First Corinthians 10 has another expression for the bread-breaking meeting. It does not call it a supper but a table. As a supper, which He instituted on the last night before His death, this meeting is for remembering Him and declaring His death till He comes. But this is only one aspect of the bread-breaking meeting. There is another aspect to the church’s breaking of bread, which is signified by the Lord’s table (v. 21). The meaning of the Lord’s table is clearly defined in verses 16 and 17, which say, “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the fellowship of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the fellowship of the body of Christ? Seeing that there is one bread, we who are many are one Body; for we all partake of the one bread.” Two things are signified here: fellowship and oneness.
The first thing signified by the Lord’s table is fellowship. “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the fellowship of the blood of Christ?” Do we not share the Lord’s cup when we meet? This is fellowship. First Corinthians 11 talks about the relationship between the disciples and the Lord, but chapter ten talks about the relationship between the saints. The supper is for us to remember the Lord, and the table is for us to have mutual fellowship one with another. “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the fellowship of the blood of Christ?” The emphasis here is not just the drinking of the blood of Christ but a joint participation in this blood. This joint participation is the fellowship.
“The cup of blessing which we bless”—here the word cup is singular. The cup spoken of in Matthew 26:27 is also singular. According to the original text, the translation can be rendered, “And, taking the cup and giving thanks, He gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you.” This is why we do not agree with using many cups, because once there is more than one cup, the meaning is changed. The cup which we bless, is it not the fellowship of the blood of Christ? We receive of the same cup. The significance of having the same cup is fellowship. If we are not that intimate, we surely cannot drink out of one cup, each taking a sip out of it. God’s children drink out of one cup. Everyone drinks from the same cup. One takes a sip, and someone else takes another sip. We have many, yet we drink out of the same cup. This signifies fellowship.
The second meaning of the Lord’s table is oneness. “The bread which we break, is it not the fellowship of the body of Christ? Seeing that there is one bread, we who are many are one Body” (1 Cor. 10:16-17). Here we see that God’s children are one. The bread spoken of in chapter eleven has a different meaning than the bread spoken of in chapter ten. In chapter eleven the Lord said, “This is My body, which is given for you” (v. 24); this refers to the Lord’s physical body. The bread in chapter ten refers to the church. “We who are many are one Body” (v. 17). We are the bread and this bread is the church.
We need to see the remembrance aspect, the declaration aspect, and the fellowship aspect of the Lord’s table; we also need to see the oneness. All of God’s children are one in the same way that the bread is one. We have only one bread. One person breaks off a piece of this bread and takes it. Another breaks off another piece and takes it. If all the little pieces that we break off and swallow are gathered together, do we not still have one bread? Though this bread is broken up and is inside every one of us, it is still one bread in the Spirit. Once the physical bread is consumed, it is gone, and we cannot gather the pieces back. But spiritually speaking, the bread is still one and it is one in the Spirit. Christ, like the bread, is originally one. God dispenses a little Christ into you and a little into me. The one Christ is now scattered and is dwelling in the many members. Christ is spiritual. Though He is scattered, He is not divided; He is still one. God gives Christ to you and to me, but in the Spirit Christ is still one. The scattered bread is still one in the Spirit; it is not divided. When God’s children break bread, they not only remember the Lord, declare His death, and fellowship with one another, but they also acknowledge the oneness among themselves. This bread represents the oneness of God’s church.
The basic element of the Lord’s table is the bread. This bread is very crucial. In a general sense, this bread represents all God’s children. In a particular sense, it represents God’s children in a particular locality. If some of God’s children gather together and see only themselves and if their bread only includes the few of them, that bread is too small. It is not inclusive enough. The bread must include all of God’s children in a locality; it must represent the church in that locality. This is not all. The bread must also include all of God’s children on earth. We must see that this bread declares the oneness among God’s children. If we want to establish a church that is our own, our bread is too small and cannot represent the whole church. If there is a table in a place and those attending that table cannot say, “We who are many are one Body,” we cannot partake of that bread because that is not the Lord’s table.
We must remember the Lord, and our hearts must be open to the brothers and sisters each time we break bread. All God’s children, as long as they are redeemed by the precious blood, are included in this one bread. Our hearts need to be enlarged by the Lord; they need to be as large as the bread. Though we are many, we are one bread. Even those brothers and sisters who are not breaking bread with us are also included in this bread. If we put them aside completely when we break our bread, our bread is not big enough, and our heart is not big enough. This is not right. We cannot have the thought of excluding certain brothers and sisters or sending them away. This bread does not allow us to be narrow people.
If a brother who has never shared the bread with us comes to the Lord’s table and if he is one who is joined to the Lord, he is also in this bread. Do we receive him or not? Please remember that we are not the host of this feast. At most we are the ushers. The table is the Lord’s, not ours. The Lord sets up His table in a locality in the same principle that He first set it up in that large upper room; that room was borrowed. Today the Lord is merely using this place to set up His table. We cannot forbid others from breaking bread. This table is the Lord’s. The authority to receive or not to receive is the Lord’s. We do not have such authority. We cannot reject the ones whom the Lord receives, and we cannot reject anyone who belongs to the Lord. We can reject only those who are rejected by the Lord and those who do not belong to Him. We can reject only those who remain in sin and will not come out. We discontinue fellowship with them because they have discontinued their fellowship with the Lord. We cannot reject anyone who is received by the Lord. Likewise, we cannot receive those whom the Lord does not receive, those who have lost their fellowship with the Lord. Therefore, we must know a person very well before we can decide whether or not he should be received at the Lord’s table. We should be very careful in receiving people for the bread-breaking meeting. We cannot be careless. It must be done according to the Lord’s desire.