How Important is the Lord's Supper?

Ephesians 3:10-11.

“His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord”

When we consider the Lord’s Supper it’s important to understand its purpose. When we understand it’s purpose then questions like how it is observed and how often we take it can be answered easier.

Christians have assembly obligations… the Lord’s Supper is one of those. Certainly partaking of the bread and the wine reminds us of Jesus’ body and blood and all the things represented by those things including the establishment of the new Covenant.

However something else happens as suggested in the Ephesians text… God’s wisdom is on display to heavenly/spiritual beings… demonic and angelic.

Think about this, as we are fulfilling our assembly obligations, including the Lord’s Supper, Satan is furious and God is happy.

When Christians decide to stay home and neglect the assembly and the Lord’s Supper… Satan is smugly smiling and God is sad.

Our assembly obligations have significance to ourselves, to our fellowman and to spiritual beings in the Heavens.

How often should we take the Lord’s Supper? Apostolic example suggests weekly and that sounds pretty smart to me considering that every time we do... God's wisdom is on display.

"The Unity of the Spirit" Eph. 4:3

This is from a discussion list. Howdy, Rob Perkins here.

First of all when 100 plus translators choose to capitalize the “S” in Spirit I give that a lot of credence. I see that in Ephesians sometimes we see “Spirit" and sometimes we see “spirit". In 5:16, we see…”but be filled with the Spirit” however in the footnotes (AS) they say “or in spirit”. I think the lower case makes more sense in this passage but only mention it because in some cases the translators give an option. I respect options.

Of course the epistle was written because there were issues between greek and jewish Christians. Hence we see in 1:13, both groups had the commonality of being sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.

In 2:18, both groups have access to the father in one Spirit, and are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.

In 3:16, Paul prays that they would be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man.

All these texts have Spirit with the upper case “S” then we come to the text in question… “giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”. I see no reason to suddenly decide to take issue with the translators and argue for the lower case “s”. I’m not sure there is a compelling reason to do so. Perhaps because the action is placed on the believer to “keep the unity”. However, a similar action is placed upon the believer when he is told to not “grieve the Holy Spirit of God”

We give diligence to “keep the unity of the Spirit” by “walking worthily” (4:1). Similarly we “grieve not the Holy Spirit of God” (4:30) by also walking worthily, i.e., no bitterness, wrath, anger, etc.

I also suspect “Spirit” in 4:3 is capitalized because it is preceded by the definite article “the”.

Esau and His Birth Right

Most Bible students are familiar with the story of Esau. He was the oldest son of Isaac and Rebecca and as such was set to receive the “birth right” that his father (Isaac) had received from his father (Abraham). Of course that “birth right” was the great promise made to Abraham that through him and his heirs, “all nations would be blest” (along with the other promises).

Esau however traded his “birth right” for a bowl of red stew. The scripture says he “despised his birth right”. The Hebrew writer (12:16) describes Esau as godless.

Let me suggest that Esau’s despising of his “birth right” foreshadows the Jews despising of their “birth right” by their rejection of Jesus Christ.

Esau was so hungry for food (and didn’t at the time truly understand the value of his “birth right”) that he traded it off for a bowl of stew. He was godless and didn’t believe in the promise of God.

The Jews were so hungry for their position of authority in their nation that they couldn’t recognize the value of Jesus Christ and sacrificed him to maintain their position among the Jewish nation and the Roman Empire. They too were godless and didn’t believe in the promises of God.

Later in life Esau deeply regretted his hasty decision and begged his father with tears to receive the blessing of the “birth right” but it was too late. It was also too late for the ones who killed Jesus Christ.

The story of Esau also foreshadows events for us today. God still makes great promises to mankind. The wise will contemplate the great value of those promises and act accordingly. The foolish will reject them and chase after the pleasures in this life. What is it going to be… will we be wise or foolish? Learn the lesson of Esau. He is speaking to you and I.

Conquering Temptations

The letter written by James contains information on how Christians can be spiritually complete (which by the way should be the goal of every Christian).

Christians should be happy about temptations because the successful victory over temptations is proof of faith.

The author also defines those who fail at temptations. Those who are novices in their faith may have areas of weakness in their hearts that are simmering at a low level. If those areas are not extinguished and opportunity arises they can burst into flame and cause one to be spiritually burnt up.

The author identifies some of those temptations as “filthiness”, “wickedness”, “outbursts of anger”, “discrimination”, and “the love of money”.

I have a note section on my IPhone where I list every weakness that I think I have and every weakness that others have told me that I have (I also have a section on the positive things people have said about me).

I think and pray about those weaknesses and welcome opportunities (temptations) to defeat those things so I can be spiritually complete. I have confidence in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that assures me that God will not allow me to be tempted more than I can endure.

It’s a blessing when people say good things about you but it’s a greater blessing to hear the negative things.

We’re building a spiritual house both individually and collectively (the church) for a “dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:21-22). Let’s make it the best it can be. It starts with conquering temptations.