage. The Christian church of the first century was very much unlike today’s churches where sinful men find it easy to be in the church for many years while they remain in their sins. He was addressing the unchristian manner the Corinthian believers conducted themselves at the sacred evening meals. The word “unworthily” (Greek: “anaxios”) is an adverb whichmodifies the manner in which the supper was taken; it is not an adjective that qualifies the members of the church. It is important that our churches need to ensure that they don’t sidestep God’s teachings and begin to teach their human doctrines tainted with “holier-than-thou” hypocrisy.

The consequences of irreverence for God’s ordinances and allowing classism in the church is very grave. Paul wrote that this was the cause of many sicknesses and untimely deaths in the Corinthian church. This is why we must do everything to avoid pride and partiality in the church. We must not trifle with a seemingly innocuous sin but which has led to many infirmities, sicknesses and premature deaths in the early years of the Christian church. Whether at the Lord’s supper or any of our meetings, we must not allow undue preferential treatment to be accorded some people because of their wealth or privileged social and political positions. For example, there is no tenable reason why some group of people are served special meals at camp meetings while others are served meals for the “common” people. There is no reason why everyone should not eat the same food. Even if different grades of accommodation are available at such camps, some acceptable minimum standard of comfort should be available to all campers. There should be no reason why the poor ones are left to sleep on bare floors in the open halls and exposed to mosquitoes. Many have left the camps with avoidable malaria and other infections. The deplorable conditions many campers are made to undergo at our camp meetings, especially in Nigeria, show the depth of disdain many church leaders have for their members, especially the poor ones. It is unacceptable in God’s sight. See 1 Tim. 5:21 and James 2:1-10.

In today’s churches, the Lord’s supper is served by giving the communicants small pieces of bread after which they are served the wine in small plastic cups. This means the problem that crept into the Corinthian church have been addressed by them. But are they free from fault? No. Many churches take the supper at frequencies other an annual one – on the 14th day of Abib or Nisan, which usually falls between late March and early April of the Gregorian calendar. Many churches celebrate the supper at any time of the day but the appointed time is after sunset, during twilight. In the Catholic Church, only the clergy drink the wine while the members are given only the bread. The Jehovah’s Witnesses mark it on the 14th day of Abib or Nissan at twilight but they say only those who are among the 144,000 people mentioned in Rev. 7 and 14 should take it. So, on the 14th of Abib/Nissan they gather at their Kingdom Halls at twilight where the bread and the wine is passed round with no one taking it. In some churches they do not celebrate the Lords Supper at all. We see therefore that the churches, by their noncompliance with the ordinance of the Lord’s supper, have not fared better than the Corinthian church. All our churches need to go back to the Bible and begin to learn it anew. There have been too many human perversion of God’s word flowing around in almost all our churches.

Paul’s call for self-examination

Apostle Paul wrote, “Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup” (1 Cor. 11:28 NIV).

Today, this verse has been taught as if the apostle was calling for introspection on one’s hearts prior to the time of the supper. But the truth is that Paul related this verse to the immediate preceding verse, the unworthy manner they’ve been eating the Lord’s supper. Here in verse 28, the apostle was calling for repentance. He was admonishing them not to continue abusing and desecrating the Lord’s supper, an irreverence and abuse which was viewed by God grave enough to make Him punish a number of them with sicknesses and deaths. He was not talking about introspection in regard to other areas of life. However, this does not mean that he was excusing sin in any form. The Christian life is not that of sinning. It is a life of faith in God coupled with genuine repentance from sin resulting in righteousness and godliness.

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How Often Should Christians Partake of The Lord’s Supper?

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It is a common knowledge that different church groups take the Lord’s Supper at different intervals in a year. While some take it once every year, some take it twice in a year in the morning. Others take it four times in a year at night. There are yet others who take it monthly, weekly, or every time they meet for worship. While some churches take it at night, there are many churches, like the Roman Catholic Church, who take it in the morning or any time of the day. The questions that come to mind are these. Is there no biblical direction with regard to the Lord’s supper? If there is, why are there so much differences between the churches in the way they observe the supper?  These questions will be answered in this article.

