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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 10:16-17, 21b; 11:17-29
We have the bread-breaking meeting every Lord’s Day. There are two aspects of the significance of breaking the bread, and both aspects are related to life and building. God entered into us to be our life so that we can be built up together. God is in us to be our life. This is a crucial matter. Another crucial matter is that God causes us to be built up together as a corporate entity. Hence, God’s intention with man has two crucial aspects: He desires man to receive Him as life, and by means of this life and through this life, He builds us up into a corporate entity. If we comprehend the significance of the Lord’s setting up of His table, we will see that according to His intention, the matter of breaking bread includes life and building.
The first aspect of the significance of the bread-breaking meeting is that the Lord wants us to receive Him as the bread of life. When the Lord established His supper, He said, “This is My body which is being given for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19). This shows that true remembrance of the Lord is to receive Him and enjoy Him.
Every time we break bread, we receive the bread and take it into us. This may seem to be an outward form; however, we know that this is a symbol that speaks of a spiritual fact. Therefore, when we receive the bread with our hand, we should also use our spirit to contact the Lord Jesus as the bread of life. When we take the bread into us, we should also use our spirit to receive the Lord Jesus as the bread of life into us. As we contact the Lord, receive the Lord, and enjoy Him in this way, we receive Him into us. This is our true remembrance of the Lord.
For many Christians, to remember the Lord is to think about the Lord and to praise Him a little. However, this is the way that people in the world remember their family members or a famous person. Our remembrance of the Lord far exceeds this kind of remembrance. There are many times when we think of the Lord and praise Him. However, this cannot be considered as our remembrance of the Lord. The central focus of our remembrance of the Lord is that we enjoy Him and receive Him into us as our element. This is our central focus: the Lord has entered into us to be our life and our food.
If in our remembrance of the Lord, we merely think of Him and praise Him, without receiving Him and enjoying Him, then our remembrance of Him is lacking, and we have not touched the intention of His heart. None of our relatives can work themselves into us, nor can any famous person. Even our parents, who love us the most, cannot work themselves into us. All their acts of love and favor are merely outward. When they pass away and we remember them, our remembrance, at the most, will be to miss them and thank them.
What the Lord has done for us far exceeds all the things that our parents can do for us. Not only has the Lord blessed us outwardly; He is also working Himself into us to be our life. The focus of what the Lord is to us is that He enters into us to be our life. Hence, when we remember Him, we should not think merely of how great He is and how much He has done for us. When we remember the Lord, we must touch the central point; we must receive Him with our spirit. What we do outwardly is merely a symbol that represents what we do in our spirit. When we receive the bread into our hand, our spirit should contact the Lord as the bread of life. When our mouth eats the bread, our spirit should receive the Lord as the bread of life. To receive and enjoy the Lord in this way are true remembrance of Him.
When the Lord established the breaking of bread with His disciples, He said, “Take, eat; this is My body” (Matt. 26:26). He also said, “This is My body which is being given for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19). The Lord did not say that praising and thanking Him are our remembering of Him. He said that when we take and eat Him, we are remembering Him. We can use our spirit to receive, absorb, and enjoy the Lord, and we can have sweet fellowship with Him in our spirit. He said that contacting and enjoying Him in this way are our remembrance of Him. This is the first aspect of the significance of breaking bread.
The second aspect of the significance of breaking bread does not concern what the Lord is to us or what we are to the Lord. It concerns our relationship with one another. The bread that we take during the bread-breaking meeting is produced from many grains that have been ground into powder and blended together. The bread does not refer only to the physical body of the Lord Jesus, which was given for us on the cross; even more, it refers to His mystical Body, which is composed of all the saved ones who are blended together. Everyone who is saved is a grain of wheat. We are many grains. God does not intend for each grain to remain whole and intact. God desires each grain to be broken and blended together with other grains to become one loaf.
