| Devotional Hours with the Bible |
Chapter 25 |
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The apostle went into particulars as to the sins that kept them from receiving the blessing Jesus planned for those who eat at His table: “In your eating each one taketh before other his own supper; and one is hungry, and another is drunken.” Those who stumble so at the word “unworthily” in verse twenty-seven should study this verse carefully as it gives the sense of “unworthily” as it is there used. The Lord’s Supper was most sadly profaned by these early Christians. When the time came for it, while the poor people present were hungry, not having had any share in the “love feast” that preceded, another ‘set’ were really drunken from overindulgence. It is easy to understand what St. Paul meant by eating and drinking unworthily, as he had these Corinthian scenes in his mind. Another suggestion is that the permeation of the Church with the spirit of Christ was not a sudden attainment, but was gradual. Our present high conception of what Christians should be, how they should live, is the growth of centuries. Not all the “good days” are behind us, as some croakers tell us.
Paul emphasizes the sacred character of the Lord’s Supper by telling its history. Paul was not present at the institution of the Lord’s Supper. He was not a Christian for some time after Christ’s death. Yet he did not get his knowledge of that wonderful night from the apostles who were at the table. He received it directly from the Master Himself. This gives us a hint of Paul’s relation to Christ, his intimacy with Him, and the reality of his communion with Him. Unless we make Paul an impostor, it is one of the strongest evidences of Christ’s resurrection and life in glory that He made Himself known to him and made important revelations to him. He seems to have talked with this apostle familiarly as one talks with a friend. Then Paul became a witness to us of the resurrection, ascension and glory of the Saviour.
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