#46.

The Lord's Supper Corrects our Perspective on the Church

1 Corinthians 10:17 Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all
partake of the one bread.
The Lord's Table will correct our perspectives as we look back, look forward, look down and
look up (spiritually speaking). Lastly, the Supper should correct our perspective as we look
around us - and see our brothers and sisters in Christ participating with us in the meal.
In his famous poem, John Donne reflected on the fact that no man lives in complete isolation
from others:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.

In our day and age, we like to live separate lives. We shut ourselves off from others and are
taught to take pride in our independence. We pity those who, unlike us, seem to need the support
and help of others as "crutches" to get through life. It is bad enough (and wrong) to live this way
as an unbeliever, according to John Donne, but it is a huge mistake to bring this completely
erroneous philosophy into the church.
God has not made His children to be independent - neither of Him nor of one another. Each
member of the Church is bound to all the others by bonds that are closer than the ties linking
earthly families - bonds that are forged through the blood of Jesus. He bought us for Himself,
and when we came to know Him, we were adopted into God's family and made members of
Christ and members of one another. You will search the Bible in vain for any idea of a believer
living in solitariness as the norm.
This bond between believers, this fellowship in Christ, should find its clearest expression this
side of glory as the members of a local fellowship come together. Indeed, Paul tells us in our text
that of all the things a church can do to display this interdependence, eating the Lord's Supper is
one of the most important. The very fact that we all eat from the same loaf of bread is designed

to make us understand that we are one body in Christ - not "islands," but intimately joined to one
another and dependent upon one another. We have seen before that the fact that we eat the bread
should remind us of our complete dependence on Christ for our spiritual nourishment and
growth.
The world needs to see the church living out this truth, and the church needs to be reminded of it
to help counteract the proud and foolish ideas that are abroad in the world, concerning man's
independence from God and from everyone else. The Table should be a place where we can get
our thinking on this important issue sorted out each time we participate.
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