# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1855_S356
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

356 Exposition of 1 Corinthians, etc.

-he does not, with regard to the bread, say that they blessed it, but in that he says of it that they broke it, he indicates that in doing so they acted after the pattern of Christ, so that the reader, at the breaking of the bread, also thinks of the giving of thanks and the distributing. We shall see hereafter that the Apostle in this manner places no such importance on the breaking of the bread as though it were only through such a preparation that it truly became the bread of the Holy Supper; those who would read anything of the sort into his words he would rather direct to what he here says that is great and glorious concerning the bread and the cup, so as to fix their heart and mind upon that.

Whether bread and wine in the Holy Supper are not the communion of the body and blood of Christ, the Apostle asks the Corinthians. The expression "communion" is a faithful translation of the Greek word standing in the original text. "Communion" designates a relationship between several persons, according to which they possess, enjoy, and pursue one or more objects together, that is, hold them in common, so that in regard to this they must be regarded, as it were, as a single person. That the members of the first Christian congregation in Jerusalem held all things, that is, their earthly goods, in common (Acts 2:44) is called, in verse 42 of the same chapter, "communion" — a community of goods so named because of the manner of their common possession, described by the example of Barnabas (Acts 4:32), and, as the church spread, consisting in this, that what the one possessed also stood at the service of the other and of the whole congregation. Even the "common collection" which the Christians in Macedonia and Achaia raised for their poor brethren in Jerusalem is called "communion" (Romans 15:22), since it was indeed a testimony of the communion of earthly goods as well, existing among the Christian congregations. Now, if the passages just cited show us the earthly goods as a good which the Christian congregation, especially in its earliest period, held in common, verse 16 points to another good which the members of the Christian congregation, those who partake of the Supper, possess together in communion with one another: the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. Whoever, then, sits with the Christian congregation at the table of the Lord:

a. Receives and has the body and the blood of Jesus Christ;

b. Receives and has those graces of grace in common with his fellow communicants, undivided and unseparated;

c. Is, on that account, a member of the communion which holds and uses, as a common possession, the body and the blood of Jesus Christ.

One sees why Paul reminds the Corinthians not merely that they receive, in the Holy Supper, the body and blood of Jesus Christ, but further calls the attention of every communicant to the fact that, through partaking of the Holy Supper, he is a member of the congregation whose common good is the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and thus has those graces in common with it. No one could now reply to him that his participation in the idol-sacrifice feasts had nothing to do with his participation in the Holy Supper;