When believers come together in the church, our life is all about eating and drinking. From the time that the Lord charged His disciples to eat and drink “in remembrance” of Him, this specific way of eating has been a characteristic of the New Testament church (Luke 22:19). Why is eating so important and how does it relate to our being together? Because eating and drinking the one supper determines our oneness in the church. That is why Paul dealt so harshly with the Corinthians’ eating, saying:
For there must even be parties among you, that those who are approved may become manifest among you. / When therefore you come together in the same place, 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 the other is drunk. (1 Cor. 11:19-21)
The root of division is in the spiritual condition of the saints’ eating and drinking together. If we are not coming together to eat the same thing, the Lord’s supper, then the end result is division — even betrayal (v. 23). When we meet, what are we really eating? Often, what we are eating is isolated. We can be physically present, but we are actually eating and drinking of our own opinions and distractions, bound by our own natural and human challenges. If this is the case, then our coming together is not profitable. If we want our coming together to be fruitful, we need to open ourselves up — take off the lid of our beings — to partake of what the church is eating together. And in the church, our very food and drink is none else but the Lord.
Today, as we approach the table, there is nothing isolated or different in what we offer or what we eat. Are we eating and drinking in the Body, of the Lord Himself, at His table? Indeed, what we eat and drink of the Lord’s Table shows how we discern the church (vv. 24-30). Each time we gather, each time we meet in the name of the Lord, are we in? Brothers and sisters, as we approach the table, submit your condition before the Lord (vv. 28-29). Then, through this laying bare before Him, we are examined, cleansed, and reconciled to be joined to Him and one another, receiving and partaking of not only physical eating, but true spiritual nourishment for the building of the church.
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 6/2/2024, not reviewed by the speaker.)