The Jewish Feast of Passover

When God instituted the  Passover for the Israelites in Egypt, around 1450 BCE, He commanded them that the Passover lamb should be a year old male and should be without blemish. It is therefore a type of Jesus Christ who was sinless and blameless. God also directed that the animal should be separated from the fold on the 10th day of the first Jewish ecclesiastical month, the month of Abib, and kept for four days. On the 14th day, they were to slaughter it at twilight (bold emphases added throughout), roast it with fire and eat the flesh with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. It must not be eaten outside and no single bone of the lamb should be broken (Exod. 12:46; Num. 9:12). This was meant to represent the bones of Jesus Christ which God had ordained that it must not be broken (Psa. 34:20). This was perfectly fulfilled (John 19:32-33, 36). God emphasized that the time appointed for the Passover is the 14th day of the month of Abib at twilight. The Israelites were required to celebrate the Passover throughout their generations, as a permanent ordinance. See Exod. 12:1-14; 13:3-10; Lev. 23:4-5.

To calculate the 14th day of Abib, later known as Nisan after the Babylonian captivity, the Jews waited for the spring equinox, also known as March or vernal equinox. This is the day when the Sun is exactly above the Equator as the Sun crosses from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere. This causes the Earth to have almost equal length of 12 hours of daylight and darkness on that day. This usually occur between late March and early April. The first observable new moon nearest to the spring equinox becomes the first day of Abib (Exod. 13:4; 23:15; 34:18; Deut. 16:1), later known as Nisan ( Neh. 2:1; Esth. 3:7) after the Babylonian captivity. Passover feast is observed 13 days later.

In the New Testament Jesus Christ, being an Israelite by human descent, joined his tribesmen in celebrating the Passover in strict compliance with the ordinance (Luke 2:41-43; Matt. 26:17-20; Mark 14:12-17; Luke 22:1-15).

It was at the last Passover which our Lord Jesus Christ ate with his apostles that he instituted the Lord’s Supper, on the 14th day of Abib or Nisan. The time set by God for the Passover was twilight and there is no record seen in the Bible that it was changed by Jesus Christ.

For Christians, the Lord’s Supper permanently replaces the Jewish Passover, Jesus Christ our Passover Lamb having been sacrificed once and for all time for us (1 Cor. 5:7; Heb.9:11-10:14). We no longer have to slaughter annually a one-year-old lamb, a sample of the real Lamb of God which is Christ Jesus whose death and resurrection was for our deliverance from Satan, sin and eternal death. The unleavened bread (not wafers) and wine made from the fruit of the vine (not grapefruit) replaced the roasted lamb and the bitter herbs. The unleavened bread is the emblem that is common to both ordinances.

A Memorial of Christ’s Death

The Lord’s Supper is a memorial of Christ’s death. At the last Passover when Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper, he said the Supper should be kept as a memorial of his death. Luke captured this injunction he gave to his apostles about the Supper: “And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:19-20 NIV). He commanded that the Supper be kept in remembrance of him. In other words, it is observed as a memorial of his death. How many times in a year do men observe the memorial of their dead family members? Is it not once in a year, on the anniversary of their death? Where then lies  the sense in marking Christ’s death more than once in a year? When Apostle Paul later recounted the event of the first Lord’s Supper and the command of the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul put it this way: “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:23-26 NIV).

