In the New Testament the Lord’s Supper was either a full meal of bread and wine or was celebrated at the end of the agape or love-feast. See Jude 12. Paul deals with abuses at the Supper (11:17-22); the meaning of the Supper (11:23-26); and the right participation in the Supper (11:27-34).
- The blessings of the Lord’s Supper can be sinned away.
- 11:17, 20. In verse 2 Paul could praise them but not here. In 1538 Calvin refused to celebrate the Supper in Geneva and was exiled. If we perjure ourselves, we are worse off.
- Mal.1:10. Close the temple! Augustine: ‘the Lord’s morsel was poison to Judas, not because he received evil, but because an evil man evilly received a good thing.’
- It is for communion, not divisions.
- 11:18-19; see 10:17. Augustine called the sacrament ‘the bond of love’.
- 1 Peter 1:6-7. Evil highlights what is good.
- It is for sharing, not gluttony and drunkenness.
- 11:21. Matthew Poole says that this may only mean ‘well drunk’, but it usually means ‘to be drunk’. Note Acts 20:7, 11.
- It is not simply a physical meal.
- 11:22. Thomas Watson: ‘Such as come faithless, go away fruitless.’