"Do this in remembrance of Me.”

1 Corinthians 11:17-34 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse. ¹⁸ For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it. ¹⁹ For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. ²⁰ Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper, ²¹ for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk. ²² What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you.

²³ For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; ²⁴ and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” ²⁵ In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” ²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

²⁷ Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. ²⁸ But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹ For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. ³⁰ For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. ³¹ But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. ³² But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.

³³ So then, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. ³⁴ If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you will not come together for judgment. The remaining matters I will arrange when I come.

In today’s text Paul says:  The Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”  In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”  For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.  But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.  For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.  But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.  But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.   The participation in and celebration of communion is vital in the life of a believer and it should not be taken lightly. Again, Paul says: Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.  But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.  For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.  It is not though that we can spare ourselves from the risk of judgment by avoiding communion. Jesus does not say if you do this, rather He says do this.  We are to remember Jesus; to proclaim His death; the reason He died; that it is for the forgiveness of and redemption from sin. First and foremost, that’s what we should remember about Jesus, not that He was born in a stable, not that He was a great teacher, not even all of the miracles He performed, we should remember that He died for our sins and for the sins of the world and we should proclaim both His death and that He is coming again.

Paul says:  If we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.  But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.   If we remember Christ’s death; that He died for our sins, then we can rightly judge ourselves as righteous in Him. If we choose instead to remember and continue in our sin rather than our redemption from sin, we are subject to the discipline of the Lord. The judgment and the discipline that we receive, is that we remove ourselves from His presence and we disqualify ourselves from His promises. Jesus said that the cup was the New Covenant in His blood. If we disregard or disparage the cup, we disqualify ourselves from the covenant. If we drink in an unworthy manner, holding on to sin and unforgiveness, we bring that judgment upon ourselves. Rather than remembering that Jesus died for our redemption, we become guilty of His body and blood. In yesterday’s meditation, in 1 Corinthians 10:21 it said:  You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.  The New Covenant in Christ’s blood is consistent with God’s original covenant in that it involves a choice on our part. In Deuteronomy 30:15-20 God says: “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him.”  In John 14:15;23-24  Jesus says:  “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments… “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”  God does not judge us, but rather we choose judgment over His love by disregarding obedience to His word. So choose life! Choose love and obedience.

Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit for Your covenant promises. May I never forget the reason You died and may I proclaim Your death and live in Your resurrection until You come.  Amen.