The Lord’s Supper is a proclamation or a memorial of the Lord’s death. The reminder Paul gave the Corinthian believers is what many people have misunderstood. The word “whenever” (KJV’s “as often as”) is what people have wrongly interpreted to mean that they can take it as often as they please. They say it is now at the discretion of each church to decide how often they want to observe the Lord’s Supper. How wrong they are! Paul never at any time modified or altered any of the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here, he didn’t mean Christians now have the discretion to decide how often they want to eat the sacred meal each year. He didn’t give any instruction to the Corinthians contrary to Christ’s words. The words “do this in remembrance of me” means the Lord’s Supper should be observed as a memorial of his death – on every 14th day of Abib (or Nisan). Paul’s “as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,” means that the memorial of Christ’s death should be observed by partaking of the Lord’s Supper every year until Christ returns from heaven. Being a memorial of Christ’s death, it cannot be observed at any other frequency than once in each year – on the date he was killed, the 14th day of Abib/Nisan, which falls between the months of March and April of the Gregorian calendar. People do not remember their departed loved ones more than once each year, usually on the anniversaries of their death. That is what Christ commanded in Luke 22:19; and that is what Paul meant in 1 Cor. 11:25-26. Paul never meant we are now at liberty to take the Lord’s Supper anytime we choose to observe it. This kind of erroneous conclusion which many teachers have drawn from 1 Cor. 11:25-26 is often the result of men picking a verse or so out of the Bible and making a doctrine out of it without examining what other scriptures say on the subject. If these teachers have compared scripture with scripture, they would have done proper analysis of the scriptures and avoided this erroneous interpretation.

Now, here is a logical proof that many churches have been wrong in saying we can eat the Lord’s Supper more than once in a year. Our Lord Jesus Christ rose from death after three days. His death and resurrection marked the START and END points of the work of our redemption, which was done once and for all time. They celebrate his resurrection once every year during Abib, also known as Nisan. How come they mark his death more than once every year? Why mark the START of an event many times but mark its END once? Does that make any sense? It does not, at all! 

It Is Marked At Twilight

When God instituted the Passover, He specifically directed that it should be observed at twilight, that early part of the night between sunset and the time the stars appear in the night sky. See Exod. 12:6; Lev. 23:4-5. This set time was strictly complied with by Christ as seen in Matt. 26:20; Mark 14:17. Luke said, “When the time came, Jesus and the apostles sat down together at the table”(Luke 22:14 NLT). The time here means the time already set by God, at twilight. On his part, Apostle Paul said “on the night.” (1 Cor. 11:23), the night when the Lord instituted the Lord’s Supper. Nowhere is it found that the Passover/Lord’s Supper was observed at any other time than at twilight, after sunset. Even the word “supper” means an evening meal which is distinguished from breakfast or lunch. There is no single biblical example that the first century believers ate the Lord’s Supper at any other time than after sunset. From where then did they get the practice of marking it at any time of the day? Christ has left for us an example of strict obedience to the ordinances of God that we may follow his footsteps (1 Pet. 2:21). Our service to, and worship of, God is vain when we do things our own way other than how they have been ordained by God. All the churches who take the supper at any time of the day other than after sunset are simply following their manmade traditions. Such acts of irreverence to God’s ordinances were denounced by Jesus Christ: “Jesus replied, You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’ For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition. Then he said, “You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition” (Mark 7:6-9 NLT). See also Matt  15:1-11. It is sickening to note that many of our churches have a penchant for setting aside the commands of God in order to observe their own traditions.

Breaking of Bread in the Early Church

Some people teach that the expression “break bread” in Acts 20:7 refers to the Lord’s Supper and that the verse means that the first century believers observed the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. Some others conclude that the first century believers ate the Lord’s Supper everyday because it is written in Acts 2:42,46 that they were “breaking bread” from house to house everyday. To these people the expression “break bread” is synonymous with the Lord’s Supper. But their conclusion is very wrong. A brief explanation is here given.

What Does Break Bread Mean?

As seen right from the Book of Genesis and all through the Bible, bread has been part of the staple food of the Jews. Hence the word “bread” (Hebrew: lechem; Greek: artos) is used 296 times in the Hebrew Bible and 97 times in the Christian New Testament. The bread was usually brittle and therefore divided by being broken with the hands instead of being sliced with knife. In every meal where bread was eaten, the head of the home, after giving thanks to God, shared it to the family by breaking it. This custom of breaking bread continued to the time of Christ and the first century church which we now read about from the Christian New Testament. The bread broken at the first Lord’s Supper was one of the many instances in which bread was broken in the Bible. It is a gross error to think or say that whenever bread was broken, it was the Lord’s Supper. The following are a few examples in which bread was broken but it was not the Lord’s Supper:

