Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | John 6:53 So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 6:53 And Jesus said to them, "I assure you and most solemnly say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood [unless you believe in Me as Savior and believe in the saving power of My blood which will be shed for you], you do not have life in yourselves. |
Bible Question: do you have to have communion every week? |
Bible Answer: In an effort to give this thread some balance, I must say there are a large number of christians who do observe the Lord's Supper or Communion every Sunday of their whole life as a christian. We Bible students should strive to read and understand God's Word at face value whenever possible and of course the Bible is its own best commentary. That is, see what God says throughout the Bible on a particular topic and consider the whole message. In this case the NT puts quite a bit of emphasis on the assembling of the christians in the first century with Heb 10:25. Further we see an emphasis on the first day of the week, especailly in contrast to the centuries of observing the sabbath. We know that the first century christians were meeting often, sometimes several days of the week but we see this emphasis on the first day of the week. From Paul we see 1 Cor 11:17 Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. 18For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. 19For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you. 20Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper. 21For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk. 22What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you. 23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 25In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." 26For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. It might be helpful to mention that Paul was giving these kinds of instructions to several different groups of christians around the world as we see in 1 Cor 16:1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also: 2On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come. Now you may be confused by the citation of these scriptures together about the communion and giving but one of the common threads we see throughout the NT concerning the worship in the first century is the regularity and consistency as taught by the Apostles, especially by Paul. There's not a whole of scriptures with the phrase "first day of the week" but those few and the absence of any other day including the Sabbath implies that all christians were indeed worshiping on the same day, just as most christians do in today's world. Another point I'd like to draw from God's Word is the fact that God has from the beginning established a habit of giving His children (Jewish or christian) a pattern to follow. He gave Noah very explicit instructions to follow in building the ark. He gave very explicit instructions on the building of the temple and the procedures to follow in offering of sacrifices. Although the church of our Lord Jesus is amazingly simple in its organization, structure and worship, we do see this pattern of instruction from the Apostles so there would be unity as suggested in Eph 4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Remember our Lord's last prayer on this earth was for our sake as he was praying so earnestly for the unity of His disciples, christians, including you and me in this age and in the future. I do sincerely hope you'll continue to study this topic thoroughly and conclude with your own determination to follow and obey God completely. God bless. --Rowdy |