In John 12:24 the Lord said, “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Formerly, the Lord was the one grain of wheat. After His death and resurrection, He brought forth many grains. The many grains are all those who have been saved and have His life. The Lord desires that all of us, the many grains, be broken and ground together as wheat. We will be ground until I no longer look like myself, and you no longer look like yourself. As the many grains, we will be ground into powder so that we can be blended into one loaf. This one loaf is the mystical Body of Christ, which is the church (1 Cor. 10:17). Although there are thousands of saved ones, we are still one bread, one Body.
The first significance we touch at the Lord’s table is that the Lord Jesus gave up His body on the cross so that He could impart Himself into us for our enjoyment. The second significance concerns the joining of every believer to be the one mystical Body of Christ, the church. The Lord Jesus gave up His own body on the cross so that He could impart Himself into us to produce His mystical Body.
When the Lord Jesus was living and walking in the regions of Judea and Galilee, He had only His body of flesh. When He was crucified on the cross, He gave up this body. The giving up of His body was so that He could impart Himself into us and so that we could have His life. As a result, thousands of believers have become His mystical and enlarged Body. After His death and resurrection He continues to live on the earth in His enlarged Body. Even today He is living on the earth in this enlarged Body. His physical body is His alone by birth; His mystical Body is composed of the believers, thousands of saved ones. Through death He gave up His physical body on the cross; through life in resurrection He gained a mystical Body. He gave up a physical body and gained a mystical Body. By giving up His body, He gained us.
The significance of the bread that we receive at the table meeting has these two aspects. On the one hand, this bread speaks of the physical body that was given up for us; that is, the Lord Jesus gave up His body on the cross for us. Therefore, when we take the bread and eat it, we enjoy the Lord. On the other hand, this bread speaks of the enlarged Body of Christ, which includes thousands of believers. When we receive the bread, we are in this enlarged and mystical Body, having fellowship with thousands of saints and enjoying them in the fellowship.
We need to see these two aspects of the bread. The first aspect is that the Lord Jesus entered into us to be our life. The second aspect is that since we have the life of the Lord Jesus, we are part of His mystical Body. This is a matter of building. Ephesians 4:11-12 shows that the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers are gifts for the building up the Body of Christ. This Body is composed of all the believers. However, this composition must go through the process of building. After we are saved, we become a grain of wheat. As the many grains, we need to be broken and then built up. We cannot be individual scattered grains; we need to be blended together to become one bread. Even if we are saved and have the Lord’s life, without God’s dealing, without God’s breaking, and without God’s building, we can only be individual scattered saints. We will not become a corporate entity or a spiritual house as God’s dwelling place. We will only be a pile of scattered stones, not a built-up house.
Hence, the second aspect is related to the matter of building. The first aspect is related to life, and the second aspect is related to building. Whenever we break bread, we should sense that we are receiving the Lord and enjoying the Lord. We are eating Him, drinking Him, and enjoying Him as our life and our food. This is the first thing that we should sense. We should also sense that after we eat and drink the Lord, we are being built up together with the saints to become one bread, one Body.
Often when we break the bread, we focus only on the first aspect and neglect the second aspect. We focus only on remembering the Lord, contacting the Lord, and enjoying the Lord. Sometimes we even neglect enjoying the Lord. Even if we focus on remembering the Lord and enjoying the Lord, this is only the first half of the significance of breaking the bread. We neglect the second half of the significance of breaking the bread, which concerns the Body of Christ. Often, we pay attention only to the relationship between us and the Lord but neglect the relationship between us and all the saints. The first aspect of the significance of breaking the bread speaks of the relationship between us and the Lord. He is the bread of life. As we receive and eat the bread, we enjoy Him. The second aspect of the significance of breaking the bread speaks of the relationship between us and all the believers. We all partake of one bread and enjoy one Lord and one life. In this life we are being built into one Body so that there are no barriers among us. We are also being blended together, just as the flour is blended into one loaf.
When breaking the bread, we often see only the first aspect, which is the relationship between us and the Lord, and we neglect the second aspect, which is our relationship with the brothers and sisters. For this reason the apostle Paul told the Corinthians, “He who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not discern the body” (1 Cor. 11:29). Paul’s intention was to remind the Corinthians not to forget that the bread they touched signifies the mystical Body of Christ. All those who belong to Christ are in this Body. We are many, but we are still one bread, one Body. Thus, there should not be any divisions among us. Since the Corinthians did not discern the Body in this way, even though they broke one bread together, there were strifes among them, and they were divided. They said, “I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ” (1:12). Hence, Paul asked, “Is Christ divided?” (v. 13). Surely Christ is not divided. There is only one Body, which is signified by one bread.
Paul seemed to be saying to the Corinthians, “The bread that you break is one. This signifies that you are in one Body with all the saints. Why then are you divided? It is not profitable for you to break the bread in this way. You will suffer loss. In the eyes of the Lord, what you are doing cannot be considered as breaking the bread or eating the Lord’s supper. You are not qualified to eat the Lord’s bread and drink the Lord’s cup, because you are divisive. You do not see the principle of the Body, which is that all the brothers and sisters have been blended into one Body, and that though you are many, you are one Body. Although you break the bread together, you have opinions, strifes, jealousy, and divisions. By conducting yourselves in this way, you are not discerning the Body.”
There is a heavy burden within me. In many places when the children of God come together to break the bread, they stress only the first aspect of remembering the Lord. They stress the relationship between them and the Lord but neglect the second aspect, which is the relationship among all the saints. For example, suppose on a Lord’s Day afternoon Brother A comes to me and criticizes another brother. His criticism is very severe, and he expresses strong dissatisfaction toward the other brother. If afterward I saw Brother A and Brother B sitting in the bread-breaking meeting, I would be deeply concerned because they would be eating the bread, even though they were divided. This kind of situation offends the Body of Christ.
In some places the brothers are jealous of each other and despise one another. Suppose I despise a brother, and the brother I despise is jealous of me. As soon as I have an opportunity, I will tell others of this brother’s shortcomings, and as soon as he has an opportunity, he will tell others of my wrongdoings. Thus, there is much jealousy, despising, and criticism between us. However, when the time comes to break the bread on the Lord’s Day, we still come to the same table and take the bread. He partakes of the bread, and I partake of the same bread, but there is much animosity between us. What kind of bread-breaking is this? Some may say that there is the remembrance of the Lord; however, there is no fellowship of the Body of Christ, because there is no discerning of the one Body.
Furthermore, in many places some brothers are not willing to forgive each other. Suppose you offend a brother, and the brother is not willing to forgive you. At the same time you are not willing to confess your wrongdoing, and you insist that he was wrong. Thus, neither one is willing to forgive the other. We encounter this situation in various places. Although the saints harbor a grudge against each other, when they come to the Lord’s table, they conduct themselves as if nothing is amiss. They take the same bread and even pray, “We who are many are one bread and one Body.” They gather together to break the bread, but among them there is no love, no harmony, no consideration, no compassion, no forbearance, and no forgiveness. On the contrary, there is criticism and judgment. The younger ones despise the older ones, and the older ones are dissatisfied with the younger ones; both privately spread many words of death.
When brothers come together, it is easy to talk about the shortage of the church or the shortcomings of the saints rather than spiritual matters, growth in life, or the gospel. Nevertheless, on the Lord’s Day they sit at the Lord’s table with those whom they have criticized and are unwilling to forgive, and they take the same bread. This kind of bread-breaking is not discerning the Lord’s Body. There might be a little heart toward the Lord and a little remembrance of Him; however, these brothers have not discerned His Body, because they are full of misgivings toward the other saints. This is to eat the bread in an unworthy manner.
This is not a small thing. I hope that all of God’s children will have a fearful heart before the Lord. We must see that when we break the bread together, we are touching the Lord’s mystical Body. We all are in this mystical Body. All the saints are in this mystical Body. Hence, we must discern this Body such that we are able to forgive our brothers and sisters and such that those who offend others ask for forgiveness. We must exercise until we are at peace and in harmony with the other saints, and there is no separation or problem among us. Only then will we not merely remember the Lord when we break bread; rather, we will also have fellowship with all the saints in His Body. We will not only enjoy the Lord but also enjoy all the saints. It is in this way that our breaking of the bread will be profitable to us.