  1. When Jesus fed 5000 people with five loaves and two fishes, He blessed and broke the bread and the fishes and gave to his disciples who in turn gave them to the people (Matt. 14:19). He did the same thing again when he fed 4000 people. (Matt. 15:36). He broke bread but it was not a Passover meal.
  2. After his resurrection, he appeared to two of his disciples on their way to Emmaus. They initially did not recognize him. At Emmaus, still not knowing he was their risen Master, they invited him to pass the night with them. Their eyes got opened and recognized him after he had given thanks, broke the bread and gave it to them (Luke 24: 29-30). Yet, it was not the Lord’s Supper. He had said he will not eat the Lord’s Supper again with his disciples until he returns from heaven (Matt. 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:18). And he couldn’t have eaten the Lord’s Supper with only two of the disciples.
  3. Again after his resurrection, he went to Peter and his companions at the Sea of Tiberias. There he took bread and fish which he had supernaturally provided and gave it to them. The breaking of the bread, although not mentioned, is implied. But it was not the Lord’s Supper because this event took place in the morning. The Passover meal is taken only after sunset (Exod. 12: 6; Lev. 23:4-5; Matt. 26:20; Mark 14:17, 22-26). Moreover, Passover meal should not be eaten outside of a house (Exod. 12:46). But here, they ate the bread at the open shore of the Tiberian Sea.
  4. In Acts 27, Luke recorded how  the ship in which Paul, himself, and 274 others were traveling ran into a storm. In verse 20 Luke wrote, “When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved” (Acts 27:20 NIV). Then in verses 33-36, he wrote,  “Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything. Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.” After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves” (Acts 27:33-36 NIV). Paul broke bread and ate but it was not the Lord’s Supper. He and his co-travellers broke bread and ate to strengthen their bodies after many days without food due to the anxiety caused by the terrible, life-threatening storm. The bread they broke and ate was normal food. This is evident from verses 33 to 36.
  5. Concerning the first Christians Luke wrote, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts” (Acts 2:46 NIV). They ate their normal meals at one another’s homes. They gladly shared their  food with one another. The bread which they were breaking from house to house (Acts 2:42, 46) was normal food; it was not the Lord’s Supper. They had their fellowships in the Temple area where they were taught the Word, but they shared their food with fellow believers in their private homes. If, for example, Aghogho and Efe were in Tega’s house at lunch time, Tega would not wait for them to leave before eating his lunch with his family. They would all eat the food together. This unity was what Luke recorded for our learning. They were not eating the Lord’s Supper everyday in their private homes as erroneously taught and believed by some people. Consider what Paul said in 1 Cor. 11:22. He asked the Corinthian Christians if they didn’t have their own homes in which they could eat their normal meals before going for the Lord’s Supper. This clearly shows that the bread the people were breaking from house to house everyday was bread eaten as their normal meals. It was not the one eaten at the yearly Passover/Lord’s Supper. The fact that the homes where they were sharing their food with one another were not their assembly point is another proof that they were not eating the Lord’s Supper in those homes.

In the course of time, some lazy believers began to abuse this bond of brotherhood. They refused to work and abandoned themselves on other believers for their daily bread (food). This was what prompted Apostle Paul to send out the warning we read in 2 Thes. 3:10-12 where he said, “Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.” Yet we hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling in other people’s business. We command such people and urge them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and work to earn their own living. (2 Thes. 3:10-12 NLT).

The Acts 20:7 Explained

As said earlier, some people teach that Acts 20:7 specified the frequency of the Lord’s Supper to be every Sunday because the verse says, “On the first day of the week we came together to break bread Paul spoke to the people [in Troas where he and his team spent seven days] and, because he intended to leave the next day, [he] kept on talking until midnight” (Acts 20:7 NIV, words in square brackets added by me). 

