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1 Corinthians 11:16-17 – The Lord’s Supper Only in Assembly?
Many sincerely believe that the Lord’s Supper can only be observed within an assembly of a local church. I wonder if restricting the Lord’s Supper to the church assembly is necessarily implied by the examples of Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 11. The reason for my doubt is due to 1 Corinthians 10:16-17.
1 Corinthians 10:17-18 (HCSB) 17) Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for all of us share that one bread. 18) Look at the people of Israel. Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in what is offered on the altar?
There is a three-usage of the body of Christ in these two verses. There is the physical body of Christ (i.e., incarnation), the representative body of Christ (i.e., bread); and the spiritual body of Christ (i.e., the church).
If the “body” of Christ always refers to the universal body/church and not to an individual church, then when I take the Lord’s Supper at home I am taking with and in the body of Christ. In Corinthians, I am pretty sure the body of Christ refers to the one body and not the local church.
- 12:13 – baptized into one body, not a local church
- 12:14 – the body is not one part by many, not many local congregations, but many individuals.
- 12:21-31 – the body has apostles, but not every local congregation had apostles has members of it.
As we know, the spiritual body of Christ is not made up of local churches, but rather individual Christians. Therefore to restrict Communion to only the work of the church seems to go beyond the wonderful word picture and word play here in 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17: that the body of Christ is shared by the body of Christ in the body of Christ. When I have taken the Lord’s Supper in a local congregation or at my home due to the inability to meet, I have shared the body of Christ in the body of Christ (i.e., all Christians everywhere) remembering the body of Christ.
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