Communion & Lord's Supper — Research Notes (Cheryl Schatz)

The BODY of Christ as the Church in the Lord's Supper (Ryan provided this from ChatGPT)

The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act that reflects a profound spiritual reality—believers are the body of Christ, and we are animated and sustained by His very life. This is why Paul rebukes the Corinthians for their selfishness and division at the table (1 Cor 11:17-22). Their failure to recognize the body of Christ was not about misunderstanding the bread but about disrespecting their fellow believers, who are the body of Christ.

1. Believers Are the Body of Christ (Symbolized by the Bread) Paul explicitly states: "Now you are Christ's body, and individually parts of it." (1 Cor 12:27) In the Lord's Supper, the one loaf symbolizes this unity: "Since there is one loaf, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf." (1 Cor 10:17) This means that when believers break and eat the bread together, they are affirming their shared identity as the body of Christ. The Corinthians' problem was that they were treating the meal selfishly, failing to recognize that the people around them were Christ's body (1 Cor 11:29). Jesus also linked the bread to Himself and those who belong to Him: "This is My body, which is being given for you; do this in remembrance of Me." (Lk 22:19)

2. Christ's Life Animates His Body (Symbolized by the Wine) Scripture teaches that life is in the blood: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood." (Lev 17:11) Jesus declared: "The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him." (Jn 6:56) Paul affirms that the cup represents our participation in His life-giving sacrifice: "Is the cup of blessing which we bless not a sharing in the blood of Christ?" (1 Cor 10:16)

3. How We Treat Believers Reflects Our Recognition of Christ's Body Because believers are Christ's body, how we treat one another is how we treat Christ: "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me." (Mt 25:40) This is exactly what Paul was rebuking in 1 Corinthians 11. Some believers were eating selfishly, leaving others hungry, while others were getting drunk (1 Cor 11:21). This disregard for their fellow believers meant they were failing to discern the body of Christ: "For the one who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not properly recognize the body." (1 Cor 11:29)

Conclusion: The Lord's Supper Teaches Us to Honor the Body of Christ The Bread = The Body of Christ, the Church — We are one in Him. The Cup = Christ's Life in Us — We are sustained by His sacrifice. Recognizing the Body = Honoring Fellow Believers — How we treat each other is how we treat Christ.

If the man is to test himself, then the test is NOT done to him but BY himself. The purpose of the test is so that he may partake. So that if he judges himself he will not be judged.

Why did Jesus command Judas to take communion? I believe the main reason Jesus commanded Judas to take of communion was because Jesus would die for His friends. Jesus called Judas friend. However if it was a sin to take communion being an unworthy person, then Jesus was commanding sin.

They joined themselves to the false God Baal-Peor by eating sacrifices offered to the dead. This goes along with 1 Corinthians 10:17-22 where some in the church were going into the temple of idols to partake in the sacrifice to idols (demons).

Discerning the body is eating the Lord's supper. Who was it for?

Coming together was to share the Lord's supper.

Uniting believers with each other and Christ is communion. Eating the sacrifice makes Israelites partners in the altar.

Second century communion as the climax of the love feast.

Communion with the love feast, agape meal.

The Corinthians were at the table in the temple of the idols with the worship to demons. The table usually refers to the table of the Presence. But in Ezekiel the table is a place of slaughtering the sacrifice… so that the structure of the argument in Malachi 1:6-7 treats the altar and the table as equivalent.

Drinking unworthily is to contradict the purpose of Christ's death and the spirit in which it is made. This makes one on the side of Satan and not on the side of those who are by faith. The test we are to do on ourselves is 2 Corinthians 13:5.

They are worse off for having assembled then before they met together.

By their disrespecting their brethren and made Communion to be personal and individual, they were forsaking the tradition that Paul gave them from the Lord.

Purpose is corporate worship in unity. Not to disrespect and exclude your brother.

Communion was personal rather than corporate and so it was not a brotherly meal.

They did not eat together and they did not wait for each other.

There was no eating together.

Communion is supposed to be "common" a brotherly meal of the whole. But the way the Corinthians were doing this was unbrotherly, a preferred and private meal rather than a common one.

Paul's words on Communion come from the foundation of what Paul mentioned as traditions delivered to the Corinthians from Paul 1 Corinthians 11:2.