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For many Christians, participating in the Lord’s Supper is a time of very deep, personal communion with their Lord and Savior. Obviously, nothing is wrong with this. But we do well in recognizing that the Lord’s Supper is much more a meal that should display and strengthen the unity of the church than it is a personal affair.
This lies behind the harsh rebuke that the Apostle Paul voices in 1 Corinthians 11:17–34. Seemingly, the Christians in Corinth didn’t show the appropriate love for their fellow church members. Back then, the Lord’s Supper was probably administered alongside a bring-and-share meal, like a modern potluck. Those who arrived early started eating, and some even got drunk. Others—very likely slaves—probably had to work late, and when they arrived all the food was gone. This kind of neglect for fellow church members turned the sacrament into something not worthy to be called the Lord’s Supper, as we read in verses 20–22:
When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
Even though it is not completely clear whether Paul’s stern warning in verse 29 regarding “the body” refers to the church, to the Lord Jesus Christ, or to both, we do well to heed his words: “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.” Undoubtedly, the Lord’s Supper should bring the whole church together as the body of Christ remembers the sacrificial death of its Head, the Lord Jesus.
Today, the elements are administered so that no one needs to go without bread, and the quantity of wine (or juice) is so small that no one will get drunk. Yet threats to the unity in the body remain. It is so easy to follow the example of the world we live in and to separate physically or just emotionally from others with whom we don’t share the same socioeconomic class, the same age, the same skin color, or the same politics. Some finer points of theology might even divide us from fellow church members. But as Christians, we are one in Christ. He has loved all of us with His same self-giving love. We are all sinners who have been saved by grace alone. Thus, we should have a true concern to display this spiritual unity by more than simply coexisting in the same church. We should be quick to love one another with the love with which we were first loved.
If we come to the Lord’s Table with such a posture of true Christian love and display the unity that we have in Christ despite our differences, we will truly celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Such a gathering can serve as a great testimony to the watching world that does not know such a Spirit-worked unity.