John 21:18

“Do you love me more than these do?”

What do you do when you know that “sticking to your guns” will cost you dearly? You will not get hired for a job you need and want. You will get passed over for a promotion, you will get fired, get fined, get jailed, get shunned by friends, disowned by parents, divorced by your spouse! What do you do? So to speak, you take communion.

As long as loving Christ does not conflict with loving certain things and certain ones, all is well. Who you are and what you stand for shows up in what you choose when you cannot choose both—Christ and others—what you love more than.

Taking communion ends up being a distinguishing matter; it expresses who you are to the exclusion of all others, to the exclusion of everything else, what you pledge to choose if push comes to shove. Mean what you say when you bring this bread to your mouth and lift this cup to your lips: “I love you more than these do.”