The Lord’s Supper (4)

By Bob Myhan

Paul wrote, “Whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:27). But what is the proper manner of eating and drinking with regard to the Lord's Supper? How must one eat and drink in order to eat and drink in a worthy manner?

First, One Must Partake Discerningly

Paul speaks of the person who partakes unworthily (“in an unworthy manner”) as “not discerning the Lord's body.” That is, such an individual does not see in the elements that which they are to symbolize.

For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. (1 Cor. 11:29)

But the one who partakes worthily will focus his mind on the cross of Christ. By faith he will “kneel at the cross,” looking up into the face of Jesus, His forehead bleeding from the wounds made by the crown of thorns, seeing the nails in His hands and feet, and seeing the blood and water flowing from His side. His heart will overflow with veneration as he sees, in the bread and fruit of the vine, the “unspeakable gift” of God's love in the sacrifice of Him who was and is uniquely the Son of God.

Second, One Must Partake Trustingly

As the Christian focuses on that which is symbolized in the elements, partaking worthily, he will trust Jesus to be spiritually present with him in this act of fellowship (Matt. 26:29). He will have faith that the Lord will bless him so that his eating and drinking will provide him a spiritual boost and rouse him to greater employment in the kingdom, so that he will have true fellowship with the body and the blood of his Savior, and truly eat and drink in remembrance of Him.

Third, One Must Partake Humbly

As he considers his own personal weakness and the fact that he does sin from time to time, in contrast to the greatness of God's love and mercy in sending His Son to bless us with “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,” the Christian will eat the Lord's Supper with the full realization of his own unworthiness; he will grasp the importance of the Lord's statement in Luke 17:10.

“So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘we are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’”

Yes, to partake worthily, one must realize he is unworthy of the privilege.

Fourth, One Must Partake Penitently

As the Christian humbly partakes of the Lord's Supper, he will experience godly sorrow, remorse and shame for any and all sins of which he still guilty, repenting of them (determining to forsake them) and confessing them to God. Such contrition will be a powerful motivator for him to renew his commitment to Christ even as he commemorates the commitment of Christ on his behalf in dying for his sins.

Fifth, One Must Partake Gratefully

The Christian who partakes of the emblems in the right manner will give silent thanks with those who give thanks audibly for the congregation. And he will seriously meditate on the salvation that he received through Christ's death. Realizing that, because of his sins, he deserves eternal death but, because of the grace of God via the sin-offering of Jesus Christ, his past sins have been forgiven and he has been made a citizen in the kingdom of God, his partaking of the Supper will be a hymn of praise and thanksgiving—such as can only flow from a heart full of love and gratitude.

Sixth, One Must Partake Prayerfully

The faithful, loving Christian who desires to partake of the Lord's supper worthily—to sincerely remember Jesus’ death and truly commune with Him—will eat and drink with a silent prayer to God that his attitude will in truth be all that it should be, so that he will be able to worship God reverently and sincerely in this sacred meal. &

Figures of Speech Used in the Bible (1)

By Bob Myhan

There are many figures of speech used in the Bible—the parable, metaphor, simile, metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole and fable, to name a few.

Of these, the parable is easily the most recognizable. Jesus used the parable as a method to illustrate various aspects of the kingdom He would establish. The English word, “parable,” is from the Greek word, paraballo, which means “to throw alongside.” A material reality was “thrown alongside” a spiritual reality as an illustration. In the parable of the sower, Jesus illustrated how His kingdom will be advanced—by the “sowing” of the gospel in the hearts of individual sinners.

Metaphor is a figure where one thing is said to be another thing for the purpose of comparison. Jesus used metaphor when He called Herod, “that fox” (Luke 13:32). He also used metaphor when He called Himself, “the bread of life” (John 6:35), “the door of the sheep” and “the good shepherd” (John 10:7, 11), “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6) and “the true vine” (John 15:1). By others He was called, “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29,36), “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Rev. 5:5), “the stone which the builders rejected...the chief cornerstone” (1 Peter 2:7), “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense” (1 Peter 2:8), “head of the church” (Eph. 5:23), etc. Also, Jesus used metaphor when He said of the bread, “this is My body” and of the cup, “this is My blood” (Matt. 26:26, 28). Of course, no two things are alike in every respect; attention is almost always called to a single feature of both figure and reality. Most of the metaphors used in the Bible can be understood by anyone with at least a general knowledge of nature.

Simile is a figure where one thing is said to be like another for the purpose, again, of a comparison. The difference between the metaphor and the simile is that in the former the comparison is implied while in the latter the comparison is stated. For example, the man whose “delight is in the law of the Lord...shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither” (Ps. 1:2-3). But “the ungodly...are like the chaff which the wind drives away” (Ps. 1:4). Matthew uses simile when he reports of Jesus, “But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd” (9:36). It is often said that sheep are the most helpless of creatures; they will scatter far and wide if they have no shepherd. Isaiah compared us all to sheep when he wrote, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way” (53:6) 

Metonymy is a bit more involved. It is “a figure by which one name or noun is used instead of another, to which it stands in a certain relation” (E.W. Bullinger: Figures of Speech Used in the Bible, p. 538). There are four kinds of metonymy: of the cause, of the effect, of the subject and of the adjunct. One example from each category is given below.

When Paul writes, “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thess. 5:19), he uses metonymy of the cause; he puts the cause—the Holy Spirit, for the effect—the spiritual gifts being exercised by the Holy Spirit’s power.

When God told Rebecca, “Two nations are in your womb” (Gen. 25:23), He obviously did not mean to be understood literally; He was using metonymy of the effect, In fact, two babies were in her womb who would eventually sire two nations—Israel and Edom.

When Jesus said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:20), He used metonymy of the subject and metaphor. The cup stood for its contents—the fruit of the vine, while the fruit of the vine was a metaphor for His blood.

Metonymy of the adjunct is the opposite of metonymy of the subject: “some circumstance pertaining to the subject is put for the subject itself” (Bullinger, p. 587). When Jesus “sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat” (Luke 22:8), He was referring to the Passover meal—an adjunct to Passover, which was the name of the feast day.

Synecdoche is “A figure by which one word receives something from another which is internally associated with it by the connection of two ideas; as when a part of a thing is put...for the whole of it, or the whole for a part” (Bullinger, p.613). As in the case of metonymy, synecdoche is of four kinds—of the genus, wherein the genus is put for a species; of the species, wherein a species is put for the genus; of the whole, wherein the whole is put for a part and of the part wherein a part is put for the whole. We will look at examples of synecdoche in next week’s Faith Builder Email. &