1 Corinthians 11:23-25

Observing the Lord’s Supper supplies a corrective on church life. In one of the most familiar passages on this matter, Paul says,

“I received from the Lord what I passed on to you. The night he was betrayed he took a loaf, gave thanks, broke it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you. Do this in memory of me.’ After the meal he took the cup, ‘This cup is the New Covenant in my blood. As often as you drink it, do it in memory of me.’”

The body and blood that he gave is a correction on the thoughtlessness demonstrated in their eating to the full in front of people who did not have anything to eat (11:21). The self-centeredness that lay behind their divisions (11:18-19) contrasted with the self-giving of Christ’s very life.

The observance that the early Christians shared called for a corrective in how they observed it. By extension it was to pull them away from other manifestations of these same faults in their broader church life.

Like Christians of old, we are prone to the common faults and weaknesses that people have. Like them, we remember the given body and shed blood as a corrective on our church life.