Wanted: Disciples for Agape Meals

"In Paul's description of the "body life" of the Christian assembly in Romans 12, he tells us that we should be "contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality" (v. 13). The word contributing there is the verb form of koinonia; in other words, if we are to have genuine fellowship in the body of believers, we must not be content with coffee and donuts on Sunday morning. We must be "fellowshipping to the needs of the saints," truly seeking to help them in their difficulties.  

The primary symbol of this sharing ministry among believers is the communion service, which in modern churches has been almost entirely stripped of its meaning. Far from being the "pretend" meal of congregations today, the communion service of the New Testament was the continuation and fulfillment of the Old Testament festivals (see Matthew 26:19-30; I Corinthians 5:6-8). It was a "love feast," a common meal in which the Christians shared their food with one another. The participants did not get a little piece of cracker and a thimbleful of grape juice. They sat down and ate a meal. 

The danger Paul rebuked at Corinth was that the believers there were failing to discern the Lord's body (I Corinthians 11:29). This doesn't mean they failed to comprehend some mystical dogma regarding the precise relationship of Christ's physical body to the bread and wine. Paul was not rebuking a lack of intellectual understanding, but rather a lack of moral discernment. The Corinthians had been·behaving sinfully, indulging themselves in gluttony and drunkenness, refusing to share food with one another (v. 21). The "body" they failed to discern was Christ's congregational body, their fellow believers. They came to have communion, and did not commune together; they did not share, yet they called it a "sharing service." Paul accused them of not eating "the Lord's supper," that each one ate "his own supper" (v. 20-21), with the result that "one is hungry and another drunk." And this is a problem with churches today, even though we've gotten rid of the alcohol, in most cases (incidentally, we're supposed to share the wine, not abolish it). 

In many modern "communion" services, the participants receive a token meal, close their eyes and chew away, thinking spiritual, inward-type thoughts in total isolation from their neighbors. That's what the good ones are doing, anyway. Others of us are contemplating other sublime mysteries: What to do about the piece of wafer stuck in our throats and how sour the grape juice is. But is the service contributing to our mutual appreciation and loving relationship with each other as a body? Not usually, and not at all in the biblical sense of having the regular opportunity of sharing food with one another. And even the full communion service -- which should be restored -- is itself merely an emblem of what we are at all times: "We who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread" (I Corinthians 10:17). We should always be available to fellow believers, as members of one family in Christ."

      -- David Chilton (1951-1997) Christian elder-teacher and writer. This is an excerpt

                from his book Productive Christians In An Age Of Guilt Manipulators (pg 166)

(Repost from 12/28/15)