Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

To: Cronos
"and also 1 Cor 11:27-29 27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. How clear can Paul get? "The bread IS a participation in the body of Christ" and "who eats the bread... will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord" This is not just mere bread and wine anymore. This is the body and blood of Christ."

Rather, in the context of 1 Co. 11:17-34 means to effectually remember and thus show/declare the sufferings and death of the Lord by manifesting its effect, that of unity with Christ and each other, redeeming souls and purchasing them with His sinless shed blood as the body of Christ.

Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. (Acts 20:28)

Which means that to remember the Lord's death is to show it, which here is by sharing food with fellow members of the body, confirming that they are such and as soul "bought with a price," and which thus are to be holy and caring for each other as members of that body of Christ, thus showing union with Him and each other.

For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come. (1 Corinthians 11:26) For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Corinthians 6:20)

Which holiness and caring union is so much emphasized by Paul in particular, as one who used to be persecute Christ by mistreating its members, and thus this theme continues into the next chapter.

And consistent with that emphasis Paul reproves the Corinthians for acting just the opposite of showing the Lord's death by how they treated its members for whom Christ died: Declaring that even though they came together for the purpose of eating the Lord's super, and were indeed eating under that presumption, yet they were not acting eating the Lord's supper, because they were acting completely contrary to what the Lord's death meant by mistreating members bought by His blood, thus not showing unity with Christ and each other, but treating members as if they were spiritually unclean:

Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. (1 Corinthians 11:17-22)

Therefore the apostle re-minds of the Lord's institution of that memorial meal and its purpose,

For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. (1 Corinthians 11:23-25)

Paul (by the Spirit of Christ) then adds,

For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. (1 Corinthians 11:26-29)

It is not the nature of the bread and the cup that is the focus, but the purpose of the meal, which is to show (kataggellō: to proclaim, promulgate: - declare, preach, etc.) the Lord's death, which again is by sharing food with other members bought His the Lord's sinless shed blood. And thus to treat other holy members of that body as if they were outcasts was to not recognize the Lord's body, which Paul here refers to as the church he used to persecute.

Thus in the previous chapter the church is called "one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread," (1 Corinthians 10:17) thereby showing communion/fellowship with Christ and each other, just like pagans have fellowship with demons by taking part in their dedicatory feasts, as would Christians if they took part in them:

Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils. (1 Corinthians 10:18-21)

Again, to take part in such feasts is to have fellowship with the object of the dedicatory feasts, but which was not be literally consuming the flesh and blood of them, while to act contrary to the Lord's death and its purpose, by mistreating holy members of it, is to not actually eat the Lord's supper and have and signify fellowship with Christ and each other.

And as that was the sin being reproved in 1 Co. 11:17-34, of some eating separately in lust for food, and ignoring others to their shame who were given nothing, then the solution was for members to examine their spiritual condition in the light of this, and as a practical measure, not come hungry to the Lord;'s supper, and be driven by hunger so as to treat it as if satisfying oneself with food itself was the purpose.

Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come. (1 Corinthians 11:33-34)

And as the body of Christ as the church (for whom Christ died) was the subject, then in the next chapter that theme continues.

25 posted on 08/23/2021 5:02:59 AM PDT by daniel1212 ( Turn to the Lord Jesus as a damned+destitute sinner, trust Him to save + be baptized + follow Him!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies ]


To: daniel1212
If our Lord meant this to be symbolic, He has an odd way of showing it. If someone mistakes your words for literal when you mean them to be symbolic, what you certainly do not do is rephrase yourself in a more stringently literal fashion. Yet this is what our Lord does here. Contrast this with our Lord's behavior in Matthew 16:11, when the disciples take His words about bread literally when He only meant it figuratively (""How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees") or in John 11:13-14 ("Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking of literal sleep. Then therefore Jesus said to them plainly: "Lazarus is dead"). In each case, the disciples think Jesus is speaking literally when He is actually speaking figuratively, and to ensure that He is not misunderstood by His followers, Christ clarifies Himself. Note how differently He behaves in John 6: The people are scandalized by what appears to be a very shocking statement of literal truth, and far from dissuade them from this opinion, our Lord goes out of His way to state the truth even more literally and bluntly!

This is demonstrated more plainly in the verb Jesus choose for the word eat. Initially, the verb is phago (φάγω), which simply means "to eat", and much like the English word, can have a variety of meanings. I can eat something literally. I can "eat something up" as a way of expressing delight in it. I can say "eat my dust" to express that I am faster than the person I am saying it to. "Eat your heart out" means to suffer from envy or jealousy while to say I could "eat a horse" simply means I am really hungry. To eat one's words means to be proven wrong about a fact previously asserted, while when I was a kid, Bart Simpson popularized the phrase "eat my shorts", which meant "Get lost." Phago has all the same shades of meaning. Our Lord uses phago in John 6:48-53.

But interestingly enough, in John 6:54 Jesus switches the verb He uses to represent the concept of eating. Instead of the broad, equivocal term phago, He changes to the very pointed term trogon. Trogon (τρώγω), unlike phago, has one very, specific, literal meaning: to gnaw, crunch or chew. It is a univocal term with a single meaning. When our Lord begins to use trogon for "eat" in John 6:54, He is removing the last kernel of doubt from His listeners as to the proper interpretation of His words. The proper English equivalent of trogon would be masticate, which is the scientific term for the act of chewing and is unambiguous.

From John 6:54 on, Christ only uses the word trogon when referring to how believers will "eat" His flesh. A particularly interesting passage in John 6:58, where our Lord uses both phago and trogon together. The passage reads:

"This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eats of this bread shall live for ever."

The verb "eat" is used twice here, once with reference to the Israelites eating the manna, the other to the faithful eating the Body of Christ. In this passage, Jesus uses phago when referring to the Israelites eating manna but again uses trogon when referring to Himself. The meaning is plain; Jesus wants us to understand that we will "eat" His Body in the most literal, direct sense of the word. This is why He uses sarx for flesh and trogon for eat. Had He meant this teaching to be symbolic, it is hard to understand why He would have


26 posted on 08/23/2021 5:05:15 AM PDT by Cronos ( One cannot desire freedom from the Cross, especially when one is especially chosen for the cross)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson