“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup…”

1 Corinthians 11:26a

Sunday, the first day of the week, is a very special day for those in the Lord’s church.  It is the day we worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:24) and encourage each other to love and good deeds (Heb. 10:24-25).  It is also the day we partake of communion, the Lord’s Supper.  Most within the religious world of denominationalism do not realize this, which is why many visitors from other churches see us observe the Lord’s Supper every Sunday and wonder why this takes place every Sunday.

God expects all we do to be authorized through his Son (Col. 3:17), who speaks to us through the inspired writings of the New Testament (Heb. 1:1-2; 2:1-4; 1 Cor. 14:37; 2 Pet. 1:20-21).  The New Testament teaches that Christ instituted communion on the night he was betrayed (1 Cor. 11:23), a Thursday night.  So why do we not observe communion on Thursday nights?

On that night, Jesus said to his disciples, “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matt. 26:29; cf. Mk. 14:25, emp. mine).  Luke records Jesus saying, “I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes” (Lk. 22:18, emp mine).  He also spoke of eating communion “in the kingdom of God” (Lk. 22:16, 29-30).

Notice that Christ promised to not partake of communion with his disciples until “that day” when he partakes of it “in (his) Father’s kingdom,” and that it would be “fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”  This is significant because Scripture teaches that the Lord’s church is the present manifestation of God’s kingdom.  Jesus and John had said that God’s kingdom was “at hand,” i.e., coming soon (Matt. 3:2; 4:17; cf. Matt. 6:10; Mk. 9:1).  Christ also spoke of his church and God’s kingdom in an interchangeable way (Matt. 16:18-19).

When asked about the kingdom right before his ascension, Jesus alluded to the Holy Spirit coming upon the apostles (Acts 1:6-9), which took place ten days later on the Jewish holy day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4).  This day, a Sunday as we know from how Pentecost is described as the Feast of Weeks in the Old Testament (Lev. 23:15-16), was the day souls began being added to the Lord’s church (Acts 2:38-41, 47).  After Acts 2, the New Testament would always interchangeably refer to God’s kingdom and Christ’s church as having already come and presently existing (Rom. 14:17; 16:16; 1 Cor. 1:2; Col. 1:13; 1 Thess. 2:12; Rev. 1:4, 6, 9).  We therefore see that the kingdom came on a Sunday.  The “day” Jesus spoke of while instituting the Supper (Matt. 26:29), the day the kingdom came (Lk. 22:18), was a Sunday.

This is why we read of the disciples in the New Testament observing communion on Sundays.  Starting on that first Pentecost Sunday, the newly baptized converts “were continually devoting themselves” to various acts of worship, including “the breaking of bread” (Acts 2:41-42).  “The breaking of bread” refers to communion (1 Cor. 10:16-17; cf. 11:23-25).  The fact that they were “continually” doing so on Sunday suggests by definition that it was a fixed habit.  Further evidence that this is so can be found in Acts 20:7.  Here we read that the church at Troas were gathered together “on the first day of the week” for the purpose of “break(ing) bread,” i.e., observing communion, and did so with the apostle Paul’s approval.  Additionally, the churches of Galatia and the church at Corinth were directed by Paul to take up collections every Sunday (1 Cor. 16:1-2), something which Luke alludes to taking place right from the very beginning on the Pentecost Sunday that the church began (Acts 2:41-42, 44-45).  Since the same things were taught at every congregation (1 Cor. 4:17), we can confidently conclude that the early church as a whole observed communion on Sundays.  Extra-biblical history from that time period also shows this to be true (Didache 14:1; Justin Martyr’s First Apology 67).

For these reasons, Paul’s words to Corinth, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup” (11:26), refers to partaking of communion every Sunday.

— Jon