When we partake of “Life” we are the living. Every time we miss this partaking, we diminish our ability to live “in the glory of the Lord.” Our determination as to how much we “eat of that bread and drink of that cup” has not been left us; our wise and generous Parent has like all good parents determined what we must eat and what we must drink to stay in health, spiritually!! What parent do you know (who you respect as a parent) that gives their children (child) what the CHILD determines it wants and HOW OFTEN they eat?? Confidence that our Lord is a good and loving parent, we must then respect His wisdom and decision to “upon the first day of the week, His children come together to break bread.” Acts 20:7 In the Garden of Eden, no specific time, no injunction was given; and this was the only other place the “Tree of Life” was mentioned, for it was only here that there were those who were sinless and past the age of accountability, who were alive spiritually before sin entered the world, that were in the process of transformation, existed!! Remember the premise: dead people eat the food of the dead while live (spiritually alive), not after they are dead!!
When we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we partake of ONE bread. The proof is not that of a positive law enjoining one bread and not 12 (as in the Mosaic Law), the meaning is explained by the apostle. There is but one literal body, and but one spiritual or figurative body having many members; so there must be but ONE bread. Paul, when writing by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, insist upon this, “Because there is one bread, we, the many, are one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread.” 1 Corinthians 10:17 The Greek word artos, when joined with words of number, always signify a bread, and is so translated in our Bibles. For example, “do you not remember the five loaves of the five thousand… the seven loaves of the four thousand” Matthew 16:9-10? The Holy Spirit was specific when He had written one bread, seven breads (loaves). “Because there is one loaf, we must consider the whole congregation as one body.” Here, the apostle stated what must have been plain enough for us to grasp from what was an already established truth in other Churches of Christ to what was not so fully established in the minds of the Corinthians. There was no dispute to be allowed about the one loaf (bread); therefore, there ought to be none about the one body, the one day of partaking, and the one day of the week on which it was to be partaken!! When an Apostle reasoned, he reasoned from what is called “established principle” that had previously been established by the Holy Spirit. To have argued from an assumption or a contingency to establish the unity of the body of Christ would have been ridiculous and unworthy of a Deity of the Holy Spirit’s station. Establish it then as a principle from heaven: there is but one loaf (bread), inasmuch as the apostle establishes his argument by a reference to it as an establish fact mentioned again in Acts 2:42. Acts 20:7, Ephesians 4:4, Ephesians 5:23, and 1 Corinthians 12:20. Our third purpose for defending the observance of the one bread and cup is now established, that on the Lord’s Table, when her Master as a parent sets the table to feed His children, there is of necessity but one bread partaken by His one body. Interestingly, the other religious bodies, when they set their tables, have known enough to not put 12 loaves, 5 loaves, or 7 loaves on their tables WHEN AND IF they set their tables, even the 7th Day Adventist, who demand keeping the ordinances of the Mosaic Law in their religion, and the Roman Catholic, which set their table every day or at the death bed of one of their members with enough money to pay them for their trouble!! The stated principle taught in the first century body of Christ is this: the one Savior has one church which is Christ’s one body, she has one bread which she partakes of one day during the week, on one day, only!! Now, miss this and you can get through the fool hole!! Isaiah 35:8; Matthew 7:13-14
It would be a wonderful occasion IF those of denominationalism would read Isaiah 35:5-10. As prophesied by Isaiah wonders would be wrought on men, sufficient to convince them that God has come. The eyes of the blind would be opened (Matthew 9:27; 12:22; 20:30; John 9:6) the ears of the deaf would be unstopped with one word ephphatha, that is be opened (Matthew 7:34), the lame had the use of their limbs restored (Acts 3:8), the dumb were able to speak (Matthew 9:32-33), and by the word and Spirit of Christ, those that were deaf to God’s call were made to hear them, readily, so “Lydia’s heart was opened, so that she attended.” (Acts 16:14) No wonder John believed!! (Matthew 11:1-6)