Some modern versions like the New Living Translation (NLT) have rendered it, “On the first day of the week, we gathered with the local believers to share in the Lord’s Supper. Paul was preaching to them, and since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking until midnight” (Acts 20:7 NLT). This rendition by the NLT is not correct.

Paul and his companions intended to depart from Troas after that night. Paul and his team were therefore having a farewell dinner with the believers in Troas on a Saturday evening which was the beginning of the first day of the week. The dinner arranged that night, most probably by the brethren in Troas, was meant to bid the apostles farewell. The supper cannot be said to be the Lord’s Supper for obvious reasons, which include the following:

  1. Paul and his team came to Troas from Philippi after  the days of unleavened bread (Acts 20:6). The seven days of unleavened bread starts on the 15th of Abib while Passover/Lord’s Supper is celebrated on the 14th of Abib. This means that the Passover or Lord’s Supper had been observed before they left Philippi for Troas. So, they couldn’t be celebrating the Lord’s Supper in Troas.
  2. It was already past midnight before the young man Eutychus fell from the third-floor window to the ground and died instantly. It was after waking him from the dead that Paul went upstairs and broke bread and ate (Acts 20:9-11). The Lord’s Supper could not have been eaten at that time of the night. It is taken during twilight (Exod. 12:6; Lev. 23:5).
  3. The fact that Paul preached to them till daybreak (Acts 20:11) is proof that the meeting was not for the sake of eating the Lord’s supper. He must have called the meeting because he felt the need of giving them all he had in mind before departing Troas on Sunday.

Conclusion

When our Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper, he did not specify the frequency of its observance. This was not because he wanted Christians to choose the frequency they consider appropriate, but because the time of its observance had been set by God. It is binding forever and we must abide by God’s ordinances. It remains an annual memorial of Christ’s death at Golgotha for our redemption. It must be observed on the 14th day of Abib or Nisan at twilight.

The Apostle Paul did not say in 1 Cor. 11:25-26 that each church group is at liberty to decide how often  they want to observe the Lord’s Supper every year. The phrase “for as often as” simply means “whenever” believers eat the Lord’s Supper, they are commemorating the Lord Jesus Christ’s death until He returns from heaven. This statement does not alter the annual memorial of the Lord’s death which took place on the 14th day of Abib or Nisan. It was not a mere coincidence that our Lord was killed on the 14th of Abib/Nisan, the same date chosen by God for the slaughtering of the Passover lamb. That date is a special date to God. It remains the date in which Christians should commemorate the death of our Saviour and Lord.

God has not ordained any feast and left it for humans to determine the mode and time of its observance. The Lord’s Supper which replaced the Jewish Passover cannot be an exception.

Our Lord Jesus Christ who died is the same person who was raised from death after three days (Rom. 8:34). If he has not risen from the dead, the Gospel message is useless and our faith is also useless (1 Cor. 15:14). The death and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ can be viewed as the START and END points of the same event which demonstrates God’s great love for humanity. Freedom from Satan, sin and judgment is made available for all who believe in Him. Eternal life in God’s kingdom is also ensured. It is illogical to celebrate Christ’s resurrection once a year but celebrate His death many times in the same year. That incongruity alone should make you know that the conclusion they’ve drawn on the frequency of the Lord’s Supper is wrong  The conclusion is ridiculous and untenable. 

Christ’s death and resurrection make up one event. The church groups that observe the Lord’s Supper more than once a year are in error. They lack insight into the Scriptures; and that is why they have, according to Apostle Peter, twisted Paul’s words about the Lord’s Supper (2 Pet. 3:16). Jesus Christ did not modify or reverse God’s ordinance of the Passover. Neither did Paul modify or reverse any of Christ’s instructions about the Lord’s Supper. He is not known to have once contradicted the holy Master. All the churches who take the Lord’s Supper at any time other than at twilight (evening, according to the KJV) do not have any biblical support for their practice. The entire Bible clearly teaches that it should be eaten in the evening, that is, at twilight. They need to repent of their irreverence for God’s ordinance. Their observance of the Lord’s Supper is vain when they, without insight, alter its frequency and timing

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