Calendar

A SINGLE HEART (V)
MONDAY, MAY 24
1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Mark 14:22-25

 

“…you come together not for the

better, but for the worse.”

 

A SINGLE HEART (V)
 
Helps to a single heart (continued). We must also consider a particular means of grace designed by God to foster “singleness of heart” within the church: and that is the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. It is one of the purposes of God in this sacrament to bring His children to the same table that they may be brought to see their mutual union with the same Mediator and Saviour. Hence we find in the early church that the disciples “came together to break bread” (Acts 20:7).
 
Surely this recognition also helps us to understand how it was that the Corinthian church could become so riven with strife and factionalism, once we remember that the same church was also charged with an abuse of the Lord’s Supper! Paul declares that they “come together not for the better, but for the worse” (1 Cor 11:17), because “in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken” (v 21). The sacred occasion became an excuse for them to indulge in their selfishness as one fed himself to wanton excess, while his brother by his side went hungry! By disrespecting and disregarding the Lord’s Table in this way they were robbing themselves of a means of grace which might have broken down the divisions between them, and united them in love.
 
Let us not make the same mistake! When we come together to partake of  the Lord’s Supper, let us not neglect to meditate on our unity as members of the body of Christ. Let us not fail to examine our hearts for envy and bitterness, and to repent of such things! Let us ask the Lord for spiritual  strength to exercise the grace of forgiveness that wounds and divisions may be healed, and relationships among brothers and sisters restored.
 
Dear reader, consider the hymn writer’s description of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ: “Elect from ev’ry nation, yet one o’er all the earth, her charter of salvation: one Lord, one faith, one birth; one holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food, and to one hope she presses, with ev’ry grace endued.” May this biblical ideal be reflected in each of our congregations!
 
THOUGHT: The Lord’s Supper is a means of grace.

PRAYER: Father, use this means of grace to unite our hearts!